Strawberry Jam

When I was growing up my grandma, then my mom, made homemade strawberry jam.  We'd eat roll-up pancakes (delicious crepe-like pancakes made by making normal Bisquick pancake batter but adding an extra egg and about a cup of milk extra, too) and we'd smother them with the strawberry jam. I decided to try to make my own jam!  I used SURE-JELL's Quick-and-Easy Freezer Jam and Jelly Recipe. I was nervous about my first batch, but here it is!

So the first thing to do was prepare all the ingredients and sterilize the jars and lids. I stemmed and cut the strawberries to make them easier to crush.  

I then boiled the jars and lids to sterilize them and put them on a dish towel until I was ready to ladle jam into the jars.

I could eat the whole bowl of delicious, vibrant red strawberries...mmmm.....

I unfortunately don't have a any sort of masher to crush the strawberries so I had to use a glass....jankity, I know... Anyway, here is me crushing the strawberries one layer at a time to make sure they are even and boiling the lids also. 

Here are the strawberries mashed and mixed with the sugar and pectin - ready to be ladled into the jars.

The final product!! 

I filled 10 - 8 oz. jars with the jam (leaving the top 1" empty).  I will admit that I messed up my first batch a little.  I added more sugar than I was supposed to for the amount of strawberries I ended up with.  It still tastes very well but is a little thicker and grainier than it should be.  Next time, I'll know what to do, though, and it's great to have eight jars of jam in the freezer!!