I ate my first homegrown strawberry of the year yesterday. You know what that means? It’s time to use up all that damn strawberry jam still kicking around the pantry from 2011.
While my love for PB&J only goes so far, my love of Mommy’s Liquid Refreshment knows no bounds. And so, after some arduous recipe development, the Strawberry Jam Margarita was born as a way to ensure that none of the stores of last year’s strawberry jam are wasted as the new crop of berries comes on.
Yes…of course, that’s why I had three margaritas: frugality and research. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Strawberry Jam Margarita
Makes 2 generous margaritas.
Gather:
- 2 tablespoons strawberry jam (mine is pectin free. I think jam with pectin will work fine too. If it doesn’t, have another margarita and you won’t care.)
- 2 tablespoons Grand Marnier or other orange liquor
- 4 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
- 1/2 cup good quality tequila (if you don’t like tequila, substitute rum and call this a strawberry-lime daiquiri).
- 2 cups crushed ice
Method:
Well, you could just blend everything together, and the result will be the same, but then you wouldn’t see the mason jar thing that will blow your mind. At least, it kinda blew my mind, and hoping I’m not dead last to the party on knowing about this cool trick.
Put your ice in a quart size, regular-mouth mason jar.
Add in the remaining ingredients.
Take the gasket and the blade from a standard sized blender (Oster-style or similar) and align them, upside down, on the mason jar.
Screw the plastic jar base ring from the blender onto the mason jar. Are you noticing that it fits perfectly? Is your mind blown yet?
Invert your mason jar/blender base unit and dock onto your blender.
Hit blend and whirr yourself up one damn fine strawberry margarita for two. Your mind is totally blown now, as you realize that every standard-width mason jar in your house is also a blender jar, right? (Think of the possibilities: salad dressings, sauces, pestos, aiolis – all right in the serving or storage container! I can hardly contain myself.)
Enjoy the frosty mug effect of your margarita-for-two.
Or cut down on proportions and make a mini margarita! Any size mason jar works with this trick, so long as the opening is standard and not wide mouth.
Benefit to single-serving margarita? You can drink straight out of the jar. Who’s gonna judge?
I’m thinking any sweet preserve in the pantry is fair game to add to a margarita now. Flavors that would not suck with lime and tequila include raspberry, blackberry, mango, kiwi, pineapple, peach and apricot. And probably a few more, particularly for round two.
How do you like to use up an excess of preserves? Is tequila involved? Did this mason jar thing change your world like it changed mine?
What blew my mind is where you keep your sweet preserves. “I’m thinking any sweet preserve in the panty is fair game to add to a margarita now.” 5:20 AM reading your awesome post, the house is silent…and then…guess who laughed way too loudly?
Damn. LOL. File that under: “spell-checker doesn’t do shit about appropriate syntax.” Because that sounds better than, “bloggers who write a post after drinking that many margaritas totally deserve what they get.” Edit made, thanks for the catch.
Now, that’s just funny right there….
I am thankful that it wasn’t caught. Helps to get little reminders that you aren’t a super hero type and seriously, it made me smile all morning. You should have kept it there. HA! It opens up a whole new world for food storage. LOL
I will be linking back to this post next week because I will be doing a ReCap giveaway 🙂 Do you see the “mama sippy cup” possibilities? Ahhhhhhhhh ya. Seriously, come on out to the island this summer and you won’t even have to BYOMason Jar, I have extras.
see, and that was one of my first thoughts, too – what, with 3 ReCap tops on hand…
and my mind (which, btw, IS blown at this point, Erica; and don’t worry, I got the “Mason-blender jar party” after you…) is carrying on with the thought that for a warm-weather get-together, just fill up a small ice chest with ice, and blend these up ahead of time, cap them whichever way, and stuff them into the ice chest. Marg’s to go! Stash them in the freezer ahead of time since the booze-of-choice shouldn’t freeze solid, so they’d be quick to slush back up.
OOOOh Lady Banksia, I love the way you think. Guess who is going camping this weekend with a “special” cooler?
Great minds think alike! Last month I made strawberry preserves that flat-out REFUSED to seal and thusly ended up in from freezer. Those were originally intended to be Christmas presents, so there are many jars. We’re not big jam eaters, so I was stumped about what to do with them until I remembered my bar tending days – the drink mix we used to make daquiris looks a lot like soupy jam. I haven’t tried it yet; I’m glad you’ve blazed the trail and showed that it will work. Thanks for all your noble/delicious sacrifices 😉
That’s very cool! Alas, my blender is all one unit.
