viernes, 26 de octubre de 2007

Good Sandwich, Bad Sandwich


The kitchen still smells like burnt toast. Not just kinda burnt. Not the sort of burnt you can scrape off with a butter knife. We are talking charcoal burnt. Note: Do not check your email while making a grilled cheese sandwich at 1:00am. You probably already know this (I know this too) but I just wanted to share a little hard won wisdom. The idea of the grilled cheese itself was good enough, but the execution was definetly lacking.

I decided on a grilled cheese while doing a little bit of stumbling home last night. What I really wanted was a giant slice of pizza from the giant slice of pizza purveyors who normally cater to people who are stumbling out for the night. But I thought to myself "No, I have cheese and bread at home" (one chunk of semi-soft goat with a squishy mold rind and a gorgeously burnt orange on the outside, bone-white on the inside wedge of paprika rubbed goat-y deliciousness). I am trying to avoid late-night impulse purchases and practice general thriftiness, especially since the dollar has plummeted to $1.42 to the Euro!!!! Can anyone do something about this? A lunch date with Greenspan, anything?!?!

There have been some recent sandwich successes however. The most successful being an autumnal feast for the sandwich senses, (good adjective, huh?) a pear and brie baguette. I
was invited to a new friend's baby shower and wanted to bring something extra yummy for the afternoon tea-party. Very civilized. I cooked down some pears in white wine, butter and cinnamon and sprinkled some chopped walnuts into the gooey mixture. Then I spread a thick layer of brie on the bottom half a baguette and layered the cooled pear mixture on top. Cut into little slices, secured with a toothpick, they were a big hit.

The baby shower was very much a cross cultural event. The shower-ee is Australian and her husband is Spanish. Both parents were there causing much UN style translating. The food was a special blend of High Tea and tapas, crustless cucumber sandwiches next to plates of jamon and queso. The baby names conversation was particularly lively, focusing on how people in Australia would pronounce the uber-Basque top name contender, Aitor. I guess we will know soon enough (our new little friend was born a few days after the shower and was crowned Aitor!)


1 comentario:

Graeme dijo...

Great start to you new Blog.

It's always nice when sandwich fillings sit on the border of dessert - Beautiful!