The Flavor of Friendship

At church on Sunday my friend, Katherine, handed me two jars of homemade sugar free jelly. She has pear trees that produced abundantly this year. Among other things, she made pear jelly. Then she branched out into pear/plum jelly, pear/pineapple jelly and at my suggestion pear/pomegranate jelly.

It was because of me that she branched out to sugar free jelly. This brings up the point of healthy and what does that mean. I believe sugar free is healthy, but I am also OK with sugar substitutes which others might view as unhealthy. Many people think honey is a healthy sweetener. I have to agree that it tastes great, it is God's original natural sweetener, and those bees are so clever to be able to make it. But I avoid it because it spikes blood sugar almost like table sugar and causes cravings for more sweets.

The jelly that Katherine gave me on Sunday was a masterpiece: Pear/Pomegranate/Merlot/pecan. Can it get better than that? I spread it on toast without butter and eat it like it was a piece of pie. Friendship is sweet and it tastes good.

Katherine's Sugar-free Pomegranate Jelly Recipe

I peel and cut small pieces of the pears off the core and put them into water with Fruit Fresh in it. After they soak, so they do not get dark in color, I remove them from the water and put them in the mini food processor and grind them til they look like applesauce.

I use:
2 C of ground pears.I add 2 cups of pomegranate juice
I put them in a deep sided pan and bring to a boil. I stir in 1 package of sugar free Sure Jel and bring back to a boil and boil at least 2 minutes.

Add 4 C of sugar substitute all at once and stir in. Bring back to a boil and boil 3 minutes.

Then I pout into hot jars and screw on hot lids and place in a hot water bath.
(Hot water over the top of the jar) and bring to a boil, boil for 5 minutes or more.

Set them out of the water on a rack and cool, make sure they seal.
This will make 4C and maybe a little more so 2 pints or 4 1/2 pint jars.

Same recipe for all whether it is pear, pear pineapple, pear/persimmon or pear with anything else...

Sure Jel has good advice in the package. The sugar free does not talk about pears but the regular Sure Jel does and I have found anything that applies to peaches applies to pears.


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