Another fav, another panini...

It's summer... and you know what that means. It means we have bruschetta. And bruschetta ingredients + summer = panini.

So this version of "bruschetta" will be in the form of a sandwich. To do so we need a panini pan, bread, basil pesto, tomato and mozzarella cheese.



I started off by heating up the panini pan and then buttering the bread.



And for the pesto? In my opinion, the best basil pesto comes in a jar from Trader Joe's. I would prefer to only use this pesto for the rest of my life. 'Nuf said... So I went ahead and slathered a good deal of basil pesto on the inside of one of the slices of bread...





Then I sliced the mozzarella and tomato into a few pieces...



And I started layering the sandwich together right on the hot panini pan...

Buttered side of bread face down
Cheese slices
Tomato slices
Last slice of bread, slathered with pesto (buttered side up)





My panini pan is the kind that has a cast iron lid that you place on top of the sandwich.



I placed the lid on top of the sandwich and pressed down... after a few minutes I turned the sandwich 90 degrees and let it continue to cook. Turning it will create that cross hatch mark on the bread that looks so yummy!



After a few minutes I turned the sandwich over and let it cook on the other side too. (Note - some electric panini pans conduct heat on both sides. In this case you wouldn't have to turn the sandwich over.)



When the sandwich is done cooking I remove it to a cutting board and let it rest for a minute or two... just to let the cheese cool down a bit.

And I'll tell you right now, the waiting is truly the hardest part...



This sandwich was served up with the rest of the tomato and some tomato basil soup... life is good!!!





enjoy your time in the kitchen...

Sunday lunch...

Today I enjoyed my provolone panini and grilled asparagus as I sat down to watch a movie ("The Men Who Stare at Goats", from Netflix - hysterical so far, in a dark and very "odd" sort of way).



My movie continues and I am on the computer to do a little blogging, plan out the afternoon and the rest of the chores I have to do today, this week.... and when I'm going to run all of the necessary errands, etc.


We have house guests next weekend... and I'm looking forward to it! But I've got a lot to do between now and then.


First... I'll watch the rest of this movie and try to figure out what it's talking about ... but first I need to take the cookies out of the oven.


I love my life!!!




enjoy your time in the kitchen...

An Easy Panini...

Another quick and yummy summer lunch... Bruschetta Panini.


4 ingredients, 5 minutes, 6x more goodness than a plain ol' sandwich...


But don't take my word for it... try it for yourself!

You'll need a cast iron grill pan and a cast iron panini press. And then, honestly, it can't get much easier than this.

Set the heat on the cast iron grill pan on medium-high heat. And then layer your bread with your favorite ingredients. I used pesto, mozzarella cheese and tomatoes. First, take two fresh slices of good sourdough bread... and slathered on some pesto.



You can find my preferred pesto at Trader Joe's. (While I'm thinking of it, a shout out to TJ's: THANK YOU for making my life so easy!)



Then I added cheese on both sides ... putting it on both sides helps to hold the sandwich together (like a really yummy glue holding it all together).



Next, I layered the tomatoes on one side...



And that's all...



There's no real need to add butter (as if you'd do on a grilled cheese sandwich)... just place that sandwich in the hot grill pan and put the panini press on top.



Make sure to press down pretty hard on the panini press... (if you don't want to buy a panini press you could always use a garden brick, or two, wrapped in aluminum foil). Paninis are meant to be smushed together... like my technical terminology?



In about 1 1/2 - 2 minutes, it will be time to turn the sandwich over to grill the other side. See?



Put the panini press back on and press down hard...



1 1/2 - 2 minutes later... you have an easy panini! I could tell mine was just about ready because I heard some sizzling. The cheese was oozing out of one corner and hitting the hot grill pan... oh yeah, baby!



Hungry?!





So, there's no real recipe here... just an idea. And maybe my idea will inspire you to use your own ingredients. What are YOUR favorite panini ingredients?



enjoy your time in the kitchen...