yum

My coworker Angela gave me some onion and roasted jam that she made and canned the other day. It was so CUTE, compact and nestled in a little jar, curled up in all its own caramelized goodness. We'd talked before of recession specials, making gifts edible and inedible. I went the inedible route and she got to work making jams and butter after hauling 25 pounds of jam jars home on the subway and canned every one of her jams.

I am a moderate consumer of garlic and a light consumer of onion. Angela, however is an ardent garlic fan. I wasn't sure I was ready for this yet - she had only just talked about an over consumption of garlic on her part, which she never thought was possible. I opened the jar and whole cloves of garlic starred back at me. Surrounded in the onion mix, it looked like edible amber. I scooped up a little in a teaspoon and tasted it and was completely bowled over. It was unexpectedly sweet and tangy and garlicky....almost like a spiced mango chutney but with a lot of kick. And to top it off, when showed me the labels she made and I might have melted from cute and tasty overload.

if garlic cloves were a rating system, i'd give her jam a whole head of garlic (which probably is the amount of garlic in one jar).