Worst Recipe EVER... but I'm gonna share anyway

...only because I have so many pictures of my kids helping me make this catastrophe.

We were making Cherry jam.

I was so excited to make this as we  have a sour cherry tree on our acreage.

Having only ever made Rhubarb jam, I was quite inexperienced with the whole cherry thing, but ready to give it a try.

You have to start by pitting your cherries. Did you know they make a cherry pitter?! I didn't, but now I own one!

I have the oxo brand cherry pitter from amazon.com since that's what was most recommended.

Here is Jackson working hard to make this mess work. With his sister hovering over him of couse telling him just how to do it. Girls. We're all the same.

I had a batch of frozen cherries, and fresh off the tree ones. I recommend not freezing them first! The pit comes out much cleaner on fresh ones. We froze them because I was waiting for my cherry pitter to arrive.

One other downside to freezing first is the mess they make when they thaw.

Case in point: This was before I started. I had the brilliant idea to set them in my colander. With nothing more than a towel underneath

And then I had to move the colander to the sink. This is my floor.

But, I am nothing if not stubborn. So, we press on. Oh yes we do.

On with the cherry pitting!

(normally I would recommend putting away the 5 gallons of bugspray and such sitting on your counter so that no one suspects that is what's making the jam taste so bad)

See the cherry? You squeeze that and then the pit pops out the bottom. In theory of course.

On a side note-(is there anything in this post that isn't a sidenote?!)- if you are going to pit 2lbs of cherries I highly recomment finding 2 gullible children to help. If you don't have your own, go to the nearest park or family member and borrow some. They will save your sanity. (as always, check with parents before removing children from parks)

Okay, after you have your cherries pitted you'll want to chop them up well.

I also added some mullberries to mine because I had them and the kids wanted to go pick them. I figured it couldn't hurt.

Because in the past I have only done freezer jam instead of canning it, I decided to get the pectin for freezer jam. This may have been where my biggest mistake was made.

I ended up using the recipe on the back because I wanted it to properly set up.

I knew it was strange for 2 reasons.

1) you didn't cook it. (yes I see that it says that plain as day on the front, but the only freezer ones said no cook)

2) it only called for 1 1/2 cups of sugar

The end result? Nasty. Worst jam ever.

Oh sure, it looks beautiful, but blech.

Knowing that the amount of sugar was shockingly low- if you've ever made jam or jelly you know that 1 1/2 cups of sugar is nothing.

So, after taking some time away from the jam, I came back the next week and threw it all into a pot on the stove and added about 4 more cups. Now that's jam the way grama meant for it to be.

Goes to show you that you should go with your first instingt, but lesson learned. ;)

So, enjoy?

Or don't.

Just be warned when your jam doesn't call for enough sugar to make your teeth hurt.