Cookie quickie

So, eventually, I will make Peanut Butter Nutella Swirl cookies as the recipe is written. I mean, I love peanut butter cookies. I love Nutella. I will bake these cookies


Eventually.


But this past weekend, it was hot. And when it's hot, I don't like to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Especially since my kitchen it so small.


I still needed to make some cookies, though, for a couple who just had a baby. We were going to visit them before going to a concert in Columbus, and I didn't want to show up empty handed.


I had some peanut butter cookie mix in the pantry. Bought it with a coupon for a song. So I added the water, oil and eggs as directed, and stirred.


Then I warmed up the last of my open jar of Nutella and mixed that in, too.


I probably could have used more Nutella, but the cookies were so good, my boyfriend almost scolded me for never having made them for him. :)

Queso Fundido with Chorizo

Sometimes, all I want for dinner is appetizers.

Sometimes, a dip will just just fine. Especially if it's a hearty dip.

So one Friday at the end of a particularly bad week, I made this queso fundido with chorizo. Because I really do enjoy melted cheese and sausage and some day, I'll get it right.

Doesn't it look tasty?

I stopped by the grocery store to pick up the things I would need for this dip. Cilantro, a jalapeno, chorizo (on which I could use a coupon!), a tomato and cheese.

After picking up the produce, I went to the special cheese case. Surely, they must have Mexican cheese, I thought.

Um, not so much.

I circled that case twice. And then also checked in the aisle with the rest of the cheeses. And then also checked the Mexican food aisle.

My grocery store doesn't carry Chihuahua, quesadilla or asadero cheeses.

So I got some monterry jack and cheddar, the suggested substitue.

I cut the recipe in half since it was just going to be me.

I do use a cast iron skillet.

I also didn't dice the chorizo. Have you ever tried to cut up raw chorizo? It has never worked for me, my friend. It always desintigrates into a crumbly, oily mess. So I avoid this heartache from the get go and just take the casing off to crumble and cook the sausage.

I cook the sausage for the recommended amount of time. I cook the onion and tomatoes for longer than suggested because I really do like them broken down. Plus I'm trying to grate cheese at the same time, and when I'm trying to prepr food at the same time I'm trying to cook food, I just turn down the heat and let it go longer to buy myself time.

I chose to add the tequila. One, because I had some, and two, because fondue needs alcohol. Ask the Swiss. It just usually happens to be white wine or beer. Whatever. Tequila will work here.

The problem is, fondue usually also has flour to make a roux.

So I threw in the cheese, a little more than the recipe called for because that's me. And started stirring to melt it in.


I melted just like cheese does. It did not, however, turn out anything like a fondue. I ate it straight out of the cast iron skillet, hoping that would keep it hot and melty.

Looks pretty close to how it's supposed to.

Not really.


I mean, it stayed as malleable as melted cheese stays once it has been melted. And it tasted good! I little more stuff in my cheese than I like, but it was tasty. It just wasn't the best for dipping.


Conclusion: See about turning it into an actual fondue. Like, in the fondue pot. Or make it, put it over tortilla chips, and serve it like nachos.

Cheddar, Bacon, Ranch Dip

Mom decided to have people (read: family) over for Mother's Day.

Being a good guest, I asked what I should bring.

First she started going on about this fantastic salsa she had had with roasted tomatos and black bean. So you want me to bring salsa, I asked, knowing full well I would just go to the store and buy some. I'm not roasting my own tomatos, sorry. She eventually decided I should bring a dip -- something to munch on before dinner was actually served.

Well, heck, no problem!

I decided to take the rest of the candy apple dip I had left over, so I needed to make something savory.

I went with this dip.

I didn't realize that I had actually already eaten this dip until I made it. The picture looks much different from real life; you can hardly see the green of the ranch dip in the photo. But once I started combining all the ingredients into a giatn tupperware container (because why dirty an extra bowl?), I remembered a friend had brought this on a trip to Gatlinburg.

The crack. I forgot to take my camera, so imagine is greener and that's how mine looked.

Anyway, I mixed up all the ingredients as directed. I eyeballed the amount of cheese because it was essentially half the bag. (I did buy pre-shredded cheese for this, although I much prefer the taste of cheese I grate myself.) I let it sit overnight as directed.

