We were away for a little while, vacationing in the Southeast. Visiting friends and family, a beach where you can take off your clothes and just stand around in the water, mosquitos, humidity, etc. So we left feeling like we didn’t want to come back to plain old San Francisco. Sure it’s beautiful every day, but it gets cold every night! Then I walked to the market…

Though to be fair, I walked to a weekly farmer’s market from one of the places we stayed in Atlanta. But at our neighborhood market in San Francisco, to which I walked on a beautiful, mild, sunny, breezy day (after C played on the playground and our dog ran around off-leash frolicking with other city dogs), strawberries were on sale three pounds for a dollar (and a couple of days later, avocados were on sale eight for a dollar! Will the ridiculous produce deals never end?!).

I’m not saying we’re sold on the city, but maybe it’s not so bad.

Back to the strawberries. I really wanted to make more hand pies, but I didn’t want to bother with a crust. But I have been thinking about a strawberry balsamic black pepper jam since I made some with a friend, I don’t know, maybe five years ago? It must have been before we both had kids (or at least before we both had two kids each). I remember we were staying at her house in Mobile and she had loads of strawberries from a u-pick. We made and canned some jam, and ate some right away on crackers and slices of sharp white cheddar.

I have never canned jam before and have really only canned things on my own once or twice (and not what I’d consider successfully). I didn’t can this jam, but plan to keep one jar in the fridge for up to a month (dipping from the jar with a clean utensil to lessen contamination) and the other jar in the freezer for up to three months.

Straw-Bal-Pep Jam
Adapted from Gourmet, June 1997, as detailed on Epicurious
Yield: 2 cups
Time: about 45 minutes

2 cups strawberries, trimmed and roughly chopped
1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 Tbsp water
generous grinding of black pepper (I did 30 turns on my mill, but it could have used more. The recipe calls for 1 tsp)

Bring all ingredients to a boil. Leave on a low boil/high simmer for 30 minutes or more, until thickened a bit, stirring occasionally. Transfer to jars. Store in refrigerator or freezer.