Granola

I've been making this recipe for years. It is perfection! You can change it up with different combinations of fruit and nuts (pistachios and dried apricot bits would be good) but the original is always my favorite. This is more of a cereal granola. I like to eat it that way, in a bowl with milk; but I've also enjoyed it with vanilla yogurt.

Once upon a time I had a perfect trail mix recipe, basically a granola that holds  together in chunks more, so you can eat it with your hands instead of a spoon. But alas I lost it and haven't found another one yet. Someday!

For this recipe, start by preheating the oven to 300 degrees and lining a baking sheet with raised edges with a sheet of parchment paper.

In a large bowl, toss together:

3 cups of old fashioned oats

1 cup of chopped pecans

1/2 cup of sweetened shredded coconut

3 tablespoons of brown sugar

3/4 teaspoon of cinnamon 

1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon of salt

Use a small pan (a butter warmer is perfect) to heat up on the stove, over medium heat:

1/3 cup honey

2 tablespoons canola oil

Stir over heat until smooth.

Pour the honey mixture over the oat mixture and toss well to coat. Dump the whole thing out onto your parchment lined sheet and spread it out as much as possible. Pop it in the oven and bake it for 10 minutes, then stir and toss it all around; bake it for another 10 minutes and give it another stir and toss; then bake it one last 10 minute cycle. Take it out of the oven and let it cool. When it has cooled down, break it up with your hands and toss in 1 cup of raisins. 

Store the finished and cooled granola in an airtight container. 

Here is mine, fresh out of the oven, before the raisins have gone in.

Eggplant Parm

Oh my goodness. I haven't made this in years and I forgot just how satisfying it is. Eggplant Parmesan was not on my menu or shopping list this week, but eggplant was on sale and I couldn't resist.

One of the reasons I haven't made it in so long is because there is no way to cut this down. Unless you want to make something else immediately with some of the eggplant. Or unless you want to pay an arm and a leg for one of those tiny eggplants. Which defeats the entire purpose of being inspired by a sale item.

With an impulse buy like this, you need to know what else you need. Anything "Parmesan" has the same basic elements: a breaded and fried main component covered in tomato sauce and cheese. The main component can be eggplant, veal, or chicken. And some angel hair pasta and green salad on the side make it a truly great meal.

For this recipe, start by sautéing a clove of garlic and some chopped onion (I used half of a red onion) in a tablespoon of olive oil for a few minutes until starting to soften. Add in a large can (28 oz) of tomato purée, 2 teaspoons of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon each of dried oregano, dried basil, and salt. Cook on low for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut the ends off the eggplant and slice the rest of it in 1/2" slices. Dip each slice in a beaten egg, then dredge in bread crumbs. Heat a little olive oil (1 tablespoon or so) in a large pan and fry the eggplant slices on both sides until they're starting to brown. This doesn't take long, maybe two minutes per side. Add a little more oil to the pan as needed, but go easy on it as the eggplant will soak it up. You just want to add a little drizzle between batches so the breadcrumbs will brown up nice and not dry out. 

Spray a 9x12" baking dish with baking spray. Lay half of the fried eggplant slices in the dish. Spoon half of the tomato sauce over. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese generously over the top, then top with half an 8 oz bag of shredded mozzarella. Repeat the layers, then bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. If you use a slightly larger dish and have a slightly smaller eggplant, you'll be lucky enough to wind up with little crispy bits of cheese around the edges, like below. Yum!

For the single diner, this reheats well in the microwave.

Fried Okra

A.K.A. Little nuggets of deliciousness! It's hard to find sweet tea in Northern Virginia restaurants, but my local grocery store has okra. Go figure.

These are so easy to make and are a great appetizer or side. I used about six pods of okra for a single serving. Cut off the tips and the tops and then cut them into roughly 3/4" to 1" slices. Heat some canola oil in a small saucepan. Toss the okra with some buttermilk and then toss them in some self-rising corn meal mix until totally coated. Use a fork or slotted spoon to place them in the hot oil. They only need a few seconds to cook, until the coating is a lovely golden brown. Use a slotted spoon to remove them from the oil and place onto a paper towel lined plate. Immediately salt them generously. Pop in your mouth and be happy!

Eat your heart out, Chipotle

Okay, that's not actually the title of this recipe (it's actually Spicy Beans with Chorizo and Chipotle Cream), which I clipped out of Bon Appetit, but it might as well be. So yum! I cut the recipe in half so I have another serving waiting for me tomorrow. I can't wait!

