Peach and Pepper Jam

I picked up a bunch of local peaches up in the mountains this past weekend and decided to make this very tasty jam with them.  You can use this as an appetizer on cream cheese and crackers, as a sauce for meats or on a good cheddar cheese on toast. Basically, just put it on anything to get it into your mouth.

I am still trying to use up my bumper crop of peppers.  For this recipe I used 5 jalapenos and 3 hot red peppers.  I took the seeds and veins out of the peppers so this jam was not very spicy.  Leave them in if you like a real kick.

Peel and pit about 15 peaches.

Chop them up and put them in a heavy pot with the diced peppers.

Add 6 cups of sugar and 1/4 cup of lemon juice.

Stir thoroughly and cook over medium heat.

Bring to a boil and add 1 packet of liquid pectin.  Keep an eye on this, you don't want it to boil over because it makes an incredible mess.  Don't ask me how I know this.  Cook this for about 3 minutes until it begins to thicken.

Place the hot jam in hot sterilized canning jars and place them in a water bath. Make sure the jars are covered with at least 1 inch of water.  Keep them at a boil for about 10 minutes.

Remove them and let them cool until all the lids have sealed.

My husband ate a jar of this in 2 days.  Peaches and peppers are a perfect combination.

My tomatoes are about done now but this is what I have been doing with my last few harvests.  I throw a bunch of chopped tomatoes, skin and all, in a slow cooker.  I add a diced sweet onion, some garlic, a diced carrot (for sweetness) and some S&P and oregano.  I leave the lid off and let it cook for at least 24 hours and then puree it with a stick blender.  A quart of pizza sauce.  I put it in a water bath for 10 minutes and I have a jar of fresh pizza sauce for winter.  Doing one of these at a time uses up the excess tomatoes and makes it a very easy canning task.  They do add up after a while.