1 tablespoon butter
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 small apple, cored and sliced
3 tablespoons fig preserves
1 ciabatta loaf, halved
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cooked (preferably grilled) and halved
6 ounces old cheddar

1. Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat and add the cinnamon and sliced apple. Cook until slightly tender, then remove.
2. Allow butter to cool, then spread over half of the ciabatta. Spread fig preserves on the other half.
3. Layer chicken, cheddar and apples on top of the ciabatta and top with other half. Slice and serve.

Makes 2 servings

3 cups baby spinach
1 cup blackberries
6 fresh figs, halved
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

1. Combine spinach, blackberries and figs in a bowl.
2. Whisk together vinegar and oil and season with salt and pepper.
3. Toss salad with prepared vinaigrette.

Makes 4 servings

There's a sandwich at Earl’s that I was craving today. I'm calling it The Jam and Cheese Sandwich, because it reminds me of jam and cheese sandwiches that my mom used to eat when I was a kid and I'd always think it was gross, but I think it's kind of grown on me. Basically, it's apple, fig jam, chicken and cheese on a ciabatta loaf. The "boulangerie" was out of ciabatta today, so I just got 2 similar little crusty square rolls instead. Regardless, I'm really fond of this fig preserves stuff I've picked up. There's a whole line of crazy jellies and jams and so on and so forth I'll be tapping into soon. The sandwich is simple, but unique, and definitely something worth trying. Of course, you could substitute the fig jam for raspberry or maybe even marmalade or something.

I also made a Black Berry and Fig Spinach Salad to accompany it. I've never had a fresh fig before today. The ones I bought were the freshest of the bunch, but it was obvious that they were all way past their prime. They weren't nearly as sweet as I expected them to be. I'm not even sure that I liked them at all. Dried figs are delicious and I know there are other ways of bringing out the sweetness in figs, but I think I'm going to have to find a fresher batch to really know for sure. I've been buying a pint of blackberries on an almost daily basis lately and since I figured they'd go so well with the salad, I threw them in there too. It was just tossed with a simple balsamic vinaigrette, my dressing of choice, for the most part.