GardenFork – Eclectic DIY

  • Meatloaf Sandwich Nirvana

    I love meatloaf, and not just for dinner, but for the leftovers as well. Yes, its a comfort food, and it tastes even better after spending a night in the fridge. The same thing for meatballs. I’m thinking the flavors meld. That word meld is used a lot when we talk about overnight foods. But the fridge works wonders on meat mixed with spices and onion, aka aromatics.

    meatloaf

    So, last weekend I made meatloaf, and it was underwhelming stylistically. I didn’t use enough bread to bind the meat together, and it has split apart. And maybe I added too many frozen peas, so the meat would not stick together. But it still tasted good. And after spending the week in the freezer, I put it in the fridge to defrost. Then came lunch Saturday.

    Whole wheat bread, some mayonnaise, lettuce, and of course, additional ketchup tops it off. Not sure why ketchup works so well this way, but it does.

    This sandwich wasn’t perfect, as the meatloaf had crumbled apart due to the lack of binder, but it tasted great.

    Here’s a video I made with my mom about her meatloaf recipe

    We will be doing more meatloaf recipe videos. Let us know your recipe below:

  • Charlie Pup recovering after tearing a claw

    With 1-1/2 feet of snow in the yard, we took our pups over to our neighbor’s house to play. They have a long driveway that is plowed, so the Labradors would have an open space to run and fetch. After about 30 minutes, we noticed blood on Charlie Pup’s paw. Charlie Pup was oblivious to the blood, she wanted us to throw the ball. Labs have a pretty high pain threshold, from what I’ve seen. Checking her paw, I found her outer claw was torn in half, and bloody.

    So it’s a quick drive to the vet, where they checked her out, cleaned up the claw, and sent us on our way. Now its nap time.

    charlie pup nail

  • Dead Battery, What To Do?

    Its been real cold this winter, 7 degrees F this morning, and I go to start the car and the engine barely turns over. On the second try, the engine doesn’t turn over, you just hear the dead battery clicking. The battery is just about dead. So the question is, how do you charge a dead battery?

    I didn’t need to go anywhere immediately, so I opted for a battery charger; the kind you plug into the wall and attach two clips to the dead battery terminals. First I had to find our car battery charger in the garage. I was hoping I hadn’t loaned it to someone and then forgotten about it. This happens sometimes. But I did find it. The cables were pretty stiff from the cold, but luckily I have ample outlets in the garage. I popped open the hood, removed the plastic boot covering the positive terminal, and connected the charging cables.

    There are a couple of different kinds of battery chargers, some are built to maintain a charge in the battery, sometimes called trickle chargers. These are good for vehicles that aren’t used regularly, as the battery can lose its charge slowly. Trickle chargers monitor the battery charge, and when it drops, it slowly charges it back up to full charge. These chargers can plug into a wall or use solar panel.

    Fast chargers are meant to charge the battery quickly. How fast depends on the model purchased, and the state of the battery. The one I have charges a battery overnight, some will charge a dead battery in a matter of hours, but they cost more.

    dead-battery-what-to-do-1
    Follow the instructions that come with your battery charger

    The other thing to think about is the age of the battery. Car batteries, as they get older, lose their ability to hold a charge. And if the battery has gone completely dead several times – called a deep discharge – the battery degrades quickly. Car batteries are built to provide a large amperage current to the starter for a short burst to start the car, they are not designed to be completely discharged.

    Cold weather also degrades a battery’s ability to work. Its a chemical reaction in the battery that is providing the power, and in cold weather, this reaction doesn’t work as well. In some cold climates, I’ve seen car battery warmers that you plug in overnight to keep the battery warm enough to start the engine.

    After an overnight charge, the car started up as normal, which is a good thing. If after a full charge, the battery still doesn’t work, or barely turns over the engine, its time for a new battery. Best to take the dead battery with you to the auto parts store, that way you can match it exactly, and the store can recycle the  dead battery for you.

    What to do you think? Tell us your car battery stories below:

  • Fitness Monitors with Monica – GF Radio 331

    Monica joins Eric to talk about wristband fitness monitors like FitBit and Jawbone. Monica has tried several of the monitors, and now has the FitBit wristband. We will keep updated with Monica on how her fitness routine progresses with her fitness monitor. One trick she found was if you are on an exercise bike, you can put the wristband on your ankle so it can track how much you pedal.

    Eric’s Valentine’s Day Chocolate Cake has been a quandry for Eric as he wants to eat all the cake he has baked. There is only so much cake you can give to your neighbors.

