food Leave a comment

Maple Bacon Onion Jam

Mason jars of bacon jam

A while ago, I was extolling the virtues of my homemade tomato jam to one of my coworkers, and he came back with a description of his homemade bacon jam.

Of course, I had to try making my own.

I found a recipe on The Kitchn that involved bacon, onion, maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, and Worcestershire (and shallots, but I left those out). I made two-thirds of the recipe, since my package of uncured bacon from ButcherBox was 10 oz and the recipe called for a pound of bacon. I got everything ready to simmer before I went upstairs to supervise my son’s bath and bedtime routine, and enjoyed the sweet scent of bacon as we did our thing. When I came back downstairs after lights out (having already checked on it a couple of times), I was worried that I’d over cooked it — the jam was a deep mahogany. As it turns out, it was damn near perfect, and yielded about a cup and a half of deliciousness after I hit it with the immersion blender.

It’s more of a reduction than a jam, per se, since it’s not really thickened… but that’s just semantics.

Whatever it is, it’s delicious, and I’m glad my coworker unwittingly put me up to it.

sewing Leave a comment

Sewist in the Making

Yesterday, after four long weeks, I finally got my sewing machine back from the shop. It got a long-needed tune-up, plus a few new parts and a new foot pedal. My Singer 476 is now working as good as new (I assume — it was a wedding present to my late mother-in-law in the early 1970’s).

Since I know I need some remedial sewing skills before I can make anything remotely fancy, I’ve set myself some basic projects to teach myself the easy stuff first. Today’s project: a pillow-style pincushion.

Pincushion process

Things I learned today:

  • How to thread my machine: mainly, to make sure it’s threaded properly so I can set the tension
  • Which one of the bobbins in my sewing box does not, in fact, go with my machine
  • Where the sweet spot on my new foot pedal is
  • How and when to slow down before pivoting a corner

Yeah, I know that a teeny tiny stuffed pillow isn’t much of a project… but I’m pretty damn proud of myself, anyway.

Next project: an envelope pillowcase for my son’s old toddler-sized (aka travel-sized) pillow.

Eventually, I’m hoping to be able to tailor my clothes and my son’s — within reason, like adding pockets and darts and making shirts skinnier — and make some clothing and home decor items. I have lots of ideas for things I want to learn and to try.

I feel a little silly, being so stoked about something simple like four straight-stitched lines… but everybody’s got to start somewhere.