Seriously, stop the presses.

A miracle occurred tonight (!!!) ~ and in the face of my blatantly not forwarding a chain email that guaranteed me terrible misfortunes if I didn’t share with 10 of my closest friends to boot!  Whoo hoo! 

Fresh loaf of pane!

So here’s the thing.  When cooking for uno (which I’ve been doing for the past few weeks), a person can accumulate a lot of material for repeat meals.  I mean, let’s be honest.  You can’t buy half a loaf of bread.  And for someone who doesn’t eat a lot of bread (add it to my list of ‘weird food quirks’) a whole loaf can be daunting.  And usually ends up in the garbage, half-finished, and growing a lovely variation of mold.

Last week I had a down week.  Every day felt like a huge struggle ~ always climbing up a hill, with the wind blowing full force in my face (it’s that story your parents tell you as a child … you know, how they walked to school up hill, both ways, with no shoes, in four feet of snow … blah blah bleh!).  So to combat that, I had people over or went out every night of the week.  It turned out to be a good week (other than work, which is a learning experience every day, but an exciting one).

I made a much better version of the South African Green Curry.  It was a doozy.  I finished it for lunch today, and was bummed out!

I made Plum, Pesto & Fontina panini sandwiches.  Twice, if I’m confessing my sins.  I tend to be that person who falls in love with something and then drowns in it.  Nothing was quite as satisfying as last night’s re-indulgence of that succulently decadent sammie.  (Yeah, I call them sammies.  I like it.  So there.)

But I couldn’t quite justify making the sandwich again tonight.  I mean, I wanted to, but I had all these garden fresh tomatoes speaking to me from my produce bowl on my kitchen table.  A girl can’t waste perfectly perfect garden fresh tomatoes.

An an heirloom?  That’s a sin.  For real.  There’s otherworldly judgement for that, I’m sure.

But the sandwich press was still out, and speaking to me (perhaps it’s all my time alone?).  I thought to myself, why not just use up all the little dribs and drabs and scraps and make a Monday sammie.

Feed me, Seymour!

Oh Monday sammie.  You are a goddess.

Here’s what I used~

2 slices of sun-dried tomato bread, buttered on the outside

Homemade pesto, a la Iowa Girl Eats, spread on the inside of bread

Medium heirloom tomato, thickly sliced (About 4 slices)

Fresh mozzarella, sliced ( I used 5 slices; 3 for the sandwich, 2 for the Caprese)

Asiago cheese, sliced  ( I used 3 nearly shaved slices)

Salt & Pepper

What I did ~

I layered the tomato on top of the pesto, and the mozzarella on top of that, and then the asiago shavings on top of that.  Then I ground some salt & pepper, and put the whole shebang together, and on the sandwich press. 

With the extra tomato & mozzarella, I assembled a Caprese side salad, with a wee drizzle of EVOO and a sprinkle of S & P.

I cooked the sandwich until it started to sizzle.  Then I got myself all set up with knife & fork & napkin & vino (obv!).  And then I took a bite.

And my world stood still.

And I tweeted about it, because everyone (well, y’know the people who follow me) needed to know.

I sent John a message taunting him with the deliciousness he is missing while he is a away.

I contemplated making another sandwich, because it was so unbelievable.  But I wasn’t hungry (truth be told, I was stuffed). 

All I’m saying is, this thing was magical.

I’m definitely making my Monday Sammie again!

** PS. I took so many pictures, but I’m using my old camera, because the man took the good one with him on his business trip ~ I’m trying my darnedest to get some decent images!  Most of them come out blurry, and not focused on the close up shots.  Super disappointing … but at least the insanity of the sammie made up for it!