    Fitness-Monitors-with-MonicaMeatloaf failure happens, Eric has been experimenting with meatloaf, and the amount of binder. Monica talks about her meatloaf recipe, using a mirpoix to start the flavor base. Her secret is hard boiled eggs. We both concur that raw onion is too strong for meatloaf. One needs to cook it down a bit.

    Eric has started to listening to America’s Test Kitchen Radio podcast, which he likes, but says GardenFork is still more fun to watch.

    Midlife career changes: If you are thinking about changing careers and going into the restaurant business, listen to Monica talk about how her husband has made the transisition to the chef world.

    We talk about dogs and how they cope with the winter snow. Eric is going to try those rubber boots for dogs, so the pups paws don’t get hurt by the salt on the sidewalk

     

    photo by MorgueFile

  • Viewer Mail Videos #1, 2, 3 – Seed Starting, Choc Cake, & Labs

    This is a new thing for us, answering viewer mail in a video. Here are the first three, what do you think?

  • Simple Chocolate Cake Recipe – GF Video

    Fast and Simple Chocolate Cake Recipe, a perfect last minute dessert or for when you want chocolate cake and want it fast! Mix this cake in the pan, put it in the oven for 30 minutes, and you’re done. Nice.

    This cake recipe is also called screwball cake, or crazy cake. Its a great cake recipe for kids, its not complicated, and its fun to make. You can’t really mess up this cake, except for I almost messed up this chocolate cake while making this video…

    simple-chocolate-cake-recipe-gf-video

    This was was the first cake I ever made, I remember a neighbor gave us this recipe, and I liked how you could make it all in the cake pan, no extra bowls, etc. The other neat thing is it uses vinegar and baking soda as a rising agent. Not something you see too often in chocolate cake recipes.

    Things to keep in mind when making Chocolate Cake

    Make sure your sugar doesn’t have lumps in it

    Mix the dry ingredients together well. Use a whisk if you like, or a fork.

    You don’t have to grease the pan. Not sure why, but it works.

    Don’t overbake the cake, you want it moist.

    This cake recipe is pretty flexible, I’ve made  it a bunch of ways, and you can ramp up or down the amount of oil or sugar. Add more water if you take out some of the oil. My oven bakes this at 30 minutes, if you have a convection oven, or one that isn’t from a camper trailer, test the cake at 25 minutes, it might be done already.

    You can frost this cake, but I’m not big on frosting, I find most frostings too sweet and gets kinda crunchy after a day. At 1 cup of sugar in the cake, that’s enough sweet for me.

    Does your family have a Screwball Cake Recipe? let us know in the comments below:

    Simple Chocolate Cake Recipe – GardenFork.TV
    Ingredients
    •    1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
    •    1 cup sugar
    •    1/2 teaspoon salt
    •    3 tablespoons cocoa
    •    1 teaspoon baking soda
    •    3/4 cup veg oil
    •    3/4 cup water
    •    1 tablespoon vinegar
    •    1 teaspoon vanilla
    Cooking Directions
    1. Heat Oven to 350F
    2. Put all the dry ingredients in an 8 x 8 or 9 x 9 pan.
    3. Mix together well, using a whisk or fork if you like
    4. Make a well or hole in the middle of the dry ingredients
    5. Add the wet ingredients in to the well.
    6. Mix the wet into the dry until it looks like chocolate cake batter
    7. Bake on the middle rack of the oven. Check at 25 minutes, you want it moist, not dry.
    8. In our oven, this bakes in 30 minutes, a convection oven may be faster.

  • Getting To Ready Tap Sugar Maples

    Its 7 degrees F in the yard. 1 1/2 feet of snow. I strapped on my snowshoes and took the Labradors out back on the woods trail. Charlie Pup grabs a large stick, Henry loses her ball in the snow almost immediately. She digs around to find it.

    getting-ready-to-tap-sugar-maples

    I’m also thinking about the maple syrup season. Around here, trees are usually tapped around Daytona weekend, aka, Valentines Day, February 14th. But its been quite cold this year, temperatures have been below average this winter.

    The ideal for tapping sugar maples is cold nights and warm days above freezing (32F). This hasn’t happened yet. Have to see what happens in the next few weeks. I ordered some additional tubing and taps, hoping to tap more trees this year.

    This post started when I grabbed the last jar of last year’s maple syrup out of the fridge. I let the first batch of syrup off the burner get too hot, and some of it turned to maple candy, which clings to the sides of the jar. Knock off  junk of it with a knife and its hard candy. Don’t try to crunch it with your teeth, btw.

