Naturally Sweet Food in Jars is my third cookbook and was published in March 2016. It focuses on preserving with honey, maple, agave, coconut sugar, fruit juice concentrates, and dried fruits. You can find an array of ordering options here.
The idea for this book was initially sparked by this post, as well as the many alternatively sweetened recipes that have come since on this site. The finished book features more than 100 recipes for preserves, as well as a handful of recipes designed to help you use up some of what you’ve put up.
I had two primary goals in mind when I was writing Naturally Sweet. The first was to translate some of my most beloved sugar-sweetened recipes into those that used less refined sweeteners.
The second objective was to create new and novel recipes that would be safe for canning and that featured the various sweeteners in ways that made the most of their unique, individual flavors.
I also wanted to help change the conversation about preserving. So often, people dismiss it because they feel like the products created when you preserve aren’t always the healthiest.
However, by shining a spotlight on alternative sweeteners, I feel like I’ve created a collection of recipes that are able to balance health concerns with issues of safety and shelf stability.
And, as always, the recipes are relatively small batches that don’t require too much of your time and energy.
Happy Birthday, and thank you very much for giving us presents with this great giveaway!
Happy birthday!!!! I hope it’s fantastic! I love to have polenta toast and homemade chutney. I never considered it my birthday food, but in thinking about it, I usually have it then.
It varies every year, but cake and ice cream of some sort is a must!
Happy birthday!!!
Thanks for handing out gifts on your birthday, nice twist on tradition. My favorite birthday food is spaghetti, lots of it, basic meat sauce, lots of garlic, lots of freshly grated cheese.
Happy Birthday!!!
I love Chili Verde with Turkey. Until I became allergic to peppers, I would always have Mom make that for my birthday. Since my birthday is around Thanksgiving, we always make it with turkey instead of chicken.
Happy Birthday, Marissa.
PS: I couldn’t resist responding, but I already have a copy of the book. If I’m drawn, please pick someone else.
Growing up in the South our traditional birthday meal was fried chicken and mashed potatoes! My mom would let us choose, but we always chose her homemade fried chicken!! Happy birthday to you and may your meal be a celebration!
have a great birthday
Marmorkuchen (marble cake) is what I like for Breakfast on my Birthday 😉 wishing you a Happy upcoming Birthday
Happy Birthday! I love going to Dim Sum to celebrate my birthday. Its great for a group, too!
Happy Birthday! I love when my wife makes pork chops and Spanish rice. Enjoy your day!
Happy Birthday! I don’t know if I have an absolute favorite birthday food, but right now I’m into wonton soup.
Happy Happy Birthday! Hope that you have a wonderful day!
My Favorite birthday treat is a vegan pineapple upside down cake or pumpkin pie!
Never was a huge icing fan, so those are my go 2 requests!
Very excited to read your new book! I would love to make more “naturally” sweeten jams!
🙂
Happy Birthday! I am also a May BD – emeralds and lily of the valley.
My mother would let me have a slice of BD for breakfast on my birthday – I especially like coconut cake. Your new cookbook looks great.
I love a good carrot cake with homemade cream cheese frosting. It’s the only time of year I can indulge without the guilt. 🙂
Have a great birthday! On my birthday I must have carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. I ak so avoid all regular household chores and go do something decadent like get a massage or pedicure or both.
Happy happy birthday (as my sister says). I don’t have a special birthday dish–I appreciate not having to make my own birthday dinner so much that I don’t care what someone else prepared/brought home/took me out to. My husband’s mother always made him a strawberry shortcake for his birthday, so that’s his special dish.
Happy birthday! I’m not so good with dairy but love an ice cream cake!
Happy birthday! My favorite birthday dinner is a marinara sauce my uncle taught me how to make. Now it’s way more delicious because I learned how to can tomatoes from your first book, so I can use those instead of the store-bought canned tomatoes I grew up with 🙂
Happy birthday! My favorite birthday food is dobashe cake.
Happy Birthday….
Happy Birthday and congrats. I’m all about trying the lemony strawberry jam.
