What's the Deal: Making-Jam-and-Jell

We're making strawberry preserves, but you can use the same recipe with any fruit you like. "I would say each jar, once after your initial investment, 50 cents a jar," said Erin Libranda.

For Erin Libranda's recipe you'll need some mason jars, fruit, sugar and pectin.

Start off by boiling your jars and lids. "You're going to add like a quarter cup of the sugar and the pectin all the pectin at once, let that boil hard for 10 minutes," she said.

Now add the remaining sugar. Erin likes to mix two cups of regular sugar with two cups of artificial sweetener. "A lot of the store jelly and jams they have so much sugar in there to begin with - so watching calories and heath," she said.

Let that sit for 5 minutes and pour it into the jars. "You want to get almost to the top you want to leave a little bit of space," Erin said, "And you try not to get the jam on the jar lids - if you do you just wipe it off."

Boil the jam in the jars for another 6-10 and let it sit for 24 hours before eating.

Here's one you can do with the kids. You can use whole apples or apple juice like we're using!

We mix six cups of apple juice and one package of red hots to our pot and boil. From here we're repeating the same steps as before. For holidays I'll give those as gifts, put a little ribbon around, some cinnamon sticks in there," she said. "You can find apple juice on sale for $1 a bottle - just go with the store brand, generic - you don't have to get name brand. A bag of red hots is another dollar - so you've got $2 there," she said.

We made seven jars in just an hour so this is something you can definitely do this weekend! They're good for up to 18 months.

Red Hot Jelly