Strawberry Jam

Last week I took my pile of ripped out recipes and organized them. The whole process is great for rediscovering dishes I want to try and dishes I'd love to make again. A couple of months ago, we made Vanilla Cloverleaf Rolls, but we did not make the Strawberry Jam that was suggested to serve alongside the rolls. Suddenly, given that it's strawberry season and we've been enjoying local strawberries, plus the amazing strawberry jam  had at Meat & Potatoes in May, I had an urge to make the rolls again and the strawberry jam. So we did.

The jam is super easy to make, it just takes a bit of time to simmer and thicken. We divided our jam into two glass jars. We put one in the freezer (it's only about half full) and the second (full jar) is for enjoying this week.

I am not sure I will be able to go back to eating store bought jam/jelly/preserves in a jar. This simple, homemade jam is so good. It's strawberries, a Granny Smith apple, sugar, and lemon juice.

The pectin from the apple helps to jell the jam and makes it a bit tart, but not too tart. The strawberry taste still shines through the apple taste/pectin. SP smushed just enough strawberries; there was just the right amount of strawberry chunks, but it wasn't so chunky that it fell off the rolls. It also wasn't too runny.

What else did we enjoy with the rolls & jam for Sunday dinner? We tried a new wine.

Toasted Head Untamed White, which is a blend of Chardonnay, Viognier, and Moscato. We both liked it. I liked it more than the straight Viognier we tried a few weeks ago.

There was pork cooked on the grill rotisserie:

The only thing we did to season it was rub Penzeys Mitchell Seasoning all over it in the morning and let it marinate all day. 

The pork was maybe a bit well done, but not dry or tough. SP cooked it a bit longer to make sure there wasn't any pink to bother my stomach. The seasoning was smoky, salty, paprika-y. It's sold as Mitchell Street Steak Seasoning but we put it on the pork and it worked nicely. 

Of course we also had vegetables. Leftover grape tomatoes from last week with CSA lettuce and Homemade Poppy Seed Dressing:

And grilled zucchini. I love grilled zucchini. I can't believe we never ate zucchini when I was a kid - it's now one of my favorite vegetables.

This was actually a fairly easy dinner. The rolls are easy to make, you just have to check on them a couple of times during the day. The jam is easy and we made it while having breakfast. We seasoned the pork during jam/breakfast time, too. I think the pork took about 1.5 hours on the grill but during that time we enjoyed our wine on the deck on a beautiful late afternoon.

As usual, the best part of our Sunday efforts (aside from tasty food): leftovers for 2-3 meals during the week, so easy week night dinners. We like grilled veggies cold and cooked pork cold, so there's no need to even reheat anything.