I used dried beans, like the recipe calls for. A note about dried beans. If your dried beans have been sitting around for awhile, they're going to need longer to soak and longer to cook. And either way, they're likely to be firmer to the bite than canned beans. I threw the beans in a pan of water Sunday afternoon and let them soak until I got home from work Monday night when I cooked them for 2 hours, prepped the recipe and then refrigerated it, as noted in the recipe, to reheat tonight. With soups, dried beans can be really nice because they do stay firmer and won't disintegrate and thicken up the soup. But this recipe could easily be done with canned beans instead.

Don't get too hung up on the "chipotle" hot sauce. I used good ole' Texas Pete's, and I went a little easy on it because I'm a wimp and I thought this was going to be spicy enough already.

Then, just to make it awesome, I made some cilantro lime rice. Yep, just like Chipotle. I cooked some plain white rice (not Minute Rice) using a trusty recipe. For one serving, put 1/4 cup of white rice in a pan that has a tight-fitting lid, along with 1/2 cup of water and about 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a bare simmer and cover with the lid. Let simmer for about 12 minutes until the water is all absorbed. Then, to make it cilantro lime rice, throw in a couple of tablespoons of finely chopped fresh cilantro, squeeze in a few teaspoons of fresh lime, sprinkle in 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon of cumin and stir into the rice.

Sausage and peppers and onions

I know, I know -- such a fancy title. And whatever could be the ingredients?

This was one of our family staples when I was growing up. My mom would put a pot of this on the stove for what seemed like all day; and it does get better the longer it cooks. The onions caramelize and the sausages get a deep crust. But when you're a working girl getting home at six and then walking the dogs before starting dinner, you can cook this a lot quicker. I just happened to have 2 sausages in the freezer so this recipe is sized for two sausages, which makes it two servings.

2 hot Italian sausages (or sweet if you're feeling wimpy)

1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced 

1 largish onion, thinly sliced

This is really all you need, but you can optionally season it with a little salt and toss in some fennel seeds.

Brown the sausage in a hot pan. My tiny little 2 liter stock pot is perfect for a recipe this size. A regular size Dutch oven is right for a family size recipe of this.  Throw in the peppers and onions and about 1/2 cup water. Cover the pot with a lid. Cook until the sausage is cooked through and the vegetables are really soft. Add more water as needed but you want to cook all the water off by the time you serve it. I let it cook roughly 40 minutes tonight.

Serve on a good bun -- and pour a glass of milk if you used hot Italian sausages.

Summer Couscous

I accidentally grew an amazing cherry tomato plant this year. This would never happen if I were trying to grow tomatoes but I'm happy to be harvesting the first tomatoes now. They are delicious in salads and on sandwiches but I had a craving for this little number. This makes 2 girl sized side portions.

1/2 cup uncooked couscous (regular not Israeli/pearl)

1/4 cup water

3-4 cherry tomatoes, diced

Diced cucumber (about equal to the tomatoes)

Olive oil, about 1/2 tablespoon 

3 mint leaves, finely chopped

Boil the water in a small saucepan. Swirl in the couscous, turn off the heat and cover the pan with a lid. Let sit until cool. Add remaining ingredients and toss to combine and fluff up the couscous. Season with a little salt and pepper.

Spicy Sweet Pretzel Mix

I got this recipe years ago out of the now defunct Everyday Food magazine put out by Martha Stewart. This is addictive! And so easy to make. I cut the original recipe in half and enjoyed it for a week.

1 cup thin pretzel sticks

1/2 cup natural almonds (these come in a can by all the snack nuts)

1 tablespoon unsalted butter 

1 tablespoon brown sugar 

1/16 teaspoon cayenne pepper 

Heat oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking liner. Put the pretzels and nuts in a bowl. In a small saucepan (a little butter warmer is the perfect size), bring the butter, sugar and cayenne and 1 1/2 teaspoons of water to a boil, stirring constantly. Pour over pretzel mix and toss to coat. Spread out on baking sheet in single layer. Bake 20 minutes until almonds are crisp. Cool on sheet. Break up and store in an airtight container at room temperature up to a week.

