Fie Fie Foe Friday: Inspiration on a Platter

Damn near perfect Tomato Jam, from The Red Store,
 Cape May NJ

I get bored with stuff. Especially with tried-and-true recipes. That very fact ticks off my husband no end, because more often than not, I won't make the same dish the same way twice. No fun in that. I think there is always room for improvement, and he thinks once something is perfect, you leave it alone. In my own little parallel universe, there is no perfect. There's almost perfect, but never perfect. This could be considered a personality defect, acquired from my having been raised by parents who never even considered an A+ good enough. I'd rather think of it as having given me the sense that the sky is the limit. Because it is.

Carolyn, over at the blog All Day I Dream About Food calls it Compulsive Recipe Adaptation Disorder (aka CRAD), she has it, and so do I.

While on vacation at the beach, I tasted near perfection. Actually, everything I tasted at The Red Store, a restaurant, store, coffee and bake shop at Cape May Point, NJ was damn near perfect. Particularly, the tomato jam. Jersey tomato jam. The first time I tasted it was on a grilled shrimp taco, and it was an eye opener. I've made my own tomato jam a few times, fooled with adding lemon, adding ginger, but always looked at it with blinders on, I thought of it as a breakfast time oddity. Never considered the possibilities as a...condiment. It is sublime. A savory condiment. Inspiration on a platter, to keep going, trying. There. Can't stop messing with things. I did, however buy four jars of the stuff the last time we had dinner there.

I'll for sure make some tomato jam, before the season ends, but it won't be like the one from The Red Store, and probably not like any I've made before. Why not? Well, why not!