We be jammin.

So, I am unemployed again. My brief stint as a member of the temporary work force was like a bad date. I was out of the house, but I wasn't in love. So, here I am with an abundance of free time. I recently ate a cherry and an almond in the same bite and was like "I want to make a 100% homemade pb&j!" I executed (literally, so bloody!) step one in this process by making cherry jam. Here is my step by step recipe that I stole and adopted from other recipes on the internets. First you want to purchase cherries and wash them. I got bing cherries for $2.99 a pound at my local corner farmer's market store in the Mission. Very cheap and delicious.

Then you want to, well first you want to buy a cherry pitter. Highly recommended $13 purchase. You can also use it for olives. Anyway, pit all of your cherries. And make sure that all of the pits actually shoot through the center of the cherry. I had a few hangers on that I discovered later.

You also want to add a good amount of citrus. I didn't have a microplane for zesting so I peeled just the yellow part off of two lemons and finely diced it. I also squeezed their juice which I added to the pot. My jam came out really lemony which I like but you can cut that down to 1 lemon if you like.

You want to chop about 3/4 of your cherries and put them in a big stock pot (it gets real bubbly so you want room) with the lemon stuff. I added about a cup of rum. Some other recipes recommend kirsch at the end of the recipe but I mixed it up. That will need to cook for about 15 minutes until everything is all soggy. Stir frequently. Then you want to add what looks to be an absurd amount of sugar. I had 3 lbs of cherries and I used about 3 cups of sugar. It will get very bubbly, keep stirring on medium heat for about a half hour. I heard about an "am I done" test where you put a white plate in the freezer for about 10 mins. Put a teaspoon of the jam on the plate and put back in the fridge for 5 mins. If it looks jelly-like you're good to go.

The problem I had was that no one told me that it wouldn't actually look like jam when it's done. It will still be "wet." It will jam up in the jam jar. When it's still warm put it in your previously boiled jars (just put all of your jars and lids in another big pot and boil for a bit. Leave fully submerged in water until you're ready to fill the jars). Put the lids on and refrigerate forever.

Voila!