Lunch Bell

Being classically trained and all, you'd think I could make a decent sandwich. Well, I'll let you know right now; I can't. I don't like cold food. I don't like sandwiches. The closest thing to a sammie that I'll crave is a grilled cheese with bacon & sometimes tomato. Other than that, I'd rather go hungry than stand in line for a sandwich.

Naturally, this is unnatural and I'm trying to cure myself of this distaste of breaded lunches. It would save me money in the long run if I made my own lunch, and a sandwich would probably be the most cost effective and quickest thing to make on a daily basis. The possibilities for variation is also endless.

I put up a sandwich post several months ago, and my heavy hand with the horseradish sauce ruined it. I took a walk to train ride to Trader Joe's this time and tried it again. It was much cheaper than Whole Foods, and the employees are a lot more plesant to deal with.

Without further ado, here we go again with the sandwich formation.

I bought some artisan bread at a rest stop on our way up towards Woodbury Commons. It's a familiar rest stop because I've stopped there more than half a dozen times with my exes whenever we were on our way north of the city. On the weekends, there is a small farmers market stand outside with two or three vendors. I bought a loaf of garlic and rosemary artisan bread for 5 bucks. The thing weighed a ton, but it smelled fantastic. Despite my mother telling me I would going to gain even MORE weight, I bought it anyway and called it a day. Sometimes you just need to give in to what your tummy wants.

Artisan Bread- garlic & rosemary

Wild Arugula (Also known as Rocket)

I don't do mayo, so I bought some Goddess dressing instead. It gives the sammie some moisture and the greens a little acid.

This package of Prosciutto only cost $5! And I got nearly 4 sammies out of it. It's salty. A little goes a long way!

See? This was about 3 or 4 slices piled up atop my greens.

No Coke this time. I think I had some water with lemon with this meal. It was good. The bread was a little dry, but at this point it was 2 days old. With my 2nd sandwich, I made the mistake of trying to heat the prosciutto in the microwave for 30 seconds, and what I got was a stinky, steaming, overcooked ham-like mess. It was gross. DON'T TRY TO WARM THE PROSCIUTTO! What a mess!!

Truth be told, this was the last time I made a sandwich. I haven't had the time to buy groceries, and my busy season was upon me. When I got back to work on Tuesday, things are going to be different. No more $10 lunches, coupled with two or three trips to the vending machine for $1.50 Cokes. It's a lot of money wasted on food that just isn't any good for me.

I hope I have the stamina to eat right this year. I think a lot of my health problems stem from a very poor diet. What good is a cook who can't taste anything? Useless. I don't want to be useless and I want to hone my palate.

Here's to a new perspective on an old promise.