Cranberrry jam

While my sister-in-law was visiting, she picked out some whole cranberries at Trader Joe's to make jam with. Both Hubby and I were apprehensive because we aren't fans of the tartness cranberries have, me more so  than him I think. But she insisted we try it, and Ken and I were curious to see if we could work with it to make it sweeter and more bearable.

I googled a recipe which said to throw the cranberries in the food processor initially, but I didn't like the idea of that. I suggested to my sister-in-law that we break them down in the slow cooker with all of the ingredients mixed together like I did with the apple butter a month or so ago. She agreed that would be better, so we tossed the cranberries with a bit of water, sugar, vanilla sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg I think. Also a tad of allspice. It was quite a looker in the crock pot:



Stupid me became completely engrossed with dinner prep that I didn't take a picture of the finished project. The cranberry jam was really, really pretty and an awesome consistency. Instead of keeping the jam in the slow cooker all day, I took it out after deciding to skip class to hang with Liz some more  (I so bad!) and we put it in a pot on the stove to reduce for a bit. It was pretty watery at that point, so the decision to reduce it made all the difference! It was a thick, viscous, perfectly textured jam and we put it on our sandwiches that night. It was a great sweet/salty combo which I just looooove. While it was definitely yummy, I was very happy with a small dose of it. I had a spoonful with some brie cheese, and I have to say it was my favorite combo at dinner. We sent it home with Liz cause it was hers after all, and I'm not sure I would have eaten much more. It was definitely a sweet jam, but the tartness still came through. Over all though, a very reassuring attempt at festive cranberry items!

Oh, Liz and I also went old-school and made rice krispie treats which I haven't had since I was a kid probably. Butter, marshmallows, and rice krispies. What else can I say?

This is blurry, but you get the idea. We added red and green sprinkles to one of the batches to make Christmas Krispies!

Elliot enjoyed the car ride home from PA...until he pooped in his pet taxi. Other than that, we had a great time surprising my dad with his 60th birthday party!