I know one of everyone’s favorite things to eat whether you’re young or old is some peanut butter and jam sandwiches. My daughter would eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner if I let her. This theee ingredient recipe I’m going to share is extremely simple, I’ve made it with strawberries and raspberries and both have came out delicious. The only difference is a little extra sugar.

Now I am no master chef but I do enjoy trying to make new things for my family and I. Most of the time it comes out great and I add it to my ever growing Pinterest list. Typically the conversation at home is me asking Hawken if he’d try something, him saying yes, then me making it the next day. How we both haven’t gotten extremely fat is beyond me because momma loves her some home made cookies. 😂

I made this recipe once in my instant pot and once on the stove and in my opinion the stove top made it easier to control the temperature and less likely to burn the bottom layer because of all the sugar.

First I’ll share my 🍓🍓 strawberry 🍓 🍓jam instant pot recipe!

The ingredients needed for this recipe are strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice.

You’ll start by washing, de-steaming, and halving the strawberries. I used 2lbs of strawberries, removing any that were bruised because they can cause your jam to ruin faster (my chickens got the treat of their lives that day, ignore the messy yard in the video below the Dog’s and rain have ruined it 😂).

Once you have washed and cut your strawberries add them to your instant pot. You’re then going to add 2 cups of sugar and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Mix everything together then sit for 30 minutes. This allows the fruit to soften and release its juices. This is also how you could make a strawberry topping for cheesecake or strawberry shortcake, which always sound delicious.

After 30 minutes secure your instant pot lid and cook on high pressure for 3 minutes. Then allow to naturally release its pressure for approximately 15 minutes. Once the pressure pin drops remove the lid and whisk until the strawberries are mixed together throughly.

Next you’ll turn your instant pot onto sauté mood and allow to bubble. Continuously stir the jam until it begins to thicken approximately 15-20 minutes and coats the back of your spoon. DO NOT get distracted during this time otherwise it could burn (I would know). 🤦🏻‍♀️

When it’s cooled, add your jam to a glass jar. Do not add the lid until the jam has completely cooled off otherwise the moisture will ruin your jam quicker, causing it to mold. Once cooled you can secure the lid and place in the fridge for up to three weeks. You can also “can” these jams, but I have yet to try it myself.

Next up is my stove top raspberry jam.

Honestly this is Hawken and my personal favorite jam. I love the sweet and tartness in this jam. This has been amazing on toast in the morning and would be great in a scone. I also love jams with seeds since it breaks up the texture when eaten.

Again the ingredients are simple, raspberries, sugar and lemon juice.

You’ll start by washing the raspberries, I again used 2lbs and removed any that were bruised or questionable. Add your raspberries, 2.5 cups of sugar and 4 tablespoons of lemon juice to a deep pot and place on the stove.

Turn your stove onto high and mix ingredients until you get a steady boil and all sugar has dissolved. You’ll then lower the heat to medium-High, mash/mix the raspberries (I found that raspberries mixed a lot simpler than my strawberries did) and simmer for approximately 20 minutes, stirring throughout. Be aware that the jam will “pop” at times when cooking.

Your jam will begin to thicken and darken. There are some people that test the thickness of their jam using a plate in the freezer but I found that once it’s not soupy you can remove from heat and it will thicken up well once cooled. Turn off the burner and allow to cool before placing in a glass jar. Again you will want to allow the jam to completely cool before putting on the lid and storing. This jam will last up to three months in the refrigerator.

My next goal is to learn how to make grape jelly for Hawken since that is his all time favorite and I always want to keep my brownie points available in my back pocket. Haha. As I said at the beginning, these are two very extremely simple recipes for strawberry and raspberry jam. We’ve already finished a jar in one week and are looking forward to the farmers markets to begin this spring to get fresh fruits for more jams.

I hope that everyone who tries this recipe is able to enjoy it as much as we have at home. Thank you.

💙❤️ Tomi ❤️💙

Welcome back my friends to Kingz Country.

If you haven’t read Part One of Our Story you can find it here! https://kingzcountry.family.blog/2021/03/04/our-story-part-one/

Now were we left off in the previous post is that I had just gotten my own place and moved out. I was now living alone, which was exciting but also very lonely when you have never done it before. On my days off I had Olivia which always made my life better but then came the days I worked and coming home to an empty house was depressing. I had three dogs and two cats that I left when moving; along with choosing to let my daughter, who was 3 at the time, stay with her dad so it wouldn’t disrupt the routine she had finally become accustom to.

In the beginning Hawken would come and hang out after work but would go back home that evening. The times he did stay felt normal, like this was something that we have been doing for a long time. We clicked in our personalities and our routine. Now everything wasn’t perfect, no relationship is especially one that started after one of the people being married for 4 years, we had to navigate how to talk to each other and how to compromise.

I was lucky that Hawken was so patient in learning how to not only become a boyfriend but somewhat becoming a dad as well. Olivia loved him already and enjoyed the time she got to spend with him. Anytime that he was over when she was home with me, he would make sure she never felt left out and showed that he cared about her just as much as he cared about me. There were times that she would accidently call him “daddy” and after months of her doing it, she started calling him “Daddy King” it was adorable and I hoped that our relationship would stay strong and that he would continue to be a positive influence in Olivia’s life.