The recipe says you can use either veggies or chips for dipping in it. I decided to go with a bit of each since I at least like to offer the option of pretending to the healthy. I brought tortilla chips and celery. Celery is by no means my favorite vegetable, but this dip is pretty substantial and I figured a stick of celery is both rigid and curved, and thus good for dipping.

We ran out of dip. :)

Conclusion: Calling it "crack" is appropriate since it is rather addicting. Although I don't like running on out things, it's a good thing I didn't double the batch because then no one would have had room for dinner.

Apple, Cranberry, Ginger Cocktail

I used to work in newspapers.

Due to my training as a journalist, I eschew the Oxford/serial comma.

I figure any misunderstanding can be avoided by rephrasing the sentence. And obviously with lists in which each item is multiple words, you want the comma before the "and". After that, the reader is being purposefully obtuse.

I say this not to spark a debate on grammar and punctuation, which I know won't happen since no one comments on my blog posts, but rather to emphasize that there are lists in which commas are absolutely nescessary to comprehension.

The example here in this recipe.

Now, when I'm browsing Pintrest, if something looks good, I'll just pin it. I won't follow the pin through to the original posting until later. If at all. This works to my detriment from time to time. Like the other day, when I pinned Nutella peanut butter cookies and when I clicked through it was an ad or something for a recipe website. Not cool.

Anyway, this particular drink was pinned with the caption, "Cranberry, Apple Vodka & Gingerale". How do you understand that? Because I understand that to mean cranberry juice, apple-flavored vodka and gingerale.

Which is why I went and bought apple-flavored vodka.

But does the recipe actually call for apple-flavored vodka?

No.

There should be a comma between the apple and vodka. Cranberry juice, "cloudy" apple juice, vodka and gingerale.

Bah, commas.

It might be cutesy overkill, but it still looked tasty.

So, when preparing for this drink, I put my friend in charge of bringing cranberry juice. I thought that was all I needed. Until I read the recipe. Then I made sure to stop by the grocery store on my way home to get "cloudy" apple juice. A.k.a., apple cider. I got the Simply Apple one because it was on sale. Like, half off. And if you've bought that brand, you know it's not cheap.

We measured the cranberry juice, apple cider and vodka. We did not put in the blender as I don't have a blender, and that just seemed silly. My friend poured the entire contents of the  mixer into our two glasses.

That didn't leave much room for ginger ale.

It was really rather pleasant.

Oh well, I just drank some of the concoction as it was and then added ginger ale. Without the ginger ale, the drink is fine, although a bit too sweet.


When I added the ginger ale, the drink was still a bit too sweet, but less cloying. I used diet ginger ale since I only drink diet. It quenched the thirst and didn't get us smashed.


Conclusion: We liked this drink. I might like something ginger-ier better. I heard tell of an apple-ginger vodka I might have to hunt down. Or perhaps add more crystallized ginger?

Scrumptious Candy Apple Dip

I volunteer with a group called Saints Helping Saints. We are Seton High School alumnae helping other Seton High School alumnae however we can.


For the second time, we had a wine tasting and art autcion funraiser in May.


Last year, we had a bunch of food donated. This year, we had less food donated, and we volunteers picked up the slack.


So of course I made something bloggable. Why not?


I was told we could probably use a fruit tray. But fruit trays are expensive! I had just gone through my behemoth, and I remembered a dip for apples that sounded really good.


I have no idea from what book I copied this recipe. And I can't seem to find it easily online anywhere, so here it is:


Scrumptious Candy Apple Dip
1 (8 oz.) package of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2-1/3 cup toffee bits


Directions: Mix together with hand mixer. Chill. Serve with apple slices or assorted fruit. 
Yields 12-15 servings.


I quadrupled the recipe. Yes, we expected that many people.


And I would like to take issue right here with their estimated yield. We used about half of my container that night. Well, we might have used the whole half, I know that I only took home half a huge tupperware full. I then served it for dessert one night. And then used it at our family Mother's Day gathering as an appetizer. And I still threw a mess of it away. How big is their serving size?!


Anyway. 


I measured everything but the toffee bits. Those I added some, mixed everything up, then added some more.


I really like toffee.


The hand mixer was having a really tough time getting through all that cream cheese. I think I need a new mixer. Or should have let the cheese soften longer. Or should have used a bigger bowl...which I don't own. Either way, just be aware that these ingredients don't mix together easily.


I did the best I could with the hand mixer then got in there with a wooden spoon/turner thing. Similar to this, but curved around the edge. I have no idea where Mom got it.