Happy birthday! Yes, my library system refuses to put your books on their shelves. I celebrate with homemade lemon pudding. Tart and tangy!
Happy Birthday! I like to eat fresh pasta on my birthday. Delicious!
Marisa,
I wish you the very happiest birthdays.
As a child my mom would make a german chocolate cake from scratch…you know with the caramel coconut icing? I remember you had to buy whole coconuts then because packaged coconut wasn’t available.
Since my mom passed in the 80’s, people buy me ready made german chocolate cake, but yuk its not the same. Because my favorite pie is apple…now I celebrate with apple pie instead.
Marshall – Jam Bubba
Happy Happy Birthday!!
Chocolate cake with raspberry filling and vanilla ice cream? Yum!!
Happy birthday!! I always ask for my mom’s pot roast for my birthday, it’s the only time of year she’ll make it for me!
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear Marisa
Happy birthday to you!
Congratulations on #3! Can’t wait to try the onion recipe.
Best wishes for your birthday! I have a chocolate almond cake that I make for my birthday, one serving is your calories for the day.
Happy birthday!! I’m pretty much up for anything on my birthday EXCEPT store bought cake. I just can’t…I know people mean well, but I would rather bake one (even from a box) or go without. I hope you celebrate your birthday with something yummy as well!
Happy Birthday! My favorite thing to eat on my birthday is anything cooked by someone else. Whether it’s my husband and kids or going out to eat, doesn’t matter!
Happy birthday! My favorite birthday food is a fresh picked apple….and an apple pie! 🙂
Blackberry pie! If only someone would make me one!
Pretty much any cake is okay with me! Although I have special feelings for lemon, strawberry, and Italian cream. Have a great birthday!!!
Happy Birthday! My favorite birthday treat is Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cake. Bonus point for double fudge in the centre!
Oatmeal cake with the broiled icing after a meal of corn cilantro pancakes, inspired by Diner in Brooklyn. http://merrymeetingmenu.blogspot.com/2009/07/cilantro-corn-pancakes.html
My favorite birthday treat? Carrot cake or cheesecake! Covered with preserves I canned, of course!
Happy birthday, thanks for all your work that helps us can and preserve more, and better!
I used to be all about the chocolate but I’ve been going for the lemon
Especially Lemon Cake with Lemon Mascarpone Frosting. Lemon syrup is one of the key ingredients
Happy birthday! Enjoy your day.
Congratulations on your new book.
I don’t have a set list of foods I eat on my birthday, but if I had it my way, I’d have a nice breakfast with pancakes or french toast, some tasty pizza later in the day, and finish things off with a nice slice of new york style cheesecake!
Happy Birthday! When I was a kid I always wanted hamburgers for my birthday, now I like to go out for fancy dinner.
My most memorable birthday food is a whole watermelon. Years ago my husband stopped on his way home from working night shift to buy me a watermelon, it was my birthday and I had cravings! Well to his surprise I had gone into labor , our second child being overdue. Before cell phones. A frantic speeding trip to hospital and all was good. We had a baby boy , but I got to eat my birthday melon afterwards.
Since we share that special day, I always let him pick the cake. Can never top getting him for a gift.
Put my name in the race , thanks !
P.s. We are “May” babies too
I always eat a burger on my birthday!
Happy birthday and congratulations on your new book!
Happy Birthday! I have enjoyed all your cookbooks and am looking to trying the recipes in this one.
Love cherry pie on my birthday! Have a wonderful gay!
I love having coffee cake on my birthday. I’ve never been really interested in regular sheet cake, so for the past couple years, my boyfriend and his grandma have baked for me her fantastic coffee cake, and then i’ve had to fight hard not to eat the whole cake in one day. The other thing i like is Baskin Robins Ice Cream Pies, where they essentially pack your favorite ice cream flavor into a pie shell (i always choose the oreo shell). I hope you get to have exactly the desert you want for dessert on your birthday, and that both the day and the year are wonderful for you. 🙂 Happy Birthday!
