Preserved fruit improves breakfast

I love variety in breakfast choices. I think about that during fruit growing season when I envision the cold darkness of a winter morning, like we’re having these days. So while our raspberries were growing, I froze handfuls in small bags. When we found beautifully ripe plums, I tried to make jelly. The freezing turned out well (hard for it not to). The jelly-making, however, gave me jars of plum syrup and jars of a hard, could’ve-been-jelly-at-one-point, substance. I didn’t get any true plum jelly.

Fear not, plum fans. I have found a couple of good ways to use that jelly to add a little bit of local fruit to breakfast. One is as a syrup for French Toast.  Another is as a sweetener in oatmeal.

This morning, I made steel-cut oats for breakfast. As I neared the end of the cooking cycle, I thought about adding honey to give them a little sweetness. Then I remembered the hard, plum jelly. I spooned out a little bit and added it to the oatmeal. It dissolved into the oats so I added a little more.

Next, I took one of those small bags of raspberries out of the freezer. In hot oatmeal, it doesn’t take long for them to unthaw. I also toasted a few pumpkin seeds to top my breakfast. After eating a healthy bowl of it, I knew it was a success.

My other experiences came last week when I made French Toast, which some of you know from my past postings is a breakfast favorite of mine. To turn the jelly into a thick syrup, I reconstituted it in a warm skillet, adding small amounts of water until it was almost the consistency I sought. I also added raspberries from the freezer into the syrup then topped the treat with lightly toast walnuts and pumpkin seeds.

I’m already wondering what else I can do with that hard jelly because there’s still plenty hanging around on my shelf.