Just in time for summer! Which starts in June I know but the pools open this weekend and I’m a pool rat and pools mean summer and the pools open this weekend so this weekend is summer.
You get it.
This summer! We are going to keep cooking, but we are cooking light in two senses of the word: lighter food calorically, sure. It doesn’t feel as great to inhale three plates of pasta when it’s 95 degrees outside. But also, light on the actual cooking.
…I feel like this is a new trendy thing in the world, do you? Jams or jellies that are sweet but savory and go with savory stuff. I’m talking tomato jam on burgers, bacon jam (?) over pimento cheese, that kind of thing. Is it a southern thing? a soon-to-be-passe thing? I don’t know. What I do know, however, is that it is all of a sudden feeling like summer is ending very quickly. Jay and I were walking to lunch yesterday (there’s a taco place that’s mayyyyybe 10 minutes on foot from our house and it’s become our new Sunday outing) and talking about how the weather feels all of a sudden very different. I say that it feels like summer has broken, kind of like a fever. The humidity goes away, the temperature has dropped 5-10 degrees, and the sun is warm but not so piercing. 
It’s also the time of year where produce that was amazing 3 weeks ago is somewhat lackluster, like the sad dry tomato plants in our yard that are trying so hard to still produce fruit but it’s just not great anymore. The red tomatoes we get are still delicious, but they seem to not ripen as quickly, or if they do they’ll rot faster when we bring them inside.
Enter, green tomato jam. I love fried green tomatoes as much as the next southerner, but they’re unhealthy and a pain to make at home. Green tomato jam, on the other hand, is easy, just takes a little bit of patience, and lasts and lasts in the fridge. You can make a double or triple batch and can some, but it lasts so well in the fridge that I prefer small batches here and there throughout the coming weeks and months. I’m seeing lots of green tomatoes at grocery stores and our farmer’s market, so snatch them up and make some jam asap. This version is sweet, sticky, spicy, and slightly savory from a little bit of onion. I’ve enjoyed it most with crackers and stinky or really sharp cheeses, the sweetness pairs perfectly with blue cheese especially.
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You know what’s great about being unemployed post-college? 
Let me start over. You know what’s great for me about one of my sisters being unemployed? (she’s like, omg please stop)
The food and the babysitting, tbh. And the hanging out!
My youngest sister Julianne (Aunt J to those of us not really doing three syllables yet) graduated from college a few weeks ago and is heavily in the throes of interviewing and applying to jobs. She’s had some offers, is contemplating her life, and I’m thinking in about five seconds she’s going to move somewhere epic and leave us in the sticks forever.
So in the meantime, I’m soaking up all the time with her I can get. She’s also in the process of moving out of her apartment, which means when she finds massive onions and has nothing to cook with them she pickles them and brings them to me! Which is what happened here. I’m a huge fan of pickled onions and love that they’ve been coming more and more in restaurants, on sandwiches and tacos especially. Julianne’s pickles this time were particularly good, so I asked her how she made them. I have them featured as condiments in a few upcoming recipes for the blog, and I knew you’d be dying to know how the onions came to be in my fridge. (you’re like, omg please stop)
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I’ve told you guys about my grandfather, right?
The one that’s alive. This isn’t that kind of a post. Anyway. My grandfather! My mom’s dad. He’s the most salt of the earth dude you can ever imagine. Fishes. Hunts (used to). Drives my grandmother everywhere they go because thats.what.you.do. Definitely used to have one of those singing fish on the wall, and I’m not entirely sure it was ironic. Wears a lot of plaid. You get it. He also is a master gardener which results in massive stockpiles of produce coming to us each year, something you’ll never hear me complain about. …
Ok so this was clearly Jay’s idea. 
Anyone who knows 1. us, 2. Jay, and 3. Jay’s food history knows that he a. grew up husky (ha) and b. loves barbecue sauce. Like, loves it. I like it fine, but I always go for a mustardy or vinegary sauce. Jay, on the other hand, likes the ketchup/molasses-based stuff, preferably out of a jar.
Ew. To me, it’s way too sweet, and after a bite or two of anything with that kind of sauce on it I’m all…..WHERE IS ANY OTHER KIND OF FOOD GOOD LORD UGH. It’s really one of the few foods that I just can’t get into in large quantities.
But! There are other ways. Ways to make a red sauce that’s sweet but also tangy and smoky, super quick without simmering it all day OR buying a jar of something. And then you put it on tacos with crunchy vinegar slaw which TOTALLY makes up for the ketchup brown sugar base, and you have a taco.
A great taco.
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