I put a note on the label saying the dark bits were toffee,
not nuts.I didn't want people to wonder in case
there were nut allergies in the room.

Anyway, I sent the apples and dip out on the white wine side of the room. My Brother the Chef gave me grief for the apples turning brown, but the dip really was tasty. Another volunteer asked me for the recipe. 


I was also well liked when I served it for dessert and as an appetizer at Mother's Day.


Conclusion: This dip keeps well over at least a week. It might be better in the fall when apple dishes abound, but no on gave me grief on my timing. This is definitely something to make again, and easily transported to a party. Speaking of parties, something I do when I have an apple dip dish is put out my apple slicer, a basket of apples and a cutting board. Allowing people to cut their own apples ensures they don't turn brown (without the use of lemon juice).

Churro Chex Mix

To go along with my slow cooker shredded beef tacos, I wanted to make a dessert. How perfect to go with Mexican dinner, a Mexican dessert?

Well, kinda.

Churros are Mexican. Or at least Hispanic, since I definitely ate one in Spain. Churro Check mix, not so much.

But I'll fake it.

Looks pretty, right?

I bought the cinnamon chips required by the recipe. The only kind I could find at bigg's was Hershey's, so that's what I went with.

I left them out on the counter so I would remember to make the chex mix. Sometimes my brain malfunctions and I forget things like dessert.

Well, my brain malfunctioned a different way this time.

I always make sure to put the electrical component of my crock pot on the counter the night before so I see it in the morning and remember to take the ceramic part out of the fridge to cook.

I'm usually very good at remembering the clear the area around the slow cooker so nothing melts or catches fire.

Not so much this time.

I got home checked the meat, and then started gathering the ingredients for the churro Chex mix.

That's when I realized the bag of cinnamon chips had been sitting right behind the slow cooker all day.

It was nearly completely melted.

The chips, not the bag. That would have been a hot mess if the bag had melted, too.

I was about the chuck the whole idea. I actually put the bag of melted chips in the garbage can.

Then I took it back out. I realized that while I certainly couldn't keep the melted chips, they were going to be melted for this recipe anyway. So I measured out what an approximation of the melted mess and threw the rest away. (Oh, I cut this Chex mix recipe in half, just like the lemon one.) I hate throwing food away, but how could I have used it?

I measured what would be the wet ingredients and melted them like I was supposed to. I stirred the melted part in with the Chex like I was supposed to. I measured the powdered sugar and sprinkled it over the top and stirred like I was supposed to.

Yummy.

I didn't measure the granulated sugar or cinnamon.

Oops.

No, mostly I didn't bother to measure because I already had a container of cinnamon sugar (from the Nutella ravioli) that I wanted to use up. I dumped that whole thing on, stirred and then I added a little more cinnamon.

It was definitely sweeter than the lemon batch. It was good. It tasted like Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I like that cereal, but I don't feel the need to make this mix again. I'll just go buy cereal with the $4 that could buy the cinnamon chips.


Conclusion: Another recipe checked off.

Slow Cooker Shredded Beef Tacos

So I bought this queso fresco when I was out at Jungle Jim's looking for that green apple soda. I don't remember ever having had it before and I like to try new cheeses.

I used some of it on my slow cooker chicken enchilada soup. But we didn't use much of it, so I needed a recipe where I could use the rest.

Yes, I based my recipe choice around a garnish.

Deal.

I knew it needed to be a Mexican recipe. Or at least Mexican inspired. I knew my friend who doesn't like chicken was coming to dinner. I knew she doesn't like pork much either.

Which leaves me beef.

So shredded beef tacos it would be.

Now to find a recipe.

Yes, I didn't have a recipe for this. Pork and chicken, sure, but not beef.

I went and found one. I needed it to be a slow cooker recipe and I refused to sear it before. Really. If it's a slow cooker recipe, all I want to do is throw everything in the pot and hope for the best.

I found this one.

All I had to do was go buy the meat (I really wish I had a freezer big enough to take advantage of meat sales) and the cumin. I could have sworn I already owned cumin, but I think I was actually thinking about the curry powder in my cabinet that I'll have to use again eventually.

This time with the slow cooker, I did get everything together the night before to put in the fridge. Including the liquids. I didn't think about it until later, that maybe I didn't want lime juice sitting on beef all night, but by then it was too late.