Biscuit Chicken

One of our family favorites growing up was Bisquick Chicken. I still get a yen for it occasionally but I never keep Bisquick around as it goes bad before I can ever use even the smallest box. Which is fine because I can just whip up a quick substitute. Honestly it makes me wonder just how impatient we have to be to need Bisquick when the slow version is so easy to throw together.

I used the recipe for Homemade Bisquick Mix on food.com and eyeballed the ingredients, roughly as follows:

1/3 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons bacon lard

Ok, the food.com recipe says shortening but bacon lard is a perfect, practically free substitute. Every time you cook bacon, simply pour the grease through a fine strainer into a mason jar and store in your fridge. Keep adding to the jar and using it for all sorts of yumminess.

Back to the mix. Stir the dry ingredients together in a pie plate then mash in the bacon lard (or shortening if you want to be boring) until it has a crumbly texture.

Crack an egg in a large bowl and whisk it a little with a fork. Dredge a chicken breast (with skin and bones) in the egg, then coat thoroughly with the biscuit mix. Put the chicken, skin side up, in a metal pie plate. Dot the chicken with small pats of butter. Bake at 350 for an hour or until the coating is light golden brown and the chicken tests done with a meat thermometer.

I can only eat about 1/3 of a piece of chicken this size, so I see chicken salad in my short term future. And I'm eating my veggies separately because I ran out of room on this plate!

Baked Potato

Please bake them, don't nuke them! Most instructions say to pierce the potato all over with a fork. This is an important, not to be overlooked, instruction. I found this out once when I forgot to poke the potato and heard a loud pow in the kitchen. Yep, the potato exploded all over the inside of the oven.

Piercing is fine to prevent explosions, but an even better method is to insert a metal rod clear through the potato lengthwise. Any steam escapes out around the rod and the metal through the middle ensues that the potato cooks evenly and quicker. 

My mom has a set of stainless steel nails for this purpose. Gram had a nifty device with four nails attached that the potatoes stand up on. I just use my kabob skewers.

An average baking potato should take about an hour to cook this way at 350 degrees.

Grilled or Toasted?

I love, love, love a hot, buttery sandwich with cheese and pretty much any yummy sandwich ingredient combo. I call it a grilled sandwich - as in "grilled cheese" - but my mom grew up calling it a toasted sandwich. Toasted cheese? It just doesn't sound as tasty. But neither is really accurate, is it? I didn't use a grill and Grandma didn't use the toaster.

Whatever you call it, this was an easy, quick taste of summer, with fresh garden herbs and my favorite grocery store tomatoes (since I have a black thumb when it comes to growing tomatoes).

2 thin slices of crusty sourdough bread

1/2 tablespoon butter

1 slice Black Forest ham

Shredded mozzarella

Fresh basil leaves

Campari tomato slices

Dijon mustard

Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. When nearly all melted, add the bread and let the pieces soak up the butter on one side. Lay basil leaves on one piece of the bread to cover any holes in the bread and prevent the cheese from seeping out. Add the cheese, then the ham, then the tomato slices. Squeeze a little Dijon on the other slice of bread, then invert that slice onto the sandwich, Dijon side down. Cook the sandwich on both sides until golden brown and crusty. Cut in half on the diagonal and enjoy!

Tortilla chips

If you are hungry for a salty snack and too lazy to go to the store, this might happen.

And they might be so good that you swear never to buy a bag from the store again. Bliss!

To make, cut corn tortillas into 6 wedges each. Heat an inch or so of canola oil in a smallish saucepan. Carefully drop wedges into the oil without crowding. I did 4 wedges at a time. Use tongs to flip the wedges as they brown, and cook until crisp and well browned on both sides. Remove wedges from oil to a paper towel lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt immediately. Serve with salsa.

Eggcelent

When you forget you're making hard boiled eggs and leave them boiling on the stove for some indeterminate period of time, and they somehow turn out to be perfectly cooked. That's luck, baby!

Perfect iced tea

More proof that Northern Virginia is not a part of the South: most restaurants here default to unsweet tea and can only offer sugar packets. Sorry, it's just not the same! I need my sweet tea, or as we always called it when I was growing up, tea. Sweet was just assumed. This is my favorite and foolproof way to make it.

Heat a full tea kettle of water on the stove until boiling (or nuke 1 quart in a big measuring cup or bowl for 4-5 minutes). Pour the hot water over 2 family size tea bags (or 6 regular size) set in a pretty teapot.

