Sandwiches for Sunday

Good morning Blogosphere!  I hope you are all enjoying a lovely weekend… I know I am, except for this liiiiiiiiiitttle nagging voice in my head.  You see, I am a chump.  Yes, a chump.  On Friday, I somehow let myself believe that I should leave work because I would accomplish the rest of my work over the weekend.  Work on a budget, no less.  I don’t know why I would be so stupid, but I somehow convinced my chump ass that I would do work on a precious weekend that I avoid like the plague on a plain ol’ weekday.  As you have probably deduced by now, I have yet to do said work.  Who knows if it will actually happen or if I will just stumble in on Monday morning with more Asian guilt than usual.

So yesterday was spent quite productively – depending on your definition of productive, of course.  I slept in until 11 am, a feat that has not yet occurred in 2010, and then spent some quality time catching up with my DVR.  After getting up to speed on The Real Housewives of NYC, Project Runway, The Big Bang Theory, and even some Bullrun, I decided it was time to start my day.  It was also 3 pm by this point.  BTW, if I were reading this blog entry out loud, I feel like Avenue Q’s “There is Life Outside Your Apartment” would start playing right about now…

Out I went into the real (rainy) world – I started at Hobby Lobby since I can never manage to get to that place when it is actually open and picked up some baskets I needed, some candles, and other goods.  From there, it was on to Target to pick up some essentials and the mandatory non-essentials. I stopped by a few other places and ended up coming home with lots of goodies. I spent a little while putting things away and then settled on the sofa again to watch some of America’s Best Dance Crew and some Father of the Bride that I’d DVR’d earlier. Important stuff, clearly.

Then it was on to a mandatory cleaning spree – just the important things though, I had work to get to. So I vacuumed under the sofa and changed out the shower liner (Can you tell I was avoiding work?) and even folded my socks. I never fold socks. I do not understand the point of folding socks.

So, after ALL of that, I was ready to at least look at my computer… and peruse blogs.  I found something magical though!  No, my budget work had not magically completed itself (if only!), but thekitchn.com (one of my favorite websites) is/was celebrating lunch week and had a bunch of posts related to weekday lunches, drinking at lunch, and salads and sandwiches.  Of course, I had to look through them and I think I found some great recipes.  I am debating running to the grocery store this morning to pick up supplies for some of these or giving in to my TacoDeli craving.  I’ll probably give in to the TacoDeli craving and end up eating one of these for dinner, but I thought I would share my favorites:

• I’ve never heard of a “Mozzacado” sandwich, but I would Facebook-friend whoever thought of this.
• The basil-goat cheese-artichoke sandwich listing here should come as no surprise to you all.
• This cheese sandwich looks a little iffy to me, but I am kind of curious to try it.  It looks like one that walks the fine-it’s-weird-but-it’s-awesome/awful-line.
• And c’mon, cheese plus apples?  Sign. Me. Up.
• No explanation needed.

They also have a giant section on grilled cheese sandwiches – now, if you really know me, you know that I make the world’s best grilled cheese sandwiches (I credit the Ved method for my unbelievable skill).  TheKitchn links to a list of grilled cheese recipes AOL has up on their site (which still exists, I guess?) and there was one on there that looked pretty good to me:

Grilled Spinach and Goat Cheese Croissant

Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion (about 1/2 pound), finely chopped
10 ounces spinach, stemmed, rinsed, drained and patted dry (leave a few droplets of water clinging to the leaves)
2 ounces prosciutto, chopped (optional)
3 ounces fresh goat cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
4 croissants, cut in half
2 ounces aged goat cheese, such as Midnight Moon, coarsely grated (or use Gruyere or Emmentaler)

Directions
Melt the butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until they are limp but not brown, about 7 minutes. Add the spinach, cover, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until wilted. (If there’s a lot of liquid, increase the heat to high and boil it away. You don’t want a watery filling.) Add the prosciutto (if using), and fresh goat cheese and stir until cheese is melted and the prosciutto is warmed through, about 1 minute. Add salt and pepper to taste. Transfer the mixture to a dish and let it cool slightly. Wipe the skillet with a paper towel, but do not wash it.

To assemble: Distribute the spinach mixture evenly over the 4 bottom halves of the croissants, followed by the grated cheese and pepper to taste. Cover with the 4 croissant tops.

Brush the grill rack with oil and preheat the grill to medium. Put the sandwiches on the grill, flat side down, being careful how you place the croissants, and press lightly with a spatula to compress the filling. Cover, and cook for 3 minutes, or until the undersides are golden brown. Uncover, and turn the sandwiches with a spatula, pressing firmly to flatten them slightly. Cover and cook for 1 to 2 minutes more, or until the undersides are golden brown and the grated cheese has melted completely. Let the sandwiches cool slightly before serving.

