It's a dull, grey morning and I can no longer stubbornly deny it - summer is coming to a close. The air has suddenly taken on distinctively autumnal feel, and I have found myself burdened with a number of sub-par tomatoes, ill-advisedly picked up from the market by my tomato-shunning mother, bless her. As I sit here in freezing in my scarf and slippers (granted, there's a good chance I'm actually cold-blooded), cranking up the oven to 400 degrees seems like a fine idea. So I have decided to coax the flavor out of those tomatoes by roasting them into tomato jam. If you could put summer into a jar and preserve it for the fall and winter ahead, I would, but this seems to be the next best thing.

Roasted Tomato Jam (recipe adapted slightly from Food52)
Thinly slice 1 1/2 lb of tomatoes. I don't think it really matters what kind; some of mine were cherry tomatoes, which I halved rather than slicing. Sprinkle 1/3 cup sugar on the bottom of a baking dish and layer half of the tomatoes on top. Add another sprinkling of sugar, the zest and juice of half a lemon, a pinch of slightly crushed fennel seeds (I happened to like this addition, but if you're not the biggest fan of fennel's licorice-y flavor, I would recommend leaving it out, since the flavor was not overpowering, but definitely apparent), a pinch of red pepper flakes, and 1/2 a cinnamon stick. Add the rest of the tomatoes, and finally another 1/3 cup sugar. Let it all hang out on the counter while the oven heats to 400F,  then roast for about 1-2 hours, checking every 20 minutes or so and stirring until the mixture has a jammy consistency. Spread it on toast and pretend it's still July.