cherry jam

cherry jam.

There are quite a few cherry stands popping up around my town. Tis the season.
I bought a bag of cherries, not knowing what I would do with them but just felt compelled to buy them because of their deep color, amazing taste and cheap price.
I kept thinking I should make a pie.
Cherry pie, not something I often have.

But then when push came to shove and I really needed to either eat them all or make something quick before they all went bad, I really didn't want pie.
Strange, who doesn't want pie? Pie always sounds good to me, if it's in the apartment, that is definitely going to be eaten for breakfast.

But with a abundance of coffee in my system and taking forever cutting out all of the little pits, I really just wasn't craving sweets. So jam seemed like the perfect option since it could be eaten later. Plus I only needed a few ingredients for it which was perfect because my fridge and pantry is quite sparse at the moment.

So I made jam. I didn't use a recipe.

You could go look one up if you feel so compelled but sometimes its just nice to wing it.
I took the de-pitted flesh of the cherries, tossed it in my big le creuset (courtesy of sur la table), squeezed a lemon over them to preserve the color and threw a bit of sugar on top. Probably one cup of sugar for a bag of cherries.
Then just let it boil until it all the liquid had reduced quite a bit until a thick, gooey sauce. I heated it over low heat, since my stovetop can burn everything even on low but you could probably use a medium flame. Just give it a quick stir every once in a while so the bottom doesn't burn.
Then I spooned it into two little weck jars and boiled them in a waterbath to 'can' them.
The ball jar website has a great 'canning 101' instructions you can download that will give you all the proper information. HERE is the link.

Thats it, quick a simple.

Now time to get ready to go ride bikes and see the Great Gatsby tonight!