Today I had what I call, this great idea while eating my peanut butter and elderberry jelly sandwich. I am not much of a food prep. I like to cook and I like to entertain, but I’ll tell you what, processing fruit for canning is a real pain. It took me forever to sneak in those chokecherries. Okay, the juice was delicious, but there must be a faster way, so I cheat while enjoying my sandwich. I just spread my thawed elderberries on the elderberry jam to add a little more to the sandwich and thought why not mix the elderberries with the existing jam? Choose your favorite flavor. Most likely mine is raspberry and strawberry. Yes, I will do it twice.

So let’s call this the lazy man’s recipe for elderberry jam, shall we? After all, we already have all the ingredients available in the jam from our storage or we can buy them in the store. Now I’m sure there are all kinds of reasons why this shouldn’t be done. Something about preservatives? Maybe the ratio is wrong when adding the new berries to the existing jam? I’m not an expert, but I think this may be an easy way to at least get the goodness of those elderberries in your peanut butter sandwich so you can enjoy flu protection this season. I’m sure those who read this will appreciate my efforts.

Making the jam is easy. Let’s give up all that ingredient nonsense that so many recipes have and start with what we need. Pick your favorite jam and grab a handful of ripe elderberries. Add them to the jam and mix. I like elderberries and I like the benefits, so I am personally going to use a lot of elderberries. If I already have 16 ounces of jam, I will probably use a full cup or more of the berries and mix them together. I’ll take a half-used jam jar or mix it all up in a mixing bowl of some kind if I can find one in the kitchen. After all, this is foreign territory to me. Once everything is mixed, I will put it back in the original jar and find a container for the rest. Then I’ll have the leftovers and make a sandwich right now. Leftovers are likely to be left after all, as I am a guy in the kitchen who makes jam with jam. There is no need to complicate it. It is what it is and we will live with it. Keep it simple and easy and life can go on.