The sample-giver lady sold me on the cherries right as I walked into the grocery store. I must admit, I normally
turn up my nose at the latest and greatest in engineered food product
that the grocery store is passing out as samples, so I was pleasantly
surprised to discover that this time it was just cherries!
But enough about the cherries, first I had to make dinner. Those of you
who follow me on twitter might have heard about my unfortunate incident
with the toaster oven tonight. In my defense, it has been acting up a
bit lately – either over cooking or under cooking things. So, the first
time I tried to toast some corn tortillas, they barely cooked at all. I
left them in for another toast cycle… and as soon as I realized the
kitchen was getting a bit smoky, one of the tortillas was on fire! Luckily the fire was contained inside the oven. I threw
some baking soda into the toaster oven and quickly opened all the windows.
Despite my mishap (and yes, the toaster oven is literally TOAST now),
dinner turned out fine (with some microwaved tortillas, thank you very
much!) I was cleaning up afterwards and just felt like cooking some
more. Maybe I was trying to redeem myself? Anyway, that big bag of
cherries was just sitting there…
No-Recipe Cherry Jam
Originally uploaded by kerner
Aha! I should make cherry jam! Using an “un-cookbook” called Lost Arts, I determined that I could make it with just the fruit and a little bit of sugar. I pitted all the fruits, added about 1/4 c. of sugar, and – following the instructions in the book – started boiling the fruit. I didn’t really understand how “boiling” was going to work since there was just a little bit of cherry juice in the pan. But as soon as the pan got hot, all the cherry juice started to come out of the fruit. The book said to cook it at a high temperature to preserve the color, and cook until it is the consistency you want.
Bubble, bubble
Originally uploaded by kerner
Easy enough, I just stirred and stirred until the juices reduced now to a sticky jelly. I probably could have pulverized the fruit a bit more before I started, but it will be… rustic. Yeah, that’s it.
What could be sweeter?
Originally uploaded by kerner
I filled a glass jar with the jam and stuck it in the fridge – the rest we gobbled up with some yogurt. Mmmm…. wonderful. And I think it took all of 15 minutes.
Slurp!
Originally uploaded by kerner
(I may have licked the pan, it was so delicious)
It look so good! Homemade jam is my favorite winter treat – summer in a jar. I don’t think I’ve ever seen fruit in the sample lady’s offerings. Last week after I said “no thanks” to the cracker and jello combo she asked me why I never take one. I wasn’t sure how to describe my lack of interest.
mmmmmmmmmmm! I usually walk past the sampler people, mostly because they never have anything that I can actually eat! But those cherries sound really good, and the jam, even better!
Mmmm, cherry jam. I had no idea it was that easy!
Oh, it looks delicious. How many cherries resulted in how much jam?
I saw your cherry jam and bought the big bag of cherries that was on sale at my co-op, determined to follow your example and have some jam. But then the mister came home from work and my brother came over to hang out, and somehow, the three of us ended up eating that entire bag of cherries as we sat sprawled in my backyard. Maybe next time…
In other news, I once set a toaster on fire, so I feel your pain there. New ones are so much nicer than the old quirky ones.
you are killing me. That looks so, so good!