Anyway, I mixed all the spices together before putting any of them on the meat. Then I squeezed a lime over the whole things. And then I poured in the beef stock. Next time, I'll remember I have beef boullion cubes in the cupboard and put that in hot water so I don't spend the extra money on a container of beef stock.

Also, my hands smelled like chili powder and lime for hours. That was interesting.

Anyway, I didn't think about it most of the day. When I came up the steps to my apartment, I could smell a roast. I wondered who was cooking what.

And then I remembered it was me. Cooking beef.

I'm super special sometimes.

So I go and turn the meat from low to warm as soon as I walk in.

Now, the recipe calls for you to take the meat out, shred it, then put it back in.

I want to know how the heck anyone could pull the meat out of the slow cooker to begin it. I tried this with the pulled pork. It falls apart! What's the point of going through th hassel of trying to get it out, when you're going to put it right back in anyway?!

I shredded that beef. In the Crockpot. Using only one fork.

After that, all I really had to do was get together the toppings. I put out the queso fresco, cheddar cheese, sour cream, salsa, salsa verde and lime. Although the limes were mostly used in the margaritas.

Now, I'm going to share a trick my mother taught me. I swear, it was so common in my house, I thought every body did this.

Don't bother microwaving the tortillas.

What Mom always does is put her splatter guard (that fine metal mesh circle) over whatever she is cooking, and lets the steam take care of them.

I used the spallter guard over the Crockpot to warm my tortillas.

My friends think it's genius. I think it lets me work on other things. Like dessert.

So, back to the tortillas. I picked up two kinds at Aldi. I got the small corn ones, because I wanted the small ones since we were having tacos and corn was the only variety they had. Then I also picked up the medium flour ones since I was about out anyway.

I started with the corn tortillas at dinner. Everyone ate one. Mostly because everyone had already put everything in the corn tortilla and no one wanted to waste it.

But the corn tortillas were awful. No flavor, bad texture, and they broke when you tried to roll/bend/fold them.

We switched to the flour ones.

And the meat was so good! It was juicy and tender and not spicy hot for all the spices I put on it. It might have had a little too much spice, but it still tasted good. I used a 2 lb. roast instead of a 2.5 lb., so that would explain that.


It was good as leftovers, too.


Conclusion: Yes. Also, consider more veggies.

Slow Cooker Chicken Enchilada Soup

I decided to try a different slow cooker soup recipe. And after the disaster that was the cheesy sausage and potato stew, I think it's a brave choice.

I settled on this slow cooker enchilada soup recipe. I had most of the ingredients, which as you can tell by now is kind of a prerequisite for me, and I thought my man would enjoy it.

Mmm. I don't know that I dislike any soup that you put cheese on.

Now, I don't like beans.

I can't stand the texture.

The only time I'll eat them at all is half a spoon of baked beans at summer potlucks because I know I should have something besides a hot dog, hash brown casserole and carrots on my plate. (There is usually more than that, but those things do tend to show up at every single family summer party.)

So instead of using a can of beans, I added more peppers. Because I love peppers.

I had gone shopping for the one ingredient I needed -- the enchilada sauce. There was one size can, so I figured that had to be the right size.

Not so much. The enchlada sauce I had was a 15 oz. can, and the recipe called for a 10.75 oz. can. Really 10.75 oz.? That seems like a strange figure.

Anyway, what I did to balance it out was add less milk.

I chopped up everything that needed to be chopped. I put all the veggies in the ceramic component of the slow cooker, and put the chicken on top as required. Then I put the lid on and put it in the fridge. I mixed up all the liquid and kept it separate since I think that was one of the reasons that last soup didn't turn out well.

Putting the slow cooker on is really the last thing I do in the morning before I leave for work. So I got the pot out and took off the lid to add the liquid component.

And the smell of the covered onions hit me so hard, I burned out my nasal passages.

Not literally, I'm sure, but I'm serious. For the rest of the day, it felt like the inside of my nose had been stripped.

Unpleasant.

Well, I dumped in the liquid, put the lid back on, turned it on low and went to work.

When I got home, I was ecstatic to find that it had not burnt! I took out the chicken and cut it up per the instructions. I turned it down from low to warm since my man doesn't get to my place until around 7:30.

That's the queso fresco on top.

I made some simple cheese quesadillas to go along with the soup. Something to dunk that doesn't grilled cheese. I put out queso fresco (which kind of reminds me of riccotta), monterry jack cheese and sour cream to garnish. I don't know that any of those really added anything. It might have needed more salt.

