The Prized Sandwich

I went to lunch with my friend Sue today for her birthday.  I was telling her about my next planned blog post - my favorite quick fix meal.  I call it my Mexicali Skillet (coming soon) and I make it when I'm really hungry and looking for something easy and quick to throw together - onions, peppers, olives, corn, spinach, black beans, cheddar, corn tortillas, spices. After I spelledf out the first few ingredients, she started to smile.  Not a "that sounds yummy" smile, but more of a "you're a nut" smile (I get those a lot from her).  When I was done explaining my "quick fix" meal, she said that in a similar positon, most people just make a sandwich.

It occurred to me that a sandwich almost never comes to mind when I'm hungry - in a hurry or not.  I really only make two sandwiches: a friend egg and carmelized onion sandwich and a caprese sandwich.

Aaaaaaah my love for the caprese sandwich.  This time of year I make a caprese salad, sometime with bread (AKA Panzanella Salad as previously posted) and sometimes not or a caprese sandwich pretty frequently.  The heirloom tomatoes available now are not only beautiful but so juicy and tasty.  And soon they will be gone.  So right about now I eat tomatoes like there's no tomorrow...literally.  There's a HUGE difference between getting tomatoes off your own plant in your backyard or the local farmer's market and those that you buy in the grocery store.  I realize that we can now buy tomatoes year round, but there is just notthing like a fresh, local, in-season tomoato (and I mean "in-seson" for us, not another country).  Once this season come to an end, I will have to wait (unpatiently) until the season comes around again before I make my beloved salad or sandwich.

Another "No recipe" recipe: sliced baguette drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and a brush of dijon mustard,  layered with buffalo mozzarella, heirloom tomatoes, and basil.  Eat it cold or heat it in the oven until the mozz just starts to melt - yummy either way!

One more note on the seasonality of food....The culinary school I went to focused on therapeutic and holistic cooking.  One of the big take-aways for me was the notion of eating foods indigenous to our area.  We also discussed what I refer to as "hereditary" eating - eating the foods that our ancestors ate.  It made so much sense to me.  My ancestors lived on a farm in France and ate whatever the grew or raised, and they lived long, healthy lives.  And I love cooking with all the vegetables that my long-ago family used on a daily basis, thanks in great part to many years spent in the kitchen with my grandmere - my very first culinary teacher.  The idea is that our bodies- these wonderful machines that know how to have babies and fend off viruses- also know how to process food that they recognize, and utilize them in the best way possible for our ultimate health.  I think this is why I make things like the Mexicali Skillet ( I should work on a French Skillet), because it's my instinct to work with all the fresh, seasonal veggies I love and create one warm, delicous meal (and if I can make it all in one skillet and save time cleaning pots and pans, that's just an added bonus).  For me it's not just physically comforting and satisfying, it comforts my soul.

So next time, I'll share with you my Mexical Skillet....while I work on a French version.