grilled swiss with strawberries and basil

I have been pretty good about keeping my cheese consumption to a minimum.

But there are those days (you know the ones) when the craving is so overwhelming I cannot stand it.

This morning was one of those days.

My husband is the par excellence grilled cheese sandwich maker of all time. Here I am trying to mimic his panache. I think I did okay - but in my craving-swaddled brain state I used a bit too much cheese and not enough berry/basil.  If you make this experiment with the amounts to suit your taste buds.

Grilled Swiss With Strawberries and Basil
Makes one sandwich

Ingredients

• 2 slices favorite bread
• Swiss cheese, sliced thin
• 1 large strawberry, sliced
• 4-6 basil leaves
• 2 tablespoons butter (or margarine)

Instructions

1. Assemble all ingredients except butter between the brad slices.
2. Heat a frying pan on the lowest flame possible. place one tablespoon butter on pan and quickly place sandwich on top of it. place other tablespoon of butter on top of the sandwich. Cover and cook until you smell the cheese cooking, about 15 minutes. Turn over with a spatula and cook another 15 minutes until the other side of bread has browned and the cheese is going out the sides.

avocado & lox & capers

Good morning.

This weekend was super exciting. A friend had her second baby and I was able to visit her 8 hours after he arrived. It reminded me of when I had my own son: being in the hospital with this new creature, so strange and new. Learning how to exist with a little, helpless animal, learning the personality of this addition to the family. Made me nostalgic.

Here is a simple treat - have it for breakfast, have it for lunch, eat it whenever you like.
Avocado & Lox & Capers
Serves 1

Ingredients

• 1 bagel
• 1 avocado
• some lox (as much or as little as you like
• some capers

Assemble. Enjoy. 

melted daiya sandwich

I have been hearing the praise of Daiya 'cheese' for some time now and have been on a search for a while now. You may think, Well it is not all that hard to find... and you'd be right. But my kind of searching is looking at my local produce shops over and over again until it magically appears... which it did just last week.

I bought the provolone and Swiss flavored slices and immediately had to make a melted 'cheese' sandwich. This sandwich was all I had hoped for. It was nutty due to arugula. It was crunchy and spicy due to pickles. And, most of all it was creamy and melty and sticky ooey gooey. It was perfect.

But was it cheese? Of course it was not. But did it taste like cheese? Again, I would have to say, of course it did not.

But it did hit all those comfort nostalgic notes you look for in a grilled cheese sandwich. I have to wonder why that is, since my mother never let us eat American Cheese, and this was a pretty close approximation to that very thing. With hipster undertones.

Grilled Daiya Sandwich
Serves One


Two slices crunchy, hearty, whole grained bread
4 -5 slices Daiya 'Cheese'
1 dill pickle, sliced
A handful arugula leaves, halved
2 teaspoons vegan butter

1. Place all ingredients except butter onto one slice of bread. Cover with the other slice. Spread one teaspoon of butter on one side of the outer bread.

2. Heat a frying pan and carefully place the sandwich onto the hot pan, butter side down. Add other teaspoon butter to top outer bread. Cover and cook on low flame for 5 minutes intervals, checking each time to see if the cheese is melting. Flip over at some point and brown the other side. When the cheese has melted to your liking remove from pan and enjoy!