After an insanely busy weekend, I’m almost glad tomorrow is Monday.  You  know how that goes … Monday is the chance to slip back  into a routine again, thank goodness!  Nicholas and I had planned a Mexican dinner for tonight, but The Husband was busy doing some work in the kitchen and that kind of punted that, so hopefully we’ll be Ole-ing tomorrow instead.  Here’s what’s on tap for our kitchen this week …

Monday: Tacos, Bean and Cheese Enchiladas and Nachos - tons of melted cheese.  ‘Nuff said.  Baking with Nicholas: 18 Carrot Cupcakes from Rachael Ray’s magazine.  One of our carpooling friends had a birthday last week and hit “the double digits,” so a belated celebration for her.

Tuesday: The Ditch Dog.  Martha Stewart dedicated a recent episode of her talk show entirely to hot dogs.  The whole 60 minutes.  Turns out she loves them.  And, of course, ever since I saw that, I’ve been craving them too (and had them twice since).  The Ditch Dog is a hot dog covered with macaroni and cheese, a recipe made popular from the Ditch Plains restaurant in NYC, and a hot dog that Martha deemed one of her favorites out of the 50 (!!) she sampled.  (You can read more about the episode in an article I wrote for Delish.com right here).  Also making Mararoni Salad, using a recipe I found on retro-food.com.  The Husband won’t eat it, but figured I could use it for lunch.

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I’m always on the lookout for something new to make for breakfast on Sunday mornings.  Usually it’s pancakes, since Nicholas‘ pancake rut continues, or a platter of eggs, bacon and toast.  Last weekend, though, I took a slight diversion with these Egg Cups.  I found the inspiration on Carmen Cooks’ website and thought they would be a great way to start our morning.

Nicholas is a hard sell when it comes to eggs.  He loves egg sandwiches, and occasionally wants eggs sunny side up, but only to eat the yolks.  And sometimes he pretends he doesn’t like eggs at all.  I figured I had half a shot with these — he’ll eat toast, he’ll eat eggs.  But will he eat them together?

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My sister, brother-in-law and niece came over for lunch this past weekend, and in an effort to keep things simple (as if!), I went with a rustic theme … make your own BLTs, a summer’s-last-hurrah Panzanella and … Tomato Jam.  Oh my, Tomato Jam.

I mentioned that I made Tomato Jam to my mom the other day, and she responded with, “Your grandmother used to make that.”  So, of course, I think she might want some, yes?  You know, to conjure up childhood memories.  But when I offered her some, that was very soon followed up with … “Um, is it sweet?”  When you say jam, right after the word tomato, it’s sort of a misnomer, you know?  Because, like mom, you automatically think it sweet.  But while it has a bit of sweetness to it, I don’t know if I’d go so far as to classify it as sweet.  I could certainly see why she’d hesitate though. 

The “jam” part is more so relating to the consistency rather than the level of sweetness.  If you can still find decent summer tomatoes in your neck of the woods, this might be worth your time.  It takes mere minutes to assemble the ingredients in a pot, and after that, it purrs away nicely on the stove without any more intervention needed from you.  It’s sweet, it’s spicy, it’s a hint of smokiness, it’s just plain good.

There are countless ways you could use this … I took pieces of sliced baguette and toasted it with drizzles of extra virgin olive oil and rubbed garlic.  Once nice and crispy, I spread a little bit of tomato jam on it and added a thin slice of Cambozola cheese.  So.good.  My mouth is watering now again as I type this.

So go on and celebrate the last dregs of summer … ’cause you’ll soon be wishing you could once the cold winds start blowing.

Hungry for what others have to say about Mark Bittman’s Tomato Jam?
Seven Cooks has been having it with bread and cheese as well.
Brownie Points has been using it on a smattering of sandwich selections.
Mac and Cheese is another Tomato Jam fan.
And Erin’s Kitchen used the jam to usher in the first day of school.

A year ago today … another good go-with-bread recipe.
Two years ago … in the pink.  This year, instead of highlighting Think Pink items here on Sweetnicks, we’ll be doing it over on The Voice of Mom.
Three years ago… all over the place.

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Any time I don’t feel like cooking in the kitchen, now I know it’s in good hands.

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There are some things that, after you’ve made it at home, you’ll find yourself swearing that you will never buy store-bought again.  Vodka sauce is like that for me.  Bottled just doesn’t compare once I’ve made it at home.  Straight marinara sauce is another, with this Ragu Bolognese being a favorite.  And now, the newest thing I can add to my list of never-buy-store-bought-again?  Applesauce.

After our apple picking expedition a week ago, I set off to find creative ways to use the apples we had brought home.  Or that was the plan.  We had picked enough apples that I could have made a bunch of recipes, but I made the applesauce recipe first, and that was the end of that.  I liked it so much, I made it again the next night, this time quadrupling the recipe.  Between me, Nicholas, Madeline, my niece Sophie, two neighbors’ babies and my mom, I knew it would get eaten up fast.  So now apple picking is on the schedule for this weekend again … The Husband loves apple cobbler, and Nicholas has yet to be introduced to it, so that’s as good excuse as any to go spend another sunny Fall afternoon at the orchards.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you my recipe for homemade applesauce, and hope that I can make a convert out of you.  For only 15 minutes of your time, I can nearly guarantee you’ll add it to your own never-buy-store-bought-again list.

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