I went to school in Grand Rapids, MI, which is where I lived when Alan and I met and started dating, and there is this restaurant up there called Marie Catribs (think farm-to-table seasonal and local produce, amazing vegan, vegetarian {and not}, options, made from scratch with some awesome middle-eastern inspiration sprinkled throughout) which I always loved and then became one of our favorite spots together as well. Anyways, besides the most amazing Turkish coffee and duck egg chocolate pudding, they have a sandwich called the Trenton, which is what we usually shared when we went there. When we moved back to Chicago, we needed some way to satisfy our Trenton hankerings that didn't involve jumping in the car and driving 3 hours, and so the TJ's egg sammy was born. I know it's not rocket science, it's just an egg sandwich, but it was such a food staple in the early, tiny studio apartment days of our marriage that I'm rather nostalgic about it and wanted to share it anyways.

We love Trader Joe's. We do about 90% of our grocery shopping there, and all but one of the ingredients in this sandwich are from there. Feel free to substitute whatever you would like for the bread, eggs, and bacon, but the cheese and mayo are key flavours, so no messing!

You will need:

• Bread - I recommend Trader Joe's Challah, but we had their 7 grains sprouted on hand, so that's what I used.
• Eggs - Free Range Organic Brown with Omega 3's (obviously, whatever you fancy, but please, free range).
• Bacon - we use Oscar Meyer's turkey bacon (the only non - TJ's ingredient), but TJ's has their own turkey bacon (which is alright) or an applewood smoked bacon I've always been curious to try.
• Cheese - TJ's Quattro Formaggio
• Mayo - TJ's Organic Mayonnaise
• Greens - optional

Start by frying your eggs to your desired hardness, I like over medium (one or two per sandwich, I take one, Alan takes two). . .

Indy gets an egg yolk out of this. . .

She eats it off the floor. . . her favorite place to receive food these days. . . yum!

Meanwhile, toast your bread and spread cheese on the bottom slice (we keep ours frozen, since this is the only thing we use it for, but the hot egg melts it). . .

Nestle egg on top of the cheese. . .

Cook your bacon (tip: we rarely use bacon, so when I get it home from the store I section it off into groups of 4, wrap it in saran wrap and put it in the freezer, then I microwave one of those when I need it). . .

Try to protect baby from bacon splatter if she comes and tries to steal your dish towels again. . .

Meanwhile spread mayo on the top slice. . .

Finally add your bacon, and eat up!

If your crisper looks like this too. . .then its probably applesauce time. I followed this recipe with small modifcation of using ground instead of stick cinnamon. I had a TON of apples, so I also doubled the recipe (it all cooks down so much more than you'd think).

* Quick tip: there are about 3 medium apples per pound of apples, and each pound makes about a cup of finished applesauce.

Start out by setting the oven to 350 F and preparing your apples (5 lbs if you're not doubling, so about 15 apples). I love macintosh for this.

I pretty much always use my apple peeler thingy for appley recipes because 1. its super fast and 2. its addictingly fun.

Cut your apple slinkies in half and spread the slices in a nice big roasting pan. . .

Don't forget to share with the baby! (she may make this face, but she truly does love apples)

Add 1/2 cup quality cider. . .

1/3 cup maple syrup. . .

And cinnamon. You can nestle four cinnamon sticks among your apples, or you can sprinkle a few teaspons of ground cinnamon, and then toss with a spoon to evenly coat apples. . .

Bake for 45 minutes, giving the apples a quick toss and rotating the pan every 15 minutes. . .

Remove from oven and pour into a large bowl and mash with a potato masher or wire wisk for chunky applesauce (which is how we like it), or process in a food processor for smooth sauce. . .

Enjoy for up to two weeks if kept in the fridge, several months in the freezer, or a year if canned!