I’m amused at the “use it all up” recipe. I’m now considering it. Jam-making is my favorite canning method (not sure why), but with only two people in the house we get quite the stockpile. I am actually considering skipping making any jam this year, for the sake of digging through it all. And, yes, we have enough that I don’t think we’d have any issues making it until next year’s jam season. (This includes if I give some away, which is common. Lotsa jam in this household.)
Also a good flavor? Blueberry. Blueberry + lots of lime = insanely delicious. That’s the only jam flavor I’m considering making right now, and it’s because a friend specifically requested it. I cannot imagine tequila wouldn’t enhance this combination. 😀
Here’s an adaptation for party service (a brain storm this morning): pre-mix a bunch of cocktail into a pitcher, less the preserve. Then you can present your guests (or yourself) with a selection of different flavors – call it the margarita bar or something – drop a tablespoon of it into one of those small mason jars, top up with pre-mixed cocktail, flash blend, and serve. Single servings straight out of the mason jar, like wine service at a rustic Italian restaurant.
OMG THAT IS A BRILLIANT IDEA!!!
Read about the mason jar blender a few months back but completely forgot about it! Thanks for the reminder and jamarita inspiration! Off to dig through my boxes of jars to weed out a few regular mouth masons.
Is it bad that I’m now hoping the jam I plan to make for the first time this weekend doesn’t set up so I would be “forced” to use them in margaritas since you can’t give runny jam as gifts?
Not at all!
Holy radical housewifery!
Life will never be the same. Thank you!
This is my jam making year, so how awesome! (Only two of us, so I only make jam every other year.)
saw this on interest and have been doing it ever since. one less thing to wash, which is perfect the girl who hates doing dishes 🙂
Shit, “Pinterest”. Damn spellcheck.
oo-oo-oo-oo!!! I did a kick-ass pomegranate jam from a neighbor’s fruit tree and I think I have a few jars left. Amazing Son says it was the best I’ve ever made… Love him like crazy, but he’s still not gettin’ these last few jars on his next visit!
These – with tequila – somebody stop me! Mine, all mine! :^)
Knock, Knock, Knock. Have Mason jars, will travel.
OMG. Mind is blown….I have been making my evening cocktails with strawberry syrup from last year and either gin or vodka …..but you have opened up a whole other set of possibilities. Thanks!!!!!!!!!!
me likey…let the canning for margaritas begin! No, honey, that jam isn’t for your sandwich, that’s momma’s special jam…
You are my hero! ; )
Mind blown. Can I leave work NOW and go try this?!
Absolutely. Tell them I said it was fine.
Just last night we made gin and tonics with mango orange “jam” that didn’t set (fancy pants French recipe that resulted in 12 jars of mango orange syrup) and extra lime. Damn fine. I had no clue the blender could be modified with a Mason jar- obviously I’m the one living under a rock.
I cannot wait for tonight’s cocktail- so much jam on the shelves. Well, it’s after noon and I set aside today as a garden day, may as well start experimenting with flavors now!
I can’t wait to see the look on DH’s face.
All I have left is Plum jam and Tequila. Maybe it will be the best thing ever?!
Mason jar blender awesomeness! We do smoothies like this every day (I mean, in a jar, not with booze… not for the eight-year-old, at least). It’s also great for grinding stuff like coffee and flax seeds, because the bottom of the jar forces the flying seeds back into the blade. Good for spices, too. My blender is an ancient Oster Beehive I bought on Ebay about 10 years ago, and the info about the Mason jars was right there in the instruction manual. Brilliant American postwar technology, I say.
Now that my friend is a very inventive way to make a margarita.
Even if I had been reading your blog for a year and never learned anything (which is not true), this mason jar on a blender and using jam for a drink would have made it worthwhile. THANKS!!
Now I know what to do with my blender missing a glass carafe. Woo hoo!
Such a good point – and you see those blender bottoms at thrift stores all the time, too!
You can also pick up new blender bottoms. I saw them at Fred Meyer last week for $5.99.
OK, I enjoy reading your blog a lot, and I appreciate Nick’s encouragement to get chickens. But I have just fallen in love with you. Before I would categorize my feelings as deep appreciation, respect, and fondness. But now it is love. You may be getting some of the benefit of my fairly long love afair with margaritas, but mason jar margaritas? It’s love.
Deon, Nick tells me that because of a certain real estate agent you recommended to him, he bought a certain house just before we met. This house convinced me that Nick was a fine man of excellent and restrained taste and I should give dating him a shot. And without him, I would almost certainly never have started this blog, and therefore would never have written this margarita post. So basically, when you think about it, you totally deserve credit for this whole idea anyway. 😉 But hey, if you want to shower me with love, I’ll take it!
Life always comes full circle. That was a cool house.
