Oh, good grief, MaryJane...you've just made me fall in love with you (AGAIN!)!!! I sent my hubby out to get a couple of pounds of bacon the night I saw this blog, but then one thing and another came up and I just made it last night. We both HATE coffee, but knowing what it does for chocolate baking, I decided to go ahead and put it in. For those of us who are non-coffee drinkers, what exactly does "strong" brewed coffee mean? I decided to brew the coffee with 1.5 Tbsp. ground coffee per cup of water, instead of the usual 1 Tbsp. I guess it worked okay...I CAN HARDLY STOP SHOVELING SPOONFUL AFTER SPOONFUL OF THIS STUFF INTO MY MOUTH! I discovered when I was in the middle of mixing it up that I didn't have any apple cider vinegar, so I substituted white vinegar and it doesn't seem any worse for the substitution...see all caps above! I had one piece of cornbread leftover from a baking over the weekend, so this morning I gently heated the cornbread in the microwave, dropped a spoonful ( or TWO!) onto the split cornbread, and it was out of this world. Only problem was that in my haste to get the bacon jam into the food processor for chopping, I forgot to take out the bay leaves...I see that another commenter had the same mental lapse! Oh, my, the things that happen in the kitchen to keep us humble! I needed to simmer my jam in a saucepan for an hour and a half, though, so I had plenty of "bay-leaf-picking" time! This recipe will be my "wow the family at Christmas with what comes out of my kitchen" this year! Thanks, again, for all you do for US! I'm so glad you are lovin' the jam. Sinful, ain't it?! I hope the leaf pickin' goes well. I've heard of people tying bright baker's twine around the bay, but I've never remembered to do that ahead of time. ~ MaryJane

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