Lacking Spring but not Culinary Adventures!

So, it is winter spring and the weather is beautiful snowy.  What's a girl to do when flowers are about to burst out of the ground but the rain floods the streets and snowflakes the size of half dollars falls from the sky?  Well, this lady hops into the kitchen.  To make sure that my first attempt at jam and canning was not a fluke, I decided to make a late winter pear and ginger jam with lots of pears and just a smidge of ginger.

Pear and ginger jam

I sterilized the jars and bands in a pot of boiling water the size of Jupiter.  The recipe for the jam could not be easier: three pounds of pears, one and a half cups of sugar, three tablespoons grated ginger, and three tablespoons of fresh citrus juice.  I had a ton of pixie tangerines left over from the market so I used the tangerine juice in the jam.  You dump all the ingredients in a pot and then let it simmer for twenty minutes or so until the pears are soft and the liquid has reduced.  I wanted the texture of the jam to be a cross between pureed pears and pear chunks so I used my hand held immersion blender to puree about half the mixture.  The jam is sweet and tastes like biting into a perfectly ripe pear with just a hint of warmth and spice from the ginger.  This recipe made five jars and I feel no need to give any of them away, I want to hoard all of the jam for myself... kidding.  I am not sure what I will use the jam for (other than just jam.)  Maybe I will put it on top of pancakes or waffles or add it to some pound cake batter or make thumb print cookies with spiced dough and the spiced pear jam.  Good thing I have Friday off from work and good thing I cannot open the jars for another 8 hours!

We may be getting rain but we also see a few rainbows too...