Okay, my mind IS blown! I thought maybe this only works on Osters, but I tried it on my Hamilton-Beach, and dang if it didn’t fit! Cynical son commented “Yeah, but I doubt if you’d ever use it.” Bwa-ha-ha! If only he knew…. I made way too much strawberry jam last year. I wonder if the grocery store I’m going to today carries tequila?
I love the jam margarita idea, but I’ll have to blend mine. I think I have the only blender (Bosch) that doesn’t work with mason jars. The blade screws into the inside of the opening of the carafe, then whole thing screws into the base. No gasket ring thing at all. But it works great, so I’ll deal. 🙂
So last night we went over to the neighbors with a sampling of my jams from 2010 and some booze. We tried all kinds of things – even the stuff we weren’t sure would be good (cinnamon pear, I’m looking at you!) got attempted, just in the later rounds, and it all was pretty tasty.
Overall it was so easy peasy I foresee a lot more of these in my future. Tonight after work I need to finish assembling our new glider for the front patio, and when I finish, I plan on mixing up a celebratory cold drink, probably a mango jalapeno margarita, which was my favorite last night. You are our new hero!
Reading this in combination with your Lunch In A Jar post has made me think making my own applesauce would actually be worth all the work once again. I use the cores, which I save in zipper baggies in the freezer, collecting them until I have enough (too many), steam them in a pasta/asparagus pot, put them through a food mill (the time-consuming part), and in order to get my children to eat it, have to blenderize it, too. One more jar not to clean would make this doable rather than insane. Could I even can some jars after filling them that way?
I LOVE using jars on my blender. I actually have 2 extra base/blade/gasket sets so I can multi task with my blender.
Oh wow!! Thanks so much for sharing this mason jar trick. So neat!! The thought of not having to wash jars and serving glasses… *glee*. 😀
I googled “how to make pectin free jam” and your blog was the first on the list. After reading that post, I’ve been unable to resist going through your other posts too. What a great blog! 🙂
Mind blown, but it was too late! I threw out all the UNBREAKABLE parts of my 20-yr old blender in disgust just a month ago, after an unsuccessful 6-mo search for a new blender jar at an affordable price (my 13-yr old had dropped the old glass jar on the floor). I was sick of moving the blender base around in the cupboard and finally threw it out. Shitsky!
I came here for pectin free jam, my chains are broken, I have been set free! I leave beacause I keep clicking the “you may also like” links. You are blowing my doors off!!! Thank you for sharing your awesomeness with tge world.
* can’t leave *
Warning. After creating and consuming this drink you will proudly announce to all your friends and family that you are the goddess of margarita making. Thanks for the awesome recipe. Just in time for those hot summer days!
This is a GREAT blog post! Hilarious and educational at the same time… my very favorite combination! I have been playing in the kitchen so long, there’s not a whole lot new to me… it’s frustrating to read a whole Cook’s Illustrated and not learn anything new… but THIS? This was new and I’m gonna be laughing all day. Well done! Now, where’s all that old strawberry jam???
We’ve been using mason jars this way for years. Smaller round or little half pints for grinding herbs and coffee, pints for smoothies (no need to mess up a glass). We drill a hole in a plastic mason lid and place a straw and go. But only Oster blenders or those made by Oster (old Sears brands for instance) work with a mason jar. I only use the pitcher provided for items I want to pour (crepe batter) or items that need things slowly added to like hollandaise sauce.
Have used mason jars on the blender for 30 years. I would often blend up whatever we had for dinner for my young son in place of commercial baby food. Since then have used it many ways.
If you store leftovers in a jar and something needs re-blended, of course you can do that quickly right in the jar.
KitchenAid blenders’ blade units fit wide-mouth mason jars. (I think Cuisinart does too, but don’t quote me on that. My memory is not what it used to be.) Osters and a few others fit the regular mouth jars. I’m waiting for my Hamilton Beach with the one-piece container to die under its daily smoothie abuse so I can justify buying a vintage Oster. I think I live in a thrift-store wasteland, because I never see the appliances everyone else insists are common!
One safety note: drape a dishtowel over the top of the jar, _especially_ if you’re going to hold the jar while it’s blenderizing. Mishaps do occur with the mason-jar-blender; I know one person who had the jar burst as she was making a “slushy” sort of thing with a lot of ice cubes and I guess there must have been a weak spot in her (well-used) mason jar. A towel would have confined the shrapnel somewhat. No one was seriously hurt (no stitches) but it was one heck of a mess to clean up.
This is the best idea I’ve seen in AGES! I got rid of my blender years ago, because the pitcher broke. Dang. Wish I’d thought try a canning jar ;). Thanks for the inspiration. Definitely going to share this idea!
Normally I don’t learn article on blogs, however I would like to say
that this write-up very forced me to check out and do it! Your writing taste has been amazed me.
Thanks, quite great post.