I liked it. He liked it. I don't know that I feel the need to make it again immediately, but I would totally make it for large groups, or maybe if Saints Helping Saints needs meals.

Conclusion: When working with onions in the slow cooker, lean back when taking the lid off. Consider salt after the dish is cooked.

Prosciutto and Cheddar Sandwich

I thoroughly enjoy cured meats. The only one I'm at all familiar with is salami, unfortunately, but I'm trying to change that.

I bought some prosciutto when I was out at Jungle Jim's hunting for green apple soda.

I didn't know what I was going to do with it, but I knew I wanted to try it.

Then, going through my Pinterest broad, I found this recipe from Martha.

Looks like I was thinking ahead.

Martha's look so pretty.

What made it even better was that I could pack up the parts and take them to work to assemble for lunch there.

Awesomeness.

So after my dinner of grilled cheeses, I put white cheddar, sourdough bread and prosciutto in separate baggies for my lunch the next day. I also happen to keep all the condiments I'm given whenever I get drive through or take out (not nearly as much, thank goodness, since I started this blog), so I had a couple packets of brown mustard to pack, too.

I toasted the bread, spread on one packet of the brown mustard, put on the white cheddar cheese and the prosciutto.

It was...m'eh.

I liked the prosciutto on it's own. But I think the combination of the cured meat and sharp cheese and strong mustard just didn't work out.

I'll buy proscuitto again. I don't think I'll make this sandwich again.

Conclusion: Make sure your camera battery is charged. See if the local grocery store carries prosciutto.

Sparkling Green Apple Limeade

I miss Cost Plus World Market.

I really do. It allowed me to stay on the west side and find odd food that otherwise I might have to drive 30 minutes to find.

Actually, in the case of this recipe, it was more than an hour.

You see, I was on the hunt for green apple soda.

I had a day where my brain was being particularly stubborn, and long story short, I decided to run to The Party Source at lunch to look for green apple soda. They have that whole fixture in the back for odd flavored pops, right next to all the mixers. Surely, they must carry something green apple flavored, I thought.

Not so much. The green packaging was for lime, ginger and celery flavored products, respectively. (What do you do with celery pop, anyway?)

Sure, I had a couple other things I wanted to pick up, but it could have waited.

Still no World Market back on the west side...so I head to Jungle Jims.

I know they have a whole aisle there of domestic brand pops. And if that doesn't work out, all the way at the back is an aisle of Mexican sodas.

I meandered through the store, looking at various things, putting very little in my hand basket. I want to try everything! But I only have so much money in my bank account and room in my apartment.

I go up and down the domestic pop aisle.

Nothing.

Well, poo.

I head to the very back, to the aisle with all the Mexican sodas. And start looking at all the green bottles. It's a very good thing they the manufacturers put pictures of the fruit on a lot of the bottles, because my Spanish is rusty.

Not rusty enough, however, that I couldn't read "manzana verde" and know it meant "green apple."

There was only one kind of green apple pop. So I picked up two bottles. I also got two bottle of ginger beer because I'm fairly certain I have a recipe that calls for that, too, and I really didn't want to drive all over town again.

I make the limeade and slice the apples the night before, although I don't put the two together yet. I know I've got at least an hour between when I get home and when my friends show up. So as soon as I get home, that's when I dump the Gala apple slices in. And then put the whole thing back in the fridge.

When my first friend arrives, I ask her if she thinks we will drink an entire pitcher of this. She says yes, especially since there is no alcohol in it. So I have her add both bottles of the Mexican soda. We forego the extra lime slices.

I don't know what kind of crack I was on that I thought this was centered or in focus.

The pop is really sweet and the limeade is, obviously, quite tart. They balance each other out nicely and it's not too bubbly. After I drink one glass as the recipe intended, I have another, but add some green apple vodka. It was very tasty.

We all really liked the this.

And drank the whole pitcher.

Conclusion: Yum. And make regular trips to Jungle Jim's?

Jalapeno Cheese Sauce

My friends and I love fondue.

Yes, we might be throwbacks, but you know, Justin Bieber sings about it now, so maybe we were just ahead of the curve.

And I know cheese dips aren't necessarily fondue, but melty cheese is melty cheese, and therefore delicious.

