Ok…so last night while the pizza was in the oven and I had the Monday Night Football pre-game show on…and a margarita on the rocks in hand ~ I made up the last two jams I had started on Sunday. Let me tell ya…one should probably wait to drink the margarita until after the canning process is in the water bath stage, especially one made by myself. 🙄

Anyhoo ~ the recipes used asked for liquid pectin and I’ve never used that before. So I was a little disheartened when I took the jars out of the water bath and the jams were still very runny looking. 😥 The only thing that made me feel better was the wonderful sound of canning lids tinging and binging away in the kitchen.

This morning as I stumbled to the kitchen to feed the cats I picked up the jars and looked at them…after focusing my eyes I noticed they jelled up…into a gooey gelatinous goopy glop. In other words…kid snot or that slime from that 80’s show You Can’t Do That On Television. 😮 I set it back down and thought I’d better go take a shower first, maybe it’ll look better then. After the shower the verdict was still out…although it didn’t look as bad as it did at 4:30 a.m. in the morning. I’m not sure I like the liquid pectin. I’ll check again after I get home from work. I must say they both smelled great and the licker was very tasty!

UPDATE: Margarita Jam definitely jelled…looks like jello. Strawberry Daiquiri is more jam like.

Jam on the left is the Strawberry Daiquiri and the one on the right is the Margarita Jam.

The Strawberry Daiquiri has crushed strawberries, crushed pineapple, rum, fresh lime juice, sugar and liquid pectin. The Margarita Jam has fresh lime juice, lime zest, tequila, triple sec, water, sugar, and liquid pectin. My margarita was made in my Guinness pint glass with ice, 1/3 full of tequila, margarita mix, a splash of fresh lime juice and a slice of lime…with salt. 😀

Both recipes came from 175 Best Jams, Jellies, and Marmalades by Linda J. Amendt, one of two books I bought earlier in the year when I put my garden in. The other is Canning & Preserving for Dummies ~ GREAT Dill Pickle recipe and Jalapeno Pepper jelly recipe in that one.