Now it took awhile for me to actually meet Hawken’s family, I’m still not sure if he was worried about me meeting them or them meeting me, I’m not exactly the “girl next-door”. Once I did meet them, even with them knowing that I was six years older and had a daughter, they accepted both of us as if we had always been apart of their family. I was thankful for that. I was always worried that if I started a new relationship with someone that they wouldn’t be as open or accepting of my daughter but here I had a family that even after a few months of knowing Olivia called her “theirs”.

One thing I was not prepared for after starting to date Hawken was that his now ex-girlfriends MOM began to harass me. I guess that’s one downside about dating someone from a small town where everyone know everyone, there’s bound to be somebody that isn’t happy about it. A woman whom had never met me or knew anything about me began to message me on social media and would try to tell me all these things to break us up, she even went to his family and tried to tell them about me, maybe thinking his family wouldn’t allow him to date me, I still don’t know. Now I was and still am to old for High school drama especially when it’s coming from a grown woman who can’t get over her daughter’s break up, a break up that happened several months before. Unlucky for her it didn’t break us up, we just ignored her and continued on with our lives but it was still a rough time in our relationship, as it would be in any relationship. We both actually deleted all social media not long after to remove the drama from our lives.

Now our relationship has not followed the normal route, I mean I was getting out of a marriage and had a daughter. He moved in with me after about two months of dating and come that July we would buy a house in his home town. Living in a one bedroom apart is no fun and we both wanted somewhere to live that we could grow, Olivia would have her own room, and I could get my dog and cat back from my ex. What’s crazy is how much you can grow after leaving a unhappy relationship. I was moving up at work and had become a Corporal in the jail, unfortunately that meant I went to night shift but I mean it was a step up in my career. Every minute I could have with Olivia we spent outside and going out to “The Farm” (Hawken’s daddy’s land) which Olivia thought was the best thing ever because of the animals and being able to ride the 4-wheeler (she’s just like her momma).

Fast forward to 2020, We’d been in our house for about six months and everything was starting to finally set in place. Hawken had begun the Police Academy in January and graduated in March, COVID ruined any chance of a ceremony. I left the Sheriff’s Department and began working at the local Police Department instead. In April, Hawken asked Olivia if she wanted chickens and of course she said yes ( i mean what kid would say no to chickens). Hawken and I built our own brooder, went down to the local Tractor Supply and picked up 10 Chicks. Unfortunately, one chick passed away and one was killed by Hawken’s hunting dog (Chicken thought jumping on the fence was smart) but we now have 7 hens and 1 rooster, whom we call Roo. Since we are getting so many eggs we plan on hatching our; which we will chronicle through here and our Facebook page.

In May, I found out that I was pregnant. Mind you I was on birth control, the same pill I had been on for a year but clearly that decided to fail. Now because of COVID Hawken was unable to attend my appointments and even though this was my second pregnancy this was Hawken’s first and it killed him not being able to attend. Not having your significant other attend any doctor appointments is extremely depressing , instead of experiencing all these exciting things together, you are experiencing it alone and then having to tell them about it later. I was lucky that my OBGYN, who is absolutely amazing, offered to send me to a different hospital for our anatomy scan so Hawken could attend and find out what we were having. I can tell you now that what momma thinks your gonna have, you’re probably going to have. Throughout the whole pregnancy I thought I was having a girl and guess what, we were having a girl. 🙂

In August, Hawken got something he has wanted since we started dating. A German Shepherd. Hawken, Olivia and I drove to eastern Tennessee to pick up our new friend. We named him Shep and he is already a big protector. He would lay his head across my belly while pregnant and now when Olivia plays outside he follows her and if he can’t see her (because she’s up in her playhouse), he starts to panic. He is going to be one hell of a dog once he grows out of this crazy puppy stage.

In October while taking our maternity pictures Hawken proposed, he made sure that Olivia was there and got to be apart of it too. He knows that I am not like everyone else and that I don’t want the big typical diamond ring so he got me a black stone ring (everyone says it matches the color of my soul).

On December 5th, we got married. We planned it on our two year anniversary, we had a a private marriage with only us and Olivia. We plan on having a larger wedding one day but for now we just wanted to be “Our Family”.

On December 28th, we went to the hospital at 0500 to have an induction (there will be a full post on that at a later date) and at 1658 (4:58pm) Anastasia was born.

While it is great that Hawken’s family is close and we have some amazing friends close by , Amanda and Jacob I’m talking to you, it is still hard that my family is in Washington and with COVID it has made it difficult for anyone to visit. Fortunately my dad lives in Florida and has been able to come up and see his second granddaughter but when I had Olivia my family was my biggest rock and somewhere I could always go when I needed to get out of the house. Hopefully this summer they will be able to come visit and we will all finally be able to enjoy the things we us to before COVID took it all away.

Well that is our story thus far, we have our little family and really couldn’t be happier. These past two years we have grown, lost, and experienced new things together. Olivia loves being a big sister and we can’t wait for our journey as a family to really begin. In the next few years we hope to buy some land, build our forever home, and grow our farm to include not only our chickens but also goats, cows and some horses for Olivia.

Thank you everyone who has been following our story, we are grateful for you all and can’t wait to bring you along as we continue to grow.

I want to say thank you to Hawken for dealing with my crazy these past two years, for always standing by my side, for being the best “Daddy King” to Olivia and the best daddy to Anastasia. I’m thankful for your support in life and in starting this blog. I can’t wait to see where our journey goes from here.

Tomi