Put the lid on the teapot and let the tea steep for 15 minutes. Put between 1/2 and 2/3 cup sugar (I use two of the scoops I keep in my sugar canister and I measured it this morning; it's less than 2/3 but more than 1/2 cup) into a 2 quart glass pitcher. You're using a glass pitcher, not a plastic one, because you're going to make this tea all the time and you don't want to stain your plastic pitcher. Pour the hot tea over the sugar, then stir until the sugar dissolves. Remember high school chemistry? I try not to, but this one thing turned out to actually be relevant to my life. The sugar dissolves better when the liquid is still hot, which is why you're adding it and stirring it at this stage. Then fill the pitcher the rest of the way with cold water and give it another stir. You can enjoy it immediately over some ice, or let it sit in the fridge for a spell to cool down more.

Oh, look - I'm reflected in the pitcher. It's a sign! I think I'll go pour myself a glass right now!

My favorite pesto pizza

So, the recipe for the ham and fontina sandwiches called for a mayo-pesto mixture, which means I had more than half of a container of pesto leftover. What to do, what to do...make pizza!

One of my favorite homemade pizza options is a simple combination of pesto, fresh tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. When I lived in South Carolina, I routinely grabbed a bag of pizza dough from a refrigerated case in the bakery at Publix. Strangely, now that I'm closer to the pizza mecca of New Jersey, I find it harder to get good pizza dough from the grocery stores. So I decided to try Pioneer Woman's recipe this time. I was so prepared to love this dough because it came together into such a nice ball that was sticky but still easy to handle. Here it is, ready to be covered with a towel to proof.

And here is the other half of it (the recipe makes enough for 2 pizzas), ready to pop in the freezer for a later meal. When I used that yummy Publix dough, I usually divided the dough in thirds with a sharp, serrated knife (that should have been my first clue, as I was able to twist this dough in half with my hands) and froze the other two balls. The Publix dough was supposed to make just one pizza, so dividing it into thirds made for 3 small pizzas right-sized for a solo diner. At least, for a solo diner with a feminine appetite. The whole thing would be right-sized for one meal for my youngest brother.

Pioneer Woman's recipe makes a good, quick dough with about the same consistency as the box version my mom used to buy and make. It doesn't have the same great stretchy, gluteny, crusty, pizza doughy texture that I prefer. But it's a good enough option if I happen to be in a hurry since it only needs an hour to proof. (My usual recipe calls for 1 1/2 hours, and I often make it ahead and let it proof overnight in the fridge.) And since it isn't so stretchy, it actually pushes out nicely to fill an entire half sheet pan (i.e., the biggest size sheet pan that fits in a normal oven. It gets called a "half sheet" because commercial kitchens actually use even bigger ones that don't fit in home ovens.)

To make this pizza, make the dough (or use your favorite store bought) and stretch it out on a sheet pan smeared with olive oil or a pizza stone. Top with a thin layer of pesto. It's perfectly fine to have spots that look a little bare. A little pesto goes a long way. Half a container of Butoni will cover a whole pizza. Top with very thin slices of tomato. Cover generously with shredded mozzarella. (You can also toss on some chopped up cooked chicken - yum!)

Bake until the cheese is starting to brown and bubble and the crust is slightly browned in spots. Pioneer Woman had me baking her recipe at 500 for 10 minutes; I usually do 400 for 15-20 minutes. Basically, you want a hot oven and not a lot of time.

Steak Salad

Why, yes, that leftover steak was delicious on a salad.

Fill a plate with whatever lettuce you have on hand. I had iceberg, romaine, and red leaf.* Add chopped red bell pepper, thin slices of red onion, chopped tomatoes, and shredded Parmesan cheese. Top with bite-size pieces of steak. Drizzle with bottled balsamic vinaigrette.

*Don't forget to wash your greens. But who wants a soggy salad? Shake off excess water in the sink, then lay the leaves on a kitchen towel and roll them up tight, pressing down. This works great for fresh herbs as well.

Grilled Steak and Onion Sandwich

This was dinner tonight and it's a keeper.

Skirt steak is already a small piece of meat because it's so thin, so cutting it down to a single serving size before cooking doesn't work well as the meat will overcook. And overcooked skirt steak = tough = blech. So even if you're making this for one, just cook the whole pound of skirt steak.

