Birthday Bacon Jam

I had been meaning to make bacon jam for a long while now, but unfortunately sometimes life gets in the way of consuming random pork products.  With some down time at home planned for this weekend, I figured it would be a perfect opportunity to play in the kitchen.  And it's not like I needed another excuse, but since Saturday was my birthday I figured a few extra calories didn't count!

For me, cooking is not so much a routine of following a recipe.  I generally look up several variations of whatever it is I want to make, then just go for it in the kitchen.  So, I'm sorry if anybody wants an exact recipe, but I rarely write down exactly how much of everything I put into my dishes.

I started off by caramalizing a couple medium sized onions and frying off about a pound of double smoked bacon....

2 onions, butter, salt and sugar.  Low-med heat for about 45 mins.

When the onions were done (a little darker than the pic above), I added the bacon to the pan and began mixing in the following ingredients; Brown sugar, maple syrup, pepper, cider vinegar and coffee.

(I'm loving my Neat Pitch Black coffee these days.  A stop at this Ottawa Valley coffee shop in Burnstown is a must if you are heading down highway 508 towards Calabogie.)

So, everything gets mixed in a large saucepan and briefly cooked down to intensify the flavours.

Let cool for a bit, then fire it all into a food processor and let 'er rip!  

Et Voilà...BACON JAM!!

Earlier in the morning I hit up Art-Is-In Bakery at the Kanata Farmer's Market and grabbed a Multigrain and Roasted Fennel baguette.  Toasted in in the oven for a couple minutes, then slammed on some of the bacon love. 

I grabbed my growler of Kichesippi Natural Blonde and hit the couch with the bacon jam to enjoy the rest of my relaxing birthday weekend...