Can’t live without Thursday schmursday + Grilled caprese salad sandwich

As much as I claimed I’d like to be the girl laying under the covers watching movies and TV shows on her laptop all day, I am far from that. Missing socks taunt me. So do puppy dogs and thoughts. I willingly get out of bed in the hope that I can be more productive. Nobody forces me to do anything. I just carry on along,  like this is one big vacation and trying to shake off that feeling. We got work to do, sister!

But it’s summer and I just want to go outside.

Today I counted the number of times I’ve written in the past few months and I know already that it’s not as much as when I first started in January. I might have found a rhythm. It certainly feels like one. Again, nobody forces me to do this, and I don’t want to force it on myself. As if on cue, the sun came back out and I just want to take in all these days. To feel like this is another version of home instead of pining for one I can’t have as yet.  I notice I’ve been here for a year a lot more when things that happened last year seem to be happening again. It sure doesn’t feel that long.

Then I go back to the beginning. If I actually did stay in bed longer than the morning called. I would watch the entire (I mean every single episode) of Grey’s Anatomy. I stopped watching it because I got tired of people dying and leaving (if you haven’t already noticed, change makes me uneasy). If I ever managed to pull that off, I would eventually get to Season 9. Then I’d hear this:

The more we’re willing to accept what is and not what we thought…We’ll find ourselves exactly where we belong.

My line of the year. My work in progress from the moment I finish a night’s rest. The reason I can’t exactly stay in bed all day.

(SERIOUSLY? Seriously.)

AND IT’S SUMMER!! If it sounds like I’m yelling, it’s because I am.

 

This made the Thursday list of can’t live without because I’m a genius! I’ve made this sandwich three times this week (today being the third time) and I like it more with each bite. It’s simple to modify it to fit your diet and it sells itself, which makes me wonder why I’m trying.

Ingredients

• 4-6 slices of bread (a crusty loaf of fresh bread would work great in this recipe. I would’ve loved to use a poi {a Goan bread} but this local bread did well)
• 1 ripe tomato, sliced (I used a medium-sized steak tomato)
• 2 cloves of crushed garlic
• 1 log of mozzarella cheese, sliced (as thick as the tomatoes)
• A handful of whole basil leaves
• 2 tbsp olive oil plus more for brushing
• Light sprinkle of salt, to taste

Slice the tomatoes and place them in a bowl with the crushed garlic. Coat them with the 2 tbsp of olive oil and cover the bowl. Let it sit until you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Slice the cheese, the bread (if it needs slicing) and pick the basil leaves off the stalk. If you feel like you’re done, you’re almost right. There’s just a little bit more work to do. Do you like the sound my whip makes? Take the bread and brush both sides of it with olive oil. Not as much as you would do with butter but somewhere in between. Once that’s done, you can now start assembling the sandwich. As the Caprese salad usually goes, so shall your sandwich. First place some tomato slices on the bread, top it with some mozzarella and then add the basil leaves on the top*. I can’t tell you how much to put in each sandwich but have faith in your ability. Season lightly with salt (or pepper) if you like.

 

Now it’s sandwich grilling time. If you have a stove-top griddle with a press to flatten the sandwhich, now’s a good time to put it to use. I don’t so I have to make use of my handy-dandiness to get the job done. Set your stove to medium heat with a regular non-stick frying pan on the top. When it gets hot enough, place the prepared sandwich on it. Using the back of the spatula or a lid that would fit within the frying pan, apply pressure to the sandwich so that the insides fuse together with the melted cheese. Hold it down for 3 minutes or more if you like it grilled beyond golden brown. Reduce the stove temperature slightly and repeat the same pressure trick to the other side of the sandwich until it’s grilled and the cheese is oooey-gooey running out slightly from the sides. This should also take 3 minutes.

Your insalata caprese sandwich is ready to eat. You’ve got the power. Can’t you feel it?

Feel it!

 

(*You can also arrange it like: Tomato, cheese, basil with all three slightly overlapping the other. The filling might hold together better. I just thought of this and I’m going to try it on Matt’s sandwich in a while.)