Le Sandwich: Croque Madame with Dijon Béchamel Sauce

Sometimes a sandwich can make your life.  True story.  And it doesn't have to be a particularly fancy one, piled high with vegetables and herbaceous spreads.  Honestly, just give me good meat and good cheese, tucked between good bread with a little bit of butter and mustard.  Forget the tepid tomatoes.  Forget the lettuce unless we are pulling out the stops and feathering in some arugula.  I like it simple.  Mainly because of all the time working in professional kitchens these past 16 years lunch often consisted of that:  good meat, good cheese, good bread, wolfed down while leaning against a counter.  This is the kind of stuff they don't show you on reality TV cooking shows.  (Oh, if there had been cameras following me around all these years, the tales I could tell).  Even at home with all of the time and ingredients available to me, I honestly just want some sort of combination protein and cheese sandwich, be it bacon and brie, tuna and cheddar, turkey and Swiss and more often that not I want it hot and toasted, oozing cheese all over the plate.  Only this time, eaten while seated. 

Grilled Cheese with Apples, Arugula & Fig Jam

Oh goodness, I've been gone far too long.  We really need to catch up, don't we?  First off I'm happy to report that the foot is healing nicely; just a week or so longer in the sexy walking boot then I should be back to "normal" walking.  Cross your fingers.  This also means I can ditch the crutches and go back to work in a limited capacity.  Last week I went back for four days and it was great; good to get back into the rhythm of things again, though I'm still taking it easy.  Plus I needed a little more interaction with humans than felines, if you know what I'm sayin'.  Speaking of felines, I adopted another one, making me an official member of clan cat lady, or cat woman, as I like to call it.  My neighborhood is chock-full of strays at any given moment and there must be some secret code among them that says "hey, go to her house, she'll feed you and if you're super cute she'll take you in."  A couple of weeks ago there was a wee grey kitten among the bunch.  Tiny, adorable and in good shape, he was hanging around the yard, making his cuteness known.   I didn't have the heart to let him suffer through the cold nights, plus my fat orange guy already loved him to bits.  So a trip to the vet and a clean bill of health means he's now snug as a bug in my house, wreaking havoc like kittens usually do - climbing up trees and refusing to come down unless you open 8 cans of cat food and call their name in all sorts of sing songy ways. whilst cursing under your breath.  And then there is the constant counter jumping - I even caught him lapping up a bowl of Sriracha mayo while my back was turned for 2 seconds.  Apparently he liked it.  But these are the small things; he gives good cuddle and makes me laugh all the time.  He must have known I saved his life because he follows me everywhere.  In fact he's curled up beside me now as I type this.  I call him Rocky. 

But enough cat talk!  (The dog people probably already dozed off.)  In between adopting kittens and shuffling around the house, I made a sandwich.  A really great sandwich.  And I made it a lot.  And I would have told you about it sooner, except my computer was in the computer fixing place for 8 days.  You know when they say they'll have it back in 4?  Yeah, that.  But like most things, this is worth the wait.

Grilled cheese is the best comfort food.  Raise your hand if you love crispy, cheesy bread.  Seeing as these are the two most important ingredients, it's key to use the best you can find.  Good sourdough from your favourite bakery will suffice, as will a sharp, aged white cheddar, or any other cheese that packs a decent punch.  I sliced crisp, sweet apples and layered them in once I had buttered and broiled the bread in all of its cheesy glory.  A slather of fig jam and garnish of peppery arugula bring this into grown up grilled cheese territory.  Remember that other grilled cheese with fig jam?  Yeah, this is just as good.  Bacon lovers, yeah, I'm looking at you, feel free to add a few crispy slices if you like.  Amen.  Now you'll have to excuse me while I get the kitten off the bookshelf.  He's eating the plants again.  Oy.
 

Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Apples, Arugula and Fig Jam

4 thick slices of fresh sourdough bread
4 tbsp butter
12 slices aged, white cheddar
10 thin apple slices
2 tbsp fig jam
2 handfuls of arugula

Butter the bread on both sides.  Fry all slices in a large pan over medium high heat, flipping over and frying the other side as well, just until golden.  
Remove bread from heat and place slices on a bakesheet.   Divide cheese among the slices.  Place under broiler and broil until melted and golden.  Remove from oven.  Put apple slices on 2 sides, dollop fig jam on the other two.  Put a handful of arugula on top of the apples and top with the fig jam cheese slice.  Cut in half.  Eat.  Makes 2 sandwiches.  Adapted from Flourishing Foodie

Seriously.  How could I say no to that face?  And those paws!

I Confess: Roasted Tomato Soup & Grilled Cheese Croutons

 As the years pass, I am coming more and more to understand that it is the common, everyday blessings of our common everyday lives for which we should be particularly grateful. They are the things that fill our lives with comfort and our hearts with gladness - just the pure air to breathe and the strength to breath it; just warmth and shelter and home folks; just plain food that gives us strength; the bright sunshine on a cold day; and a cool breeze when the day is warm.

~ Laura Ingalls Wilder 

Over dinner a while back, the conversation turned to guilty pleasures, of the food variety.  Seeing as I was sitting with other food writers, it was a little dicey...do I tell them the truth?  Do I tell them what has, on occasion, brought me great joy and comfort?  Do I spill the beans about my fondness for....Cheez Whiz?  I did and no one shunned me for the rest of the night, as everyone else listed something sinfully similar.  But it's true.  A jar of the orange stuff has been known to find its way into my fridge every couple of years, if I see it's on sale. (I like a good bargain.)  But before you lose all respect for me, be assured I don't spread it on celery or toss it on hot macaroni.  No, the only way I eat it is on hot, heavily buttered toast, as a bedtime snack while I'm in my pajamas and slippers and something trashy is on the television and maybe I have PMS.  Something about this cheezy toast makes me happy - it was a favourite when I was a kid and my mom would even pack it in my brown-bagged lunch, where it was devoured in the noisy lunchroom at noon.  Maybe I like that it takes me back to simpler days, when my glasses were big and I had a crush on Scott Baio; when I would rush home from school and watch Little House on the Prairie, then afterwards join my siblings around the dinner table, where we'd dish the details of our day and my mom would dish out hot, delicious food. Those days are so long ago, but somehow a little processed cheese takes me back there.

Grown Up: Brie & Bacon Grilled Cheese with Fig Jam

It's no big secret that I love me some bacon around here.  Like hard core.  It's even noted in my Twitter profile, along with butter and living room dance parties, to you know, dance off some of that tasty saturated fat.  While I'm still reigning things in when it comes to decadence, I'm nowhere near swearing off my good buddy bacon.  The thing is, if I'm going to have it, I'm going to make it count.  Rather than snarfing it off the baking tray, hot from the oven, and just wolfing it down like a crazy person, eating bacon is going to be a production, enjoyed occasionally and with fanfare- like dancing around the living room afterwards.