Happy birthday! Blueberry pie is my favorite birthday treat. Thank you for sharing.
on my birthday I always try a new recipe for dinner. This year I will cook Pork crown roast, with a side of my first canned potatoes and green beans.
Happy Happy Birthday! I really enjoy your Food in Jars Cookbook and would love a copy of your new book. My birthday is January 1 and is sometimes mixed in with the holidays and not always celebrated on its own. I love cheesecake and almost never have it for my birthday, but think I will make myself one this year and maybe use some homemade jam on top!
My birthday is Jan 1, so I have bday meals & rituals I look forward to all year! I have birthday MEALS on my special day … My bday breakfast is fluffy, custardy French toast dripping with maple syrup & melted butter, with smoked applewood bacon & breakfast sausage links on the side made by my husband & served to me (yes, SERVED) on the couch as I watch the Rosebowl Parade. Because I stuff myself, I usually don’t have lunch, but dinner is Prime Rib, Caesar salad w/ dressing I make myself out of a recipe book from the 40’s (title … With a Jug of Wine … Where can you go wrong there?), baked potatoes w/all the fixings, & garlic Parmesan bread. No bday cake, but we do have NY- style cheesecake that I make the day ahead. Yep, it’s a good day. I wish you lots of good eats on your day, Marissa, too!
Happy birthday! We ordered in my favorite pizza this year for my birthday. 🙂
Happy Birthday. Your cookbook sounds marvelous. I am at the age where my Bucket List is beginning to get checked off. (smile) The one item on my list that is proving to be lots of fun is, “Visit a different state each year for my birthday.” So far these states have been checked off: WA, NM, WI, OH, WV, CO, TN, VA & OK.. Have a great day.
I go for chocolate for my birthday.
Happy Birthday to you!
Looking forward to seeing this cookbook in person.
Anything with chocolate! Happy, happy birthday!!
Lasagna and HAPPY BIRTHDAY! ???????
Happy Birthday Marissa, have a fabulous day! My favorite bd food is spaghetti w/lots of sauce cooked by my Italian sister-in-law…….so delicious!
In a few weeks I will be 70 and at this age we get to celebrate our bd for a full month (or so my friends tell me).
Hi Marissa, My birthday is May 16 and I will be going to a free birthday movie and then a free birthday dinner at a local restaurant. I love your other books and would love to add this one to the 2 I already have.
Happy Birthday! This book will be used and re-gifted over and over I’m sure
Happy birthday Marisa!! My favorite birthday treat is either a pie or angel food cake with my granny’s sea foam icing! Definitely a family favorite! Thanks so much for the opportunity, I hope you have a wonderful birthday!!
Happy birthday! ???
Since I cook all the time which I do like doing, I choose to be taken out for dinner on my birthday. I usually want Italian. Tee hee – some times, well no, most times, we casually let it drop that it’s my birthday and I get a free dessert which I share with my guy. Am I shameless or what!
My birthday is in the summer – so it always involves homemade icecream.
Congrats on your book!!!
Happy Birthday!!!! I love to have anything, as long as I don’t make it for my birthday!
Happy birthday! Hope you have a great day! You share a birthday with my oldest son. As far as birthday food is concerned there has to be cake. I just made a rhubarb chocolate one and am contemplating how to decorate it.
I would love to win a book, I really enjoyed your other books!
I would love to add your newest book to my collection!
It would be such a treat!
For my 40th, I made homemade eclairs for breakfast. They were delish! My kids love Monkey Bread or homemade cinnamon rolls for the birthday breakfast. Happy Birthday to you! Hope you enjoy a special breakfast for your special day!
I don’t know! I don’t think I usually eat something for my birthday other than the broader go eat out and then go to our respective parent’s houses for homemade meals around it. Last year my mom made me a cake that I would love to spend more time with…
Happy birthday to you!
Cake and sangria
My birthday has just passed! I chose mocha for a special treat – chocolate and coffee together. You can’t get better than that! Hope your birthday is lovely!
