it was a bread making and jam making kind of day

 the day before yesterday i had plans to make jam

but the night before that

i was over at my parents house and spotted some freckled bananas

just begging to be made into banana bread

so how could i refuse?!

the girls and i baked the banana bread together

(we used this simple and yummy recipe--you can never go wrong with martha!)

when the batter was ready to go into the oven

it was time for me to start the jam

every time we go berry picking

i always say that i am going to make jam but never do

this years' berry picking excursions resulted in an over abundance of berries

so i almost had no choice but to make jam! we had so many berries!

i was a little nervous because it was my first attempt at jam making

i used this recipe which looked easy enough

i made my jam

and right when the jam was almost ready

my oven timer went off

yum! banana bread right out of the oven is the best!

i had just enough time to slice the girls  each a piece

before i had to ladle the jam into mason jars

because of the canning process

i had to wait 24 hours before i could sample the jam

i was so excited that when i woke up in the morning, 

the first thing i did was go downstairs to look at the jam

i toasted some english muffins up 

and the girls and i sat down 

to taste the first batch of jam i have ever made!

boy! was i nervous until zoe said

"it's so yummy mommy!!"

yay! once i knew that they tasted yummy

i packaged up a few to give to family and friends

it was seriously so easy and so fun to do!

i have enough berries to make another batch
which i plan to do closer to christmas and hand out as gifts

if you want to make your own jam
i used this as a canning resource and there is a link above to the recipe i used
Also, a big thanks to Therese and Becky for your "jammin' tips"! they came in quite handy.