When I was living in Maine, a friend not known for her finesse in the kitchen emptied a jar of Stonewall Kitchen’s Roasted Garlic Onion Jam onto a block of cream cheese, opened a box of Carr’s water crackers, and said, “You have to taste this. It’s incredible.” It’s still one of the cleverest culinary arrangements I’ve come across.

I’ve tweaked the variables over the years: goat cheese instead of cream cheese, which adds a tanginess that plays well with the caramelized bits of roasted garlic and onion, and Neva-Betta crackers for their pleasing thickness and slightly powdery feel. Truly transporting.

I’ve also paired the jam—born in a home kitchen in Hampton, New Hampshire—with crumbly Shropshire cheese for a pub-lunch effect and slathered it (with mustard to temper the sweetness) on roast-pork sandwiches. But I always come back to the jam-cracker-goat-cheese trio. I don’t get to Maine much anymore, but whenever I see that square jar of roasted-garlic onion jam I think of her, and I don’t feel so far away.

Stonewall Kitchen’s Roasted Garlic Onion Jam is available at Balducci’s stores and online at stonewallkitchen.com for about $7.50 a jar.