I like to marinade in a plastic bag. So easy to dump all the ingredients in the bag, smush them around with your hand, then drop in the meat and smush it around; seal and let sit. And then just toss the bag. ("Smush" is a very technical cooking term...)

Sigh. The gas grill wouldn't light. So, I just popped this under the broiler on a sheet pan with a rack set on it for the same amount of time. Perfectly cooked.

No food processor, no problem! It's not as if finely diced only became a thing when food processors were invented. You're not chopping that much, so just start chopping with a good chef's knife, first in one direction and then the other, until you get the consistency/size you want.

I tasted the skirt steak when it came out of the broiler and, wow, that's a lot of vinegar. And then there is more vinegar in the onion mixture. But surprise! When all that vinegar gets together inside a sandwich, it's actually perfect.

I didn't have arugula on hand, so I just used another lettuce - red leaf, I think - that I did have in the fridge. I used sourdough bread, and instead of Parm shavings, I had some "fancy" shredded Parm (thanks, Aunt Cindy, for your beach leftovers) that I just sprinkled over the sliced steak.

I think the rest of the steak is going to be delicious over some salad with balsamic vinaigrette.

Kitchen help

It's always a good idea to keep a clean up crew on stand by, just in case.

Protect your hands!

Those recipes that start off on the stovetop in a skillet and then move to the oven to finish cooking are great...right up until the moment you forget that the skillet was in the oven and, without thinking, reach over and grab the handle. Yikes! Been there, burnt that. Here's my simple solution: instead of grabbing a hot pad to take the skillet out of the oven, slip an oven mitt over the handle, then leave it there. It will remind you that the pan was in the oven and it will protect you from the blazing hot metal if you do reach over and grab it.

Grilled Corn with Onion & Chile Butter

From this month's issue of Bon Appetit, there's a recipe for Grilled Corn on the Cob with a Spring Onion and Sesame-Chile Butter. I was too lazy to walk out to the grill and stand there for 30 minutes, so I cooked mine on a grill pan on the stove. It got a little smoky inside, but this would be something I'd do again if I were grilling other things (outside) and wanted to add corn to the mix. (My other favorite way to cook corn on the grill is to shuck the corn, and wrap it in foil with a pat or two of butter and some sprigs of dill.) I charred the outside pretty good, but unlike the picture in the link the kernels inside weren't charred at all, just perfectly tender. I can't tell if the grilling made the corn sweeter or if this was just a good, sweet batch of corn. I mixed up some of the butter, but skipped the fancy ingredient and just went with all red pepper flakes. The spice of the pepper with the sweet corn was a yummy combo. I mashed together with a fork:

About 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter
About 1/3 of a green onion, grilled next to the corn for a few minutes until soft and then sliced thin
Half a dozen shakes of the red pepper flakes spice container
A generous sprinkling of salt and pepper

Phase 2 of dinner is still a couple of hours away, the result of poor planning and failure to check my recipe ahead and notice that I needed to marinate for a couple of hours before tossing in the oven for an hour. So it's a good thing I had a delicious ear of corn to eat to tide me over!

Packing a sandwich

Taking a lunch to the office is far more economical than going out to eat. But a freshly made sandwich can't be beat. Soggy bread and limp veggies are just icky. So when I pack a sandwich for the office, here's what it looks like (before the lids are closed):

• Bread in a baggie or Tupperware sandwich keeper. When I pop my lunch bag into the fridge at work, I first pull out the container with the bread. That way, I have nice soft, room temperature bread at lunchtime.
• Condiments in tiny Tupperware midgets or smidgets containers.
• Lunch meat and cheeses can live together until lunchtime.
• Fresh veggies stay in their own world until lunchtime so they keep their crispness and don't sop up moisture from other sandwich participants.

At lunchtime, it takes about 30 seconds to pull everything out and make a fresh sandwich, with all of the ingredients the right temperature and everything as soft or crispy as it should be.

Better yet, because everything stays separate until I'm ready to actually make and eat the sandwich, I can prep a whole week's worth of sandwich ingredients on Sunday and save time and energy during the week.

Tom Collins

Nothing says summertime like lemonade! And to make it extra special, extra refreshing, and extra grown-up, nothing says summertime lemonade like a Tom Collins. Ahh...

Here's my recipe for 1 tall, refreshing glass of summer.

