Birthday Dinner: Bread Course - Lion House Rolls with Fresh Made Butter and Cherry Rhubarb Jam

When it comes to some things that I make, I am a real creature of habit. I have been using the same two roll recipes for over 25 years! Really! I have never had a batch of rolls fail with my two recipes. If it's not broke don't fix it, right!? Well, yes, until I met and made Lion House rolls!!!

No one is more surprised than me to read that I now have a new favorite roll recipe! I have seen the "Lion House" recipe for several years, with great pictures, and I actually don't even know what came over me to make the change. It could have something to do with all recipes that I have found at Mel's Kitchen Cafe. I have made many of her recipes for several years and they always turn out perfect! Because of this, I liked how her rolls looked on her blog and decided to make her "Best Dinner Rolls" which you can find are here. Following her detailed instructions made it very easy. I used Fast Rising Instant Yeast for the first time and I also used half regular white flour and half white whole wheat flour. This recipe makes beautiful dough. It was like playing with marshmallows. You should make these rolls very soon!

When you have beautiful, tasty rolls, you need beautiful tasty homemade butter. I used the same recipe that I have previously posted about. You can find that recipe here.

I found the round butter dish at Home Goods

I couldn't stop there. Who would want a warm roll with fresh creamy butter and no jam? Actually, I would, but sometimes I just can't leave well enough alone! Our guests might really like fresh jam, so I had to do it.  

Note to self: Please do not make fresh butter and jam the afternoon before your dinner party! Make it the day before. It will still taste great the next day. Please, take a few minutes to put your feet up before the real work starts!

I have also posted about this recipe for Cherry Rhubarb Jam that you can find here, but I do have a new picture.

Enjoy!

Cherry Rhubarb Jam

When I saw this recipe, I knew I had to make it. I am a huge fan of rhubarb and especially paired with cherries. There are plenty of recipes for rhubarb with strawberries but I don't come across that many recipes with cherries. This recipe intrigued me because is uses cherry gelatin and cherry pie filling. I immediately thought that if this turned out well, there would be unlimited combinations you could make with different flavors of gelatin and pie fillings. 

The rhubarb and sugar need to sit for 1-1/2 hours, stirring occasionally. This allows time for the juices to release from the fruit. Next you need to bring the mixture to a light boil until the rhubarb is tender, about 10 minutes.

 This picture shows how much liquid the sugar brought out of the rhubarb

Next you take it off the heat and add the gelatin and stir until dissolved. The final step is adding the cherry filling and the flavoring. This recipe doesn't call for a water bath to seal the jars. You let it sit on the counter until it cools and then you can store it in the fridge for 3 weeks. I decided to make a half recipe which made 2-1/2 cups. This recipe can easily be doubled to make 5 cups. It would use a small package of cherry gelatin.

If you have wanted to make jam but it seemed to complicated, time consuming and the thought of trying to seal jars in a water bath scares you, this is the recipe you should try. This is the most foolproof jam recipe that I have ever made. You will be so happy with how good it is, you will want to make another batch to share with all your friends and neighbors!

 Enjoy!