reality bites

At the end of summer, I noticed that there was a trend of recipes for heirloom tomato jams.  Food bloggers were raving about the deliciousness of ripe, homegrown tomato jams and the sweet and acidic flavors being imparted.  I am a big fan of the sweet and sour combination in jams so I was sold. I imagined something similar to raspberry jam but with more of a kick.

So last weekend I picked up some ridiculously expensive organic tomatoes from City Super and downloaded a popular jam recipe.  Hours later I had a lovely, reddish-orange jam.  I grabbed a slice of sourdough bread, smeared on a healthy portion of my jam, and took a bite.  It tasted like sweet ketchup.  Well, maybe it tasted like a really lovely ketchup that someone had poured a cup of sugar into.

I went back online to check other recipes but they were all very similar to the one that I had used.  I then did a search for things to eat with tomato jam and came back with bread or bread and cheese.  I then cut a generous slice of Gouda and placed it atop the bread and jam and took another bite.  Yeah, still sweet ketchup.

I'm pretty disappointed and now I'm stuck with a couple of jars of insanely expensive and sweet ketchup.  If anyone can think of meals that can be made out of a pot of sugary ketchup, please let me know.