Dump a tablespoonful of sugar into a tall tumbler.
Squeeze in the juice of half a lemon, using a strainer so you don't get any seeds.
Stir or swirl until the sugar dissolves.
Pour in 1 or 2 tablespoons of London Dry gin.
Fill the glass 2/3 full with ice.
Top off the glass with club soda. Those little cans are perfect!
Give it all a little stir with the handle of an iced tea spoon.
Sit on your porch or patio and enjoy!

Kitchen tips

Here are some of my favorite tips, especially when cooking for one person.

Cutting down recipes is easy. Anyone can take a recipe that “serves 2” and cut the ingredients in half. Recipes that make four servings are just as easy to cut down. Anything more than that becomes more challenging and may not turn out as well. Cooking times usually stay the same, unless the recipe is, say, a quiche or casserole that needs to cook until the center is set or heated. Smaller portions of these recipes take less time than their full-size counterparts; but one chicken breast will take just as long to cook through as four chicken breasts placed side by side.

Recipes that freeze well are great for solo diners. Simply make the recipe, divide into individual servings, and freeze. Quart size freezer bags are perfect for this. Most soups and casseroles freeze well.

Shopping for one can seem daunting, especially when it comes to buying meat. Most butcher counters in grocery stores will gladly make a smaller package if you ask. For everything but roasts, I generally prefer to buy the family packs, though. They’re usually cheaper, and I can stock my freezer well by dividing individual chicken breasts or pork chops in quart size freezer bags as soon as I get home.

Splurge! You’re cooking for one, so an occasional good steak or expensive seafood is more affordable than if you wanted to make the same thing for a family.

Using the right size cookware is important. Most things will cook best if they are not crowded in the pan and, conversely, don’t have excessive space around them. Over the years, I have collected smaller sizes of cookware – a wok for one, a one-cup saucepan, a 1.5 liter stock pot, 6” pie plates.  Items like these can be easily found in the kitchen section of discount stores like Marshall’s and TJ Maxx and they are in frequent use in my kitchen.

Another workhorse in my kitchen is a metal pie tin. This holds far more entrees than desserts in my house. When I need to bake a piece of chicken or fish and the recipe calls for placing the protein on a baking sheet, I use a pie tin perfectly sized for one serving.

Speaking of pie, recipes for baked goods can be tricky to cut in half or fourths. I’ve had very mixed results. Baking is much more precise than cooking, so small differences in the proportions can throw everything off. The solution? Make the whole recipe and share with friends!

When a recipe calls for one egg and you want to cut the recipe in half or in fourths, simply break the egg into a small custard bowl, then whisk it with a fork until the yolk and white are well mixed; then, either scoop or pour out roughly the fraction you need. Since the actual size of individual eggs varies, if you’re a little off on your fraction, it should not make much of a difference in the recipe.

If you like to cook with fresh herbs, the easiest thing is to simply grow some in your garden or in pots. Then you can easily snip the small amount you need. Another option is to buy a small bunch at the grocery store, use what you need for the recipe, and then hang the rest of the herb sprigs, tied with some twine, from a knob or hook in your kitchen until the leaves are totally dry. Pull the dried leaves off and store in an airtight container until you need them for another recipe. If you grow herbs outside, this is a good way to get the most out of those herbs that will not winter over.

Years ago, I sold Tupperware and I bought a set of their Fridge Mates containers. They really work to extend the life of fruits and vegetables, which is very helpful when you’re a solo diner. A Tupperware Salad Keeper makes lettuces last far longer than any other method I’ve found. (Don’t get me started on a pantry full of clear storage containers and a label maker!)

Ham & Fontina Sourdough Sandwich

I made this for dinner last night and it was oh-so-good. Here is the Original recipe from Southern Living, which makes 4 sandwiches.

I eyeballed the ingredients for the mayo mixture to cut it down to a more reasonable amount for 1 sandwich and still have plenty leftover for a few sandwiches today and during the week. Measurements below are for 1 sandwich.

2 good teaspoonfuls mayonnaise
1 small teaspoonful pesto sauce (I use Butoni, found in the refrigerated section)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 slices sourdough bread
1 slice Fontina cheese
4 thin strips of red bell pepper
3 thin slices of deli ham
3 or 4 basil leaves
1 leaf of romaine lettuce

Stir mayo, pesto, and lemon juice together in a small bowl. Spread on both slices of bread. Layer remaining ingredients on bread to make sandwich. Cut in half and enjoy!