    I think the sap season will be late this year. I haven’t seen any of my neighbors starting to ready their sap houses or buckets or lines, and they are usually right. I’ll have to make a few phone calls to see what they think today.

    The maple candy has a subtle taste, kinda like a low key breath mint, I thought it would have a more pronounced taste, seeing that the syrup it was made from has a strong flavor. But sugar goes through all sorts of changes when its heated to different temperatures, and a few degrees makes all the difference.

    We have a bunch of how to make maple syrup videos here on the site if you’d like to check them out. And let us know your thoughts below:

     

  • 5 Great Seed Starting How To Videos

    How to start seeds? Watch these seed starting videos from the GardenFork video archive.

    Simple Seed Starting Pots Video

    Cardboard Pots Video

    Origami Newspaper Pots

    Our Super Easy Grow Light How To Video

    Here’s how to build the grow light stand for your cheap grow lights:

    Some Seed Starting Thoughts from Eric

    • Do Not Overwater Seedlings or seed trays.
    • Damp sponge consistency is good. Wet is not good.
    • Keep the grow lights right on top of the seedlings, they tops of the plants should be touching or almost touching the bulbs.
    • Keep the grow lights on 16 hours a day.

    Not enough light and over-watering are the two biggest mistakes people make when seed starting. I don’t believe in using a window to start or grow seedlings, the weak light makes the plants leggy and weak, in my opinion.

    5-great-seed-starting-how-to-videosIf you want to save money and avoid having more plastic pots around, consider using cardboard or newspaper seed starting pots. The videos above show how easy it is to make these.

    I use coir as a seed starting medium, I avoid using peat moss, which isn’t the most renewable resource we have. We seem to have a ton of coconut shells and fiber around. With coconut water being the new cupcake and all…

    I add vermiculite and perlite to the coir fiber to give it some air and drainage. Easy enough to buy this stuff in the local garden shop. The exact amount is not important, use what you got, but you want a majority of the seed starting mix to be coir.

    Break down the coir bricks in warm water. It helps to break them up with a hammer or some sort of smashing type object. I tend to add too much water to the coir bricks, and end up draining off a lot of it.

    What are your seed starting practices? Thoughts? Let us know below:

  • Bottling HomeBrew Beer – Home Brewing 101 – GF Video

    Learn how to bottle homebrew beer and hard cider in our homebrewing 101 tutorial video. Eric show you that bottling homebrew beer is not hard, all you need are brown bottles and a few pieces of equipment. This same homebrew how to applies to bottling hard cider.

    Get your supplies from your local homebrew store, or consider Midwest Supplies, we like these guys:

    Make Your Homebrew Easier with this gear

    • Jet Bottle Washer: attaches to your faucet, rinses bottles quickly
    • Bottle Tree: great way to hold, dry, and move 2 cases of bottles
    • Bottle Filler: simple bottle filler makes it all easier
    • Siphon Starter: its a pain to get a siphon started without something like this

    The most important thing to remember is everything must be CLEAN that comes into contact with your beer or hard cider. You can use a diluted bleach solution, or better yet, a sanitizer. There are several types available from your homebrew supplier.

    bottling-homebrew-beer-home-brewing-101If you decide to use bleach, 1 tablespoon of laundry bleach per gallon of water works fine. Keep in mind if this gets on your clothes, it will leave white dots and patches. Not good. This is why I use sanitizer. I have ruined several pairs of pants with bleach.

    Move your fermenter bucket carefully. There is sediment at the bottom of the bucket, and you don’t want to stir it up. Its best to elevate the bucket above your work surface. Its a pain to bottle beer on the floor. Gently remove the airlock and fermenter lid.

    If you get lots of bubbles in your bottling tube, check that you have the right diameter tubing. It really helps to have 2 people doing the beer bottling, as something always spills. If you have to put down the bottle filler tube, place it in a clean bottle, so the tip does not get dirty. Remember, clean is everything with homebrewing.

    Have some suggestions? Questions? Let us know below:

  • Pressure Cooker Tips – GF Radio 330

    Rick uses his pressure cooker and we talk pressure cooker tips on GardenFork Radio. Cooking dried beans, Rick tells us how he made red beans and chili in the pressure cooker in a few minutes. Rick used to use a cooker like this on his boat, where energy use and food storage is at a premium.

    pressure-cooker-tips-gf-radio-330Eric tells of how he soaks dried beans in a salt brine before cooking them. Use the hottest water out of the tap, put in a heaping tablespoon of coarse salt, mix it up and let it set of at least an hour, longer is better. This brine method will help the beans keep their shape, and taste better. Coming up are some GardenFork videos on how to use a pressure cooker, and simple white bean soup recipe using a cooker.

