J is for Jam

Apricot - best made from fresh but dried apricot jam isn't too bad, although I am finding my Grandmother's recipe a tad sweet. It is excellent, however, for anything that requires a glaze.

Blackcurrant - My favourite with scones and if it is available, clotted cream.

Strawberry - My mum made loads of this each summer as we lived in the Garden of England and always went to a farm and did pick your own Strawberries. Although in my case if you had weighed me before picking and weighed me afterwards then the farmer would have been justified in charging my parents a little more. Whereas raspberries got frozen, the strawberries, after we had had enough fresh, got made into jam because they never froze that well. My grandparents made a different kind of strawberry jam which was frozen but was too runny for my liking. I prefer it now as it manages to preserve a fresher flavour.

Raspberry - The only jam that M will actually consume - at least he isn't fussy about pips. Also good with scones. I have had a long association with this King of jams - it was a key ingredient in the first "recipe" I first came up with : raspberry jam and salami sandwiches. Yum! Bleeeurgh - what was I thinking? It wasn't even nice salami the bright pink stuff sometimes referred to in British supermarkets as Danish Salami. I am sure the Danes would never claim it as their own. Nowadays, I either make Raspberry and Rhubarb jam or an easy one that Nigella has in her book "How to be a Domestic Goddess" (i.e. heat sugar and raspberries in separate dishes in the oven and mix).

Damson and Apple - a rare pleasure as getting hold of damsons is not always straight forward you usually need to have or know someone with a tree in their garden. My mother started calling her jam, cheese in this instance. Delicious all the same.

Marmalade - not a jam, it is marmalade, but very nice all the same. Yeah, I know its just oranges preserved in a similar way but it is never ever jam. Not in my book it isn't and this is my b(ook)log.

"Ooh, yeah! All right!
We're jammin':
I wanna jam it wid you.
We're jammin', jammin',
And I hope you like jammin', too."
Jammin', Bob Marley

J could also be for Jewellery, Jinx, Jokes