That’s also one that I’ll definitely be trying soon.  I also found a great recipe for homemade and healthy calzones.  I realize a calzone is not really a sandwich, but it kind of fits the theme.  Right?  Maybe?  Sorta?  Eh, it’s my blog, I’ll do what I want.

Okay, it’s probably time to start Sunday now so I can avoid doing real work a little bit longer.  🙂  Happy weekend, everybody!

Philadelphia and NYC! (Part 2)

Sunday was a great day in the city because I got to spend it with Veronica!  We started the day in Washington Square Park at NY Dosas – a cart that’s been voted one of the 20 best in the city.  Apparently, Kumar (the owner/chef) is famous for his Special Pondicherry Masala and Special Rava Masala Dosa.  (I had absolutely no idea what “pondicherry” means and I’m pretty sure I had never heard it before last Sunday.  Wikipedia tells me is a Bombay-Mumbai — it’s a former French colony that was “colonized” as “Pondicherry” but they reverted to the city’s original name in 2006 – Puducherry.)  We both had a dosa and samosa each – they were delicious.  Definitely the best food I’ve had when sober from a cart in the USA.  (Nothing beats a drunk stop at Roppolo’s, in case you were wondering.)

We had a lovely lunch in Washington Square Park and then headed off to find Mood Fabrics.  On our way out, I think we spotted Ross the Intern from the Tonight Show with Jay Leno but I can’t be certain.  What do you think?

So, after our pseudo-celebrity sighting (if you would even consider it that), we headed over to Mood Fabrics to be Project Runway nerds for a little bit.  Yes, that’s right – we played pretend for a little bit.  We picked out fake fabrics for our fake outfits and just acted like complete goofballs for a little bit.  I did end up finding some really cool gold buttons for my purple pimp coat, so be prepared to see that this fall!

Why they only had ten pieces and those of the least memorable outfits/designers was something we couldn’t figure out.  The store is huge though – there are three floors and each one is packed with stuff!

Afterwards, Vero and I headed to The Cocoa Bar, where we enjoyed hot chocolate, wine, and cheese.  We had the most adorable waiter who knew absolutely nothing and told us “I’m not sure, let me go check!” each time we asked him anything.  We thought we’d hit the jackpot when the owner walked over with our cheese tray – surely, he could at least tell us what kind of cheese we were going to enjoy. Nope, what did we get? “Oh! I’m not sure, let me go check!”  It was really endearing, though 🙂  They came back with answers every time!  The owner was a really sweet man who used to be a film professor – among many things, he told us about his filmmaker son and his movie, The Captainist, and how he’s helping his son promote the movie.  I suggested he name a drink after the movie, and he called me a genius!  Vero, you owe me a picture of the Captainist Cappucino when it comes to be.

NYC was fun, and I’m so glad Vero is thriving there!  Can’t wait to visit again 🙂

I headed back to Philly the next morning and finally got around to doing some touristy stuff that I’ve wanted to do for awhile.  Sush, Nikhil and I headed out to LOVE Park.  Surprisingly enough, the LOVE statue is really not that big.  It does make for some great picture making opportunities – kudos to Nikhil on these two:   **CORRECTION: Susheela just informed me that she took the second photo, my bad.**

Let’s just take a moment to point out the ridiculous $5 hat that I was OBSESSED with for two days.  I even debated wearing it to work upon returning from vacation, only to decide that I would be mocked.  I still secretly love it.  Also, huge shout out to Sush for letting me borrow her coat during my entire vacation since I left mine in my car… in Austin.  Genius.

After LOVE park, we headed over to the museum where the famous Rocky scene was filmed.  I’ve got a fun video from there that Nikhil is going to create for me someday when I send him the files, so don’t hold your breath, but there might be a second video… someday.

We ended the day with an amazing restaurant – Sahara Grill.  The falafel was so good I forgot to take a picture of it before I finished the whole thing… but I did snag a great picture of Casper, er Sush and Nikhil:

It was a great day in Philadelphia – I’m looking forward to ya’ll’s move out to the ‘burbs and my new room in your new apartment.  😉

So, to reflect for just a minute – I feel so blessed to have such amazing people in my life.  I’m not sure that I’ll always be able to recall where I met each friend or all the things we’ve done together, but I can tell you that I know they are all good people.  Some might say that you can only have so many friends and the rest are acquaintances, but I don’t really see it that way.  If I like you, I consider you a friend.  It’s pretty much that easy in my head.  I love how easy it is to pickup with friends after a year of not seeing each other, or months of not talking to each other regularly – that’s the real test of a friendship to me and it’s one that I hope keeps going as well as into the future as it has in the past. =)

Goodnight blogosphere!