You Say Sandwich, We Say Yeah!

Pre-flight breakfast sandwiches at home, with the rest of the baguette making more sandwiches for the plane and the other side. Apple and brie with fig jam on the left and avocado and egg on the right. Open-faced sandwiches are debatable at times, but here, no cutlery required and the addition of a top baguette would bring more harm than good. 

For a lazy summer breakfast, with lots of ketchup and a side of sautéed swiss chard from a nearby farm. Can't beat it. 

While this blog documents a lot of traveling and dining out, I know Young Elvis and I also love eating and making home made sandwiches more often than not from our respective lairs. After the most recent trip, I spent the first weekend bunking down, including roasting off a free range chicken from the butcher's down the street, and rendering the carcass into stock. The meat, however, found its way into many a sandwich later that week, including this number paired with a hint of tarragon Dijon, Canadian cheddar cheese, and fresh arugula. I love a bit of that peppery arugula to go with something like chicken, and the bird itself was roasted with a simple garlic and fresh basil marinade that keeps the flavours mild, yet deep. The bread is picked up from the Euro deli just a block down where loaves are delivered daily and last half that long. I personally prefer a bit of roasted chicken skin within the sandwich, but for some reason restaurants rarely if ever offer that as an opt...

JANE. Jane is the main thing you need to know about the Bag Lady, a tiny living-room styled eaterie in London, Ontario. It could just as well be inside my head, the sandwich shop of my dreams, with its robin's egg blue walls, vintage housewares overflowing, and Jane and her team of cheerful powerhouse women in cute aprons making up delicious food everyday. The place is full of love, the sandwiches are full of veggies, spreads, meats and cheeses then wrapped up in adorable napkins and tied with twine. Or laid out on a pretty plate. The one I can't seem to shake off is the crusty grilled Italian, with tomatoes, spinach, mozza and a secret pesto spread that completes the charm of this sandwich. Red pepper, butternut, tomato soups or fruity, nutty salads could accompany should you wish. Brunch is excellent, but if you're really lucky, lounging on the couch, you'll smell an impromptu eggplant parmesan cooking and Jane will bring it out just before you go fully crazy with ant...

Home made grilled cheese sandwiches are the best. A meeting between J.D. and Young Elvis resulted in some gourmet grilled cheeses loaded with homemade sundried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, feta, gouda, and all sorts of other good things. Keeping some good sandwich buns, sort of a cross between a Portuguese water bread and a foccacia loaf, Young E cut it up vertically into crostini fingerlinks and fried them up good in butter before loading 'er up. Two different types of sandwiches were presented, and I personally liked the one with feta and sundried tomatoes the most, as the salty sharpness fried up is nothing short of brilliance and a fine substitute for haloumi, which makes the best cheese sandwiches ever and a favorite between us for sure. Served with a side of spicy olives and homemade pickles, and a cup of homemade carrot soup, it was the perfect meal after a long day of travel as the fog rolled in all around us.

My mother is a champion sandwich maker. Every work night, she begins an assembly line of sandwiches for the other workers in our family, rolling out all the ingredients, putting them all together and packing them up in neat little packages. Many of the fixins, my mother makes from scratch. They used to be peanut butter and homemade jam. The jam came forth in huge batches every summer, measured, simmered and poured into glistening jars enough to fill sandwiches all year long. Then came the Dutch chocolate confections disguised as sandwiches that we used to get teased for eating. Now, the first tender sprigs of lettuce grown in her garden rows will make their way into turkey, bacon, lettuce and havarti sandwiches to feed tough guys who get their hands dirty. Then stop for lunch to praise the woman who grows enough lettuce to feed this army. -Happy Mother’s Day with love from Young Elvis Mum with a baguette cut in half, ready to make a massive sandwich