I love brunch, preferably a buffet, on my birthday. I start with salty specialties but always end with some sort of fruit pastry or croissants with butter and jam. Yum!
Well, first, it has to be chocolate, second, as in cake! Then chocolate cake throughout the day after having a rather large slice for breakfast!
It’s a total guilty pleasure, but it was my favorite place to eat growing up, and getting Kentucky Fried Chicken to go was always part of my Birthday celebration. Funny thing is now, there is no Colonel anywhere near where I live, but we now have a new Asian style chicken place that will do just fine when my birthday rolls around again in the winter.
Very merriest birthday to you!
Happy Birthday!! I love a nice Maine lobster on my birthday!!!
I love to celebrate my birthday by having steamed crabs with my mother and sisters. Since my birthday is mid-August I’m usually frantically trying to put up all of the wonderful produce available at that time of year. Your book would be a great help with that! Congratulations on the new book and Happy Birthday!
Happy birthday, Marisa! I like a buffet for my b-day with offers of my award winning eggplant caponata, bacon jam, roasted tomato jam, garlic jelly and all kinds of cheese, piled on gluten-free bruschetta. A glass of cold prosecco to savor as well! I have your first book that I use all the time. Keep up the good work!
Happy Birthday Marisa!!
I am a 3rd of July baby so hot dogs and hamburgers always a fav for me, hope yours is a great day and thank you!
Happy Birthday Marissa! This book looks lovely! I bought a copy of another one of your books for a Christmas present this year!
I don’t have a particular favorite birthday food, I just love to share a meal with friends or family. My birthday’s in September, so usually lots of lovely harvest foods around then.
Happy Birthday, Marisa! My birthday falls very close to a major holiday, so all I want is food that I don’t have to cook! Enjoy your day.
Happy birthday!
Happy Birthday! Put your feet up and enjoy the day! For the past 3 years, my daughter has been making me a birthday cake. She makes it from scratch. Just like her Granny taught her. She loves to bake and cook so, I let her have fun. Best cakes I’ve ever had! Enjoy your Birthday 🙂
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I love carrot cake with LOTS of cream cheese frosting.
Have a wonderful day
Happy Birthday! I hope you get to eat what ever you like on your birthday. As for me….I just want someone else to make dinner. 🙂 I have a long list of foods I love, but you know what? If someone cooks for me, I don’t care what it is, I’m just grateful.
Be well and have a marvelous day and fantastic weekend.
Wishing you a very happy birthday, and many happy returns of the day. On my birthday, I like to have a cup of tea brought to me in bed (first thing in the morning — before I’m even all the way awake) — bliss!
Happy Birthday, Marissa! May your birthday be blessed with many sweet things. You have certainly made all our lives sweeter by sharing your wonderful recipes for preserves.
Anything w/blueberries! Hoping your birthday & your entire year will be filled w/peace, joy, & creativity. Happy Birthday!
My birthday is Monday. Happy Birthday Marissa! –djs
Happy Birthday!
Tomato jam with just about anything.
Happy birthday to you! My favorite is to go out to Olive Garden on my birthday and eat lemony desserts
Last year we had an abundance of low bush blueberries scattered across our woods. My favorite birthday treat is blueberry pie and I would love to use these to make it! HAPPY BIRTHDAYS!!
Happy Birthday! I always love sea food for my birthday meal ☺
Happy Birthday! I don’t have a favorite birthday food, but if my birthday was tomorrow I’d love to have pecan balls like my mom used to make at Christmas. They’re a buttery shortbread cookie stuffed full of pecans and thickly coated with powdered sugar. I haven’t had them in at least 20 years!
Birthday dessert always means PIE, preferably Rhubarb.
Happy birthday!! My favorite was always ribs and corn on the cob
A very Happy Birthday! Cheers to a wonderful year and many more.
Yum…..my birthday is coming up! I love a homemade angel food cake with fresh strawberries and whipped cream!
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday!!!
I tend to like ice cream!
Happy birthday! I love any kind of dark chocolate dessert for my birthday.