    Eric asks people for input on the upcoming fundraiser to buy new equipment. what would be some good gifts at various pledge levels? Keep in mind the costs of shipping and all versus the donation level. Maple syrup may not be on the agenda this year due to surgery Eric has to have.

    The open source fundraising software we talked about is called Selfstarter. There are also a few wordpress plugins that do fundraising.

    Eldercare was the topic of our last show, talking with Eric’s sister about legal documents , power of attorney, etc that you must have in order to make decisions for your parents. Listen to that show here. The takeaway being its best to have a lawyer with knowledge of eldercare to be involved, we found. you can get all sorts of information here, according to Rick.

  • Clear Cloudy Honey – Beekeeping 101 – GF Video

    Clear Cloudy Honey with our how to video. Crystallized Honey can be easily decrystallized, watch Eric show you how. Why causes cloudy honey? The most common reason is temperature. The honey has been stored somewhere and the honey temperature eventually lowers enough to crystalize. The moisture content of the honey also causes cloudy honey.

    How to Clear Cloudy Honey, some info:

    clear-cloudy-honey-200pxIs it safe to eat cloudy honey? Yes, honey keeps for years. You can stir crystallized honey into your tea and it will dissolve just fine. Its hard to measure cloudy honey for baking, so its best to warm it first.

    Can I use a slow cooker as a cloudy honey fix? Yes, its a great solution

    There is some foam that floated to the top of the warmed honey. That’s ok, just skim it off, its beeswax probably.

    The types of flowers that the honeybees collect from also can cause cloudy honey. If there are lot of rape seed flowers nearby, part of the mustard family, the honey produced gets cloudy quickly.

    In my experience, we have had honey get cloudy when we have harvested honey from dead hives, and the frames may have a mix of capped and uncapped honey in them. The uncapped honey has a higher water content, and I believe this contributes to the cloudy honey.

    If you have frames of capped and uncapped honey, I would leave them in the hive. If its a dead hive, I’d suggest cutting out the capped comb for comb honey. Or just extract the whole frame, keeping in mind this mixed capping honey should be consumed sooner than the capped frame honey.

    This beekeeping video is part of our beekeeping 101 video series, you can check out all of the how to keep bees videos here.

    Eric suggests 2 beekeeping for beginners books,


    Buy On IndieBound Here
    Click Here to buy on Amazon


    Click Here to Buy On Indiebound
    Click Here To Buy On Amazon

  • Caring For Your Parents – what we’ve learned GF Radio 329

    Tracy and Eric talk about caring for your parents, getting the financial and health matters in order, and the delicate dance to power of attorney. Hear of our experiences in trying the DIY route of power of attorney, and why you do need a lawyer to help you navigate managing your parents. There’s more to it than you may think.

    caring-for-your-parentsOur experience suggests the best route is to use a lawyer who has experience in elder care. The paperwork varies state to state as to what you have to have. Also, you have to file some of these papers, and provide them to health care providers. This is a long process, so its best to start the conversation early, and proceed in small steps. Its best if several siblings can share the tasks involved, and it may be that one sibling is better at some parts than others.

    Another thing to start planning is to reduce the amount of stuff your parents have. They may cling to items they think have value, and it can be daunting. We were lucky to move out parents into a home that has only one level which has wide doorways, start thinking about this now for yourself too.

    Establishing a relationship with the branch managers of your parent’s bank is good as well. You can give them a copy of the power of attorney and if they notice any unusual behavior, they can call you.

    AARP has some resources for planning for caring for your parents, plus there are local social service agencies that can help with this.

    So again, start the process sooner rather than later, and go slowly. Parents are averse to big changes, so small steps work better.

  • Viewer Mail #1 – Artisan Bread, Dog Treats, Deep Fried Twinkies – GF Video

    Our first viewer mail show! What should we call this new series? We’ll post a new viewer mail video every week or so. Be good to have a name for it.

    Links to the videos we talk about in this viewer mail video

    Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day video

    Deep Fried Twinkies video

    Sweet Potato Dog Treats Video

    GardenFork Radio Links

    Let us know your thoughts below, help us name the show, thanks, eric.

