September 2022: Figs
I used to believe that pizza wasn’t pizza without tomato sauce. Actually, I still believe that. Except for fig pizza! A pizza that starts with a layer of fig jam, followed by some garlic, some actual figs, and (yum!) brie cheese can’t help but be a winner. Arugula on the top makes it truly outstanding. If you’re intrigued by what you’re reading, you should check out the recipe in One Pan, Two Plates: More Than 70 Complete Weeknight Meals for Two, which is probably my most well-used cookbook.
This past year I mastered making my own pizza dough (see my pizza entry), but I lagged on making the fig jam element of the recipe because I had a jar of fig jam from 2021 (you may remember that my rules allowed me to use anything already in my pantry). Unfortunately, just when I was completely out of jam, figs became impossible to find. And then one week in September, there they were. . A whole container of lovely figs. I’d like to say a little about how lovely figs are. Cut them open and you’re transported to a world where magnificent beings walk the earth and magic is everywhere. If I sound like a nut, let’s just say figs don’t seem like they belong to this planet with all of its political, ecological, and health troubles. If you want to believe in a higher power, simply take a good look at a fig. And then to turn that fig into jam, you cut some figs into quarters, heat them with sugar, lemon, and vanilla until they fell apart, and BOOM, fig jam is created. Can you believe it? [Check out https://thesuburbansoapbox.com/easy-fig-jam/ for a good recipe.]
Ok, I need to make a confession. I did buy one jar of fig jam during the time that I couldn’t find figs. I broke down. I cheated. Sorry.
In the interest of full disclosure, here is a list of all the times I’ve cheated this year:
Cheat 1: Allowing myself Smartfood popcorn if I find kernels on the floor (and sometimes grabbing a couple from my husband’s bowl, claiming they were on the floor). This one happens a lot.
Cheat 2: Getting my husband to buy chips for a party because “it doesn’t count if he does it.”
Cheat 3: Fig Jam. This is the one I feel the worst about.
Cheat 4: Ice Cream (see next post)
