Today's Pairing Post -- grilled cheese with cornichons

Some things just say fall weather comfort food - like grilled cheese sandwiches!!

There are lots of ways to amp up the traditional combo of melted cheddar between buttery slices of bread - this just happens to be one of my personal favorites: add cornichons and use sunflower bread.

Forget BLT, I want a BPT

I started with good bread, toasted; 

Added pimento cheese, the good chunky lightly spicy handmade kind;

Then topped that with crispy bacon....

And then because it is sunny, warm springtime-- heirloom tomatoes are already arriving!

These may not be as juicy and full of flavor as the ones which will come along later in the summer.  However they sure are gorgeous and tasty on my BPT.

Bacon Pimento & Tomato sandwich !!

History of holiday treats

I should have been a food historian.

I find myself fascinated by how many variations of holiday treats there are from different countries around the world.   Working in a European style bakery means I see and get to taste a lot of these!

Stollen, Panettone, Light English Fruitcake, Florentines, Traditional American Fruitcake.....

So many ways to bind together dried fruit in a sweet - with or without rum, nuts, marzipan or actual cake.
And they have interesting histories to explore while you eat them!

Things that seemed like a good idea at first....



Bialys

So the first time I had this it tasted so good.  Maybe because I had no idea what I was in for since I bought it just for fun to try it out.   The next time I picked it up though.... it just didn't seem right anymore.  Too much poppy seed and  too much onion to be truly enjoyable.

This reminded me that I am embarking on my 101 Classics project which includes lots of new recipes.  So I looked through it again.....  um there a few that I do not particularly like.  I am not the biggest fan of buffalo wings and really not into the chicken liver pate.   This is going to be an interesting adventure!

Carolyn and the 101 Classics

You have probably have at least heard about "Julie and Julia" even if you did not see the movie or read the books....   so here is my idea for a similar project.   The 101 classic recipes issue of Saveur magazine just arrived in my mailbox.   I am going to cook every single one of them over the next year.  And I will write about them as I go.    I know this may not seem like the most original project but I have a history with this kind of plan.