  • Eating on the wild side – Learn to Forage in the supermarket – GF Radio 328

    eating-on-the-wild-sideRick interviews Jo Robinson, author of Eating On The Wild Side, The Missing Link To Optimum Health. Rick bought  this book – he was not sent a review copy – and like the book so much he invited Jo to be on GF Radio.

    Rick and Jo talk about how some kinds of  foods, like lettuce or apples,  are basically healthier than other types of the same foods. There’s a lot of talk about phytonutrients, which Jo has researched quite a bit by reading a ton of case studies so you don’t have to.


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    Buy The Book On Amazon Here

  • How to buy a farm, Tyler buys a small farm – GF Radio 327

    Tyler tells his story of how to buy a farm. Tyler recently bought a small farm with a 3 stall barn and house on 2 acres, and he tells us about the house buying process. If you are thinking of buying a small farm or just buying a house with some land, or just want to hear us talk, listen on.

    Tyler walks us through his house purchase, and how important it was to hire a good home inspector, and work with a knowledgeable realtor. Tyler’s new house is called a flip, meaning it was bought by a developer or contractor at a lower price, perhaps at a foreclosure, and has fixed up the house for resale.

    how-to-buy-a-farmA flip sale may not sound like a good idea, but thinking about it in another way, you’ve already got someone to do a bunch of the repairs that need doing.

    Now being a farmer, Tyler went out and bought a chainsaw, and did the right thing and bought chainsaw chaps and safety gear. Good for him.

    The Garden Tractor  Dilemma: what to tractor to buy? and what attachments. Eric weighs in on whether to buy a rototiller that attaches to the back of the tractor or to get a standalone rototiller. Eric votes for a stand alone rototiller, the back of tractor rototiller seems like more work.

    We move on to storm chasing, as Tyler is CEO of Allison House, the severe weather data company. Rick asks Tyler about the radarscope app , and what is the difference between the different radars available on the app. Tyler and Rick go into probably more detail than the average GF listener wants to know about radar tilts. But if you are into storm chasing, this might be interesting. Tyler uses big words like ‘step function improvement’ . Let me know.

  • Sweet Potato Dog Treats Recipe : GF Video

    Homemade Sweet Potato Dog Treats Recipe in this how-to video. We’ve bought sweet potato dog chews from the store, and they are expensive. Prompted by a GF viewer who sent us some sweet potato dog biscuits, we decided to try and make these.

    The Labradors Love Sweet Potato Dog Treats

    Charlie Pup Loves These
    Charlie Pup Loves These

    As you can see in the video, our dogs love the chews, and they were easy to make. I’m thinking you can also use an oven to dry the potato chews, a convection oven would do very well.

    A couple of thoughts about making dog treats here. Be very careful with the knife, don’t use a dull knife. You can also use the side of a box grater, if it has a slicer on it. Or use a mandolin, but again be careful.

    We did not peel the potatoes, and did not use any sweet potatoes that had started to get mushy. Firm good looking potatoes only.

    There were several reasons for making the home made dog treats. First was just how expensive the sweet potato dog treats cost in the store. A bag of them goes quickly, and so does your money. Second was the concerns about food safety in general, and a few things we’ve read about dog treats from other countries being made with unsafe ingredients. I don’t understand people who do things like that, but it happens more often than it should. Homemade food, to me, is just plain safer.

    sweet-potato-dog-treats-recipe-1

    We liked the dog treats that we sprayed with vegetable oil, they were a bit more leather like, not as crisp and hard, but its a judgement call on your part.

    We have more dog treat recipe video here on the site, click here to watch them. This is our first potato based dog treat, but i’m sure we’ll do more of them as we go along. Let us know your dog treat ideas in the comment section.

    Sweet Potato Dog Treats Recipe
    Ingredients
    • 2 sweet potatoes
    • 1 can vegetable oil spray
    Cooking Directions
    1. Slice the raw sweet potatoes into dog treats. You can either do round discs by cutting from the end of the potato, or cut long slices. I slice them 1/4\” thick.
    2. Lightly spray both sides of sweet potato with vegetable oil.
    3. Put in dehydrator for 24 hours. Rotate the racks halfway through for even drying.
    4. Keep in zipper plastic bags.