I needed a side to go with my grilled cheeses, other than the usual salad. While I know grilled cheese usually goes with tomato soup, I had made two soups in the last week. I was done with soup. And since I had some pretzel bites in my freezer (thanks to another coupon), this jalapeno cheese dip is what I settled on.

It looks quite delish.

I also figured it could serve as an appetizer while I made the grilled cheese sandwiches, because you really can't make those ahead of time.

I grated the monterrey jack (because that's what I had) cheese the night before. And diced the jalapeno, too, since I knew I was going to be pressed for time before we actually ate. I get home around 5:30 and try to have everything ready to eat around 6:30. I don't give myself a lot of time to cook.

I followed the directions exactly, although I did mismeasure the milk the first time. Luckily I put in too little as opposed to too much, so that was easily remedied.

I just kept stirring and stirring once I put the cheese in, waiting for it to actually get cheesy.

And then I waited some more.

And waited some more.

It failed to actually get cheesy. It mostly tasted like milk with jalapenos.

Don't get me wrong. The mixture did get thick like it should have. It just didn't have the right flavor.

So I added some more cheese.

And then some more cheese.

Maybe I needed more jalapeno?

And then I gave up and put it on the table because slices of cheese weren't melting as nicely as grated cheese and the pretzel bites were ready anyway.

It was rather bland, so I added some garlic salt. It wasn't until later that I realized I had forgotten to add the cayenne pepper. Oh well.

The lack of cheesy flavor could have been the type of cheese I used. But even if I had used the right cheese, I still think the texture would have been off. It was a little grainy. And the consistency was much closer to an alfredo sauce than a cheese dip. I threw half the bowl away because it wasn't worth keeping to be a leftover.

Conclusion: Probably not good enough for another go around.

Grown-Up Grilled Cheese: White Cheddar, Cherry Preserves, Basil on Sourdough

My best friend doesn't like bacon.

I know, strange, right?

She tries it when it's offered, but I'm not about to make an entire meal she won't eat.

Which is why I made these grown-up grilled cheese sandwiches to go along with the other grown-up grilled cheese sandwiches that had bacon.

Now, Martha says to use white bread. I think that seems very plebian for basil and cherry preserves. So I decided to use sourdough. I mean, I already have the loaf thawed, anyway.

Martha's is so pretty.

The other big change was with the basil. I don't have fresh basil in the house, and I really didn't want to go buy some. So I decided to use that organic herb puree I had already bought and not used up.

I kind of fear that buying the required cherry preserves was going to be expensive. And, indeed, when I went to the grocery store, most of the options were $5 for a jar. Then I looked to the left, just to see if a brand like Smuckers, or heck, the store's generic brand perhaps made a cherry preserve.

Smucker's totally has cherry preserves.

Totally saved me $2.

I decided before I even got home from work that I would try to make these sandwiches in my toasty maker. Obviously, it's called something else here in the states, but I was first introduced to this contraption when I was studying in England. We'd go down to the bar in the basement of the manor where we were studying and order a "toasty" -- a grilled cheese made on this specific appliance. They were very good. Or maybe the cafeteria food was just really bad. Or maybe we were all just really drunk. Or all of the above.

Anyway, I haven't been able to use this device in a couple of years, and with the grilled cheese with bacon on the stove, I figured, this would allow me to multi-task. Not the mention these ingredients lend themselves better to squishing than bacon or pickles.

Of course, I forgot to factor in the size of the toasty maker versus the size of the bread slice.

The bread slice was bigger.

Screw it, I said, I'm doing it anyway.

I spread on some basil puree, put on the cheese, and then attempted to spread on cherry preserves.

Except that the other wide of the bread had magarine, so it wouldn't stay firm to allow spreading.

I fumbled through anyway, and then just plopped some cherry preserves on the second sandwich.

And then put my friend in charge of watching the machine while I worked on the bacon-pickle grilled cheeses.

Not at all pretty. But very yummy.

Again, the sandwiches should have had more cheese. But everyone liked these. Yes, they are weird. Basil and cherry preserves. Doesn't mean they weren't tasty. There was no textural variance since I used puree instead of actual basil leaves, but using the toasty maker made them super crispy, which I think helped.

In some ways, I woudlnt' want to change anything about this. The cherry preserves weren't super sweet, which was good since this was a savory dish. On the other hand, aren't there recipes pairing basil with strawberries? Because I'm fairly certain I have some strawberry jam in the fridge...

Conclusion: Next time, use bread that fits the toasty maker.