Onion Jam- Done

I spent 4 hours today making Onion Jam. It is pretty damn tasty and something I really have wanted to do for a long time.

To see how it did it and the recipe, head over to Mmmmm, Dinner.

Onion Jam

Tonight I made Onion Jam. Onion Jam is a great product, but hard to describe. It can be a condiment. It can be a replacement for onions. It can be a flavor enhancer. I plan to use it on top of pork and bread. I plan to use it in soups and tacos. I have lots of plans for it.

To make it, I used Nigella Lawson's recipe for Onion Jam as a basis.

To start, you need time. Lots of time. Additionally, you will need a heavy, shallow pan--it is essential. A v-slicer, like below, is very helpful.
The first order of business is to slice, very thinly, two pounds of onions. I used three large onions and the v-slicer to do it very quickly.

In your shallow, heavy pan, melt on very low heat a Tablespoon of butter mixed with 3 Tablespoons olive oil. Next, pile in your onions and pat them down into the pan.

Keeping the heat on low, add in half a cup of dry Marsala.

Again, pat down the mixture.
Sprinkle the mixture liberally with salt.


The next step is Nigella's. Take a couple pieces of tin foil and create a tight cover immediately on top of the onions.

Then, put the real lid on top of that.

I cooked the mixture for 4 hours. I probably could have only done 2, but I had the time, and what would it hurt? I did check it once an hour and gave it a good stir.

After 4 hours, it looked like this:

Bring up the heat to high and bring to a full boil. Boil off all the liquid and ta-da, you are done.

Of course, it is now 10:00 at night so I wasn't too hungry, but it was tasty. I had a little bit, with a little bit of salt, on a piece of bread.

I froze three small bags of the stuff. Apparently 1/3 cup equals the taste of 1 cup of onion. The rest I threw in the fridge. Tomorrow I'm going to top pork chops with it. Monday I may use it in a soup. I'm pretty excited.

Some Good Starts

This weekend I was able to start in on a couple of my goals.

First off, CJ and I went to Hinkley Grand Casino. As trashy and depressing as it was, it is a Minnesota Tourist Attraction. We spent the night at the hotel and did a little gambling. Mostly, we watched Pay-Per-View movies in our hotel room. I'm checking this off as 1 of 10 tourists attractions for this year.

Secondly, I volunteered tonight for three hours for Second Harvest Heartland at their Best of the Best fundraiser in conjunction with Mpls St. Paul Magazine. I was a greeter and it was really chaotic and fun for the first hour and a half. The second half was pretty boring since everyone was already at the party. But, that's 3 out of 100 hours of volunteering.

Beer and Wine

Two of my goals is to try 20 new beers and 20 new wines. I realized that unless I keep tack of them somewhere, I'll never know which ones I've had. So I'm going to use this post as my tracking post. If you want to check back here to know what I've drank, you can. Otherwise you can just track my progress on the list to the right.

Wine:
El Portillo Malbec
Oko Cabernet Merlot (organic)
(3 wines I don't remember at wine tasting)
Pomelo 2007 Sauvignon Blanc

Beer:
Surly Mild
(2 beers I don't remember at wine tasting)

LUSH!!!

Since I'm now washing my face every night, I figured it was time to get some adult products to do it with. On a recommendation from a friend, I tried Lush products for the first time.

Holy wow!

First, they are great because they use minimal packaging on their products. Second, they use mostly natural ingredients. The don't test on animals and the products are made by hand in Canada, a first world country.

Oh, and it all smells good and does great things to my skin.

There are negatives, some of the products don't last very long and it is not cheap, but so far, it is very worth the initial investment. I also got two free items and four samples when I went to the store, which was awesome.

So far, I highly recommend Lush products. If you are going to try one product, I'd suggest one of the bar shampoos. I love mine so far.

So, I've been washing my face every night thanks, in part, to Lush.

Hmmm, does this count?

During the Superbowl, while CJ was away watching the game, I put in a documentary and crocheted him an awesome scarf. See...

Well, he thinks it is too feminine and won't wear it. So, I have a new scarf, but the question is, does it count as a finished goal?

Meanwhile, I saw my first of 50 documentaries. It was "American Pimps" and I liked it. It wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible. It is about pimps in America. I found it a bit one sided since they only talk to pimps and hoes. I wish they would have talked to advocates or police or anyone to give the other side of the story.

Completed:

1 scarf for CJ?

1/50 documentaries.