  • Industrial Style Bathroom Acessory

    Came across this industrial style bathroom accessory recently and really liked its simple design. And it’s wicked simple to make. Metal plumbing pipe lends itself well to this style of home decor.

    industrial-style-bathroom-accessory

    Industrial Style Bathroom Accessory How To

    This toilet paper holder is made from 3/4″ plumbing pipe, which is available from plumbing supply houses or some large home improvement stores. To build this industrial toilet paper holder, you will need:

    • A 3/4″ flange mount to allow the holder to be attached to the wall
    • A 3/4″ 90 degree elbow
    • A 3/4″ diameter, 2″ long nipple ( aka, a short piece of pipe )
    • A 3/4″ diameter, 6″ long pipe
    • A 3/4″ cap

    Put the metal pipe together as shown in the photo, it helps to have strong hands, or someone nearby that has strong hands. I would avoid using wrenches or pliers to tighten up the pipes. If you must use a pliers or wrench, wrap the pipe in rag to reduce the amount of marks the pliers will make on the pipe. Remember this is industrial style, but wrench marks aren’t great, I think, but its your toilet paper holder.

    The flange has 4 pre-drilled holes for mounting the holder on the wall, I’d suggest dark screws, such as drywall screws, to hold it on the wall. Be sure to attach it securely, ideally screwing it into a stud. Use toggle bolts or similar anchors if you can’t drill into a stud. Don’t use cheap plastic mollies, the holder will fall off the wall.

    If you are drilling through tile like the holder shown in the photo, use a masonry bit to drill through the tile. We have a post about how to hang TVs and such on brick and cement, click here.

    I’m thinking you could also call this a steampunk style bathroom accessory, but I guess it depends on who is defining industrial style versus steampunk style. I think steampunk has more copper pipe than iron pipe. Check out this industrial style pinterest board.

    What do you think of this style, how could we improve this DIY toilet paper holder?

     

     

  • Easy Cranberry Recipe, Cranberry Jam – GF Video

    Bought too many cranberries? Here’s an easy cranberry recipe to use up those extras you bought. This jam is a simple cranberry recipe to make and you can store the jam for up to a year in mason jars by canning them.

    Easy Cranberry Recipe The GardenFork Way

    These berries are one of those superfoods that I think we should be eating year round. And by making jam and canning it, you can make a big batch of this, and have it for the rest of the year. Watch our easy canning instructions video here. How cool is it to show up at a friends dinner party with a jar of homemade jam?

    We often run across cranberries on sale at the grocery store, so buy 4 bags or so, some oranges and ginger, and you are good to go.

    These berries have a long  history with the Americas, they grow in the U.S. and Canada. Wikipedia has a long entry on cranberries, and I liked this early dinner reference to turkey and cranberries:

    In the 1672 book “New England Rarities Discovered” author John Josselyn described cranberries, writing:

    “Sauce for the Pilgrims, cranberry or bearberry, is a small trayling plant that grows in salt marshes that are overgrown with moss. The berries are of a pale yellow color, afterwards red, as big as a cherry, some perfectly round, others oval, all of them hollow with sower (sic) astringent taste; they are ripe in August and September. They are excellent against the Scurvy. They are also good to allay the fervor of hoof diseases. The Indians and English use them mush, boyling (sic) them with sugar for sauce to eat with their meat; and it is a delicate sauce, especially with roasted mutton. Some make tarts with them as with gooseberries.”

    easy-cranberry-recipe-cranberry-jam-1

    I find many sauces made with cranberries to be too sweet, so for this jam, I use only 1/2 cup of sugar, but you might want to increase that a bit. Taste the jam and add sugar if you want. Be careful, as the jam is pretty hot in the pan, let it cool on a spoon. Our Easy Cranberry Recipe is below:

    Easy Cranberry Jam
    Ingredients
    •    1 lb Fresh Cranberries
    •    1/2 cup sugar
    •    1 cup water
    •    1 navel orange
    •    2 inch piece ginger
    Cooking Directions
    1. Wash the orange well and cut into quarters. Then slice slivers of the orange, including the rind. How thick to make the slivers is up to you.
    2. Peel the ginger and cut into rounds, sticks, or diced. This depends on how you like your ginger…
    3. Rinse the cranberries and put into a medium saucepan with a thick bottom, or use a heat diffuser under the pan
    4. Add to the pan the water, orange slices, ginger, sugar.
    5. Bring to a simmer, you will start to hear the cranberries pop, kinda like quiet popcorn.
    6. Cover the lid, turn down the heat to low, and cook for 10-20 minutes, stirring every few minutes.
    7. When most of the berries have burst and started to break down, turn off the heat and let cool.
    8. Taste for sweetness, and add sugar if you want.
    9. Keep in the fridge in a covered container or jars for about 2 weeks, or use hot water bath canning to preserve. I processed the jam for 10 minutes with 1/4\\\” headspace.

    Have an easy cranberry recipe? Let us know below, be great to hear from you: