I think it has something to do with the fact that now my random craving/want has changed from chocolate. Now, its cream cheese. It’s really random to have that switch, but I’ve done worse.

My absolute favorite thing to have in the morning now is cream cheese and cranberry sauce on ciabatta bread.

It’s love. Really. It is.

But back to the sandwich. The funny part about this sandwich is that I was trying to copy something I had gotten off of a Roach Coach that comes by early in the morning at work. They have a sandwich very similar to what I made and somehow I became addicted to it in the early morning hours of work.

The bottom bread layer has a light dusting of mayo, while the top is cream cheese and cranberry sauce, with lettuce and turkey sandwiched between the two layers of heaven.

But mine tastes a whole lot better.

I love having the ciabatta bread since the cream cheese can get stuck in the little pockets and you bite into the sandwich to get a nice blast of cream cheese randomly throughout. I think this would taste a lot better with real roasted turkey instead of the lunch meat stuff, but its really just too dang hot to roast some turkey right now. I’ll just wait for Thanksgiving or some other turkey prevalent holiday.

It’s the breakfast of champions! Well maybe not, but it’s what I had for breakfast this morning after craving it for weeks. What I call the Italian Grilled Cheese, others would probably call a Panini. To me that’s just a super fancy grilled cheese. Call it what it is people, a grilled cheese!

I have started having a love of tomatoes when I was given tomatoes from a friend’s garden. They taste nothing like the tomatoes from the store, but more flavorful and sweeter. It’s sometimes hard now to buy tomatoes from the store, but sometimes you just have to buy them and make your favorite dish.

I first started making these using fresh garden tomatoes, along with some super fresh artisan bread. I first used fresh basil, but found that unless it’s chopped very small, it tends to get pulled out of the sandwich when you bite into it so I ended up using dried basil instead.

I love how the cheese melts, and you get the kick of spice from the basil, garlic and pepper. I know there probably should be a proper recipe for this one, but it’s more of a “soul food” type of dish. A little of this, a pinch of that. I don’t follow a recipe but more of a method and I know what I like. Much of this is just to taste, and I can be very heavy handed on the garlic and basil, but its personal preference.

Method/Recipe
Makes 2 sandwiches

• 4 slices rustic bread or home made bread
• 2 tomatoes (or one if it’s large)
• Fresh grated parmesan
• Shredded Mozzarella cheese
• Fresh cracked black pepper
• Garlic powder
• Dried basil
• Butter/Margarine

Directions

1. Preheat a pan over medium heat.
2. Lightly butter one side of each piece of bread, this will be the outside. On the non-buttered side of 2 slices spread a little parmesan cheese and mozzarella. Sprinkle with garlic powder and pepper. Slice the tomatoes and layer tomato slices on the parmesan, covering as much of the bread as possible. Add another layer of parmesan cheese and mozzarella. Sprinkle with dried basil and top with the other slice of bread (butter side out).
3. Add the sandwiches to the preheated pan. Optional: cover with a piece of foil and press down with a heavy skillet or pot to make it like a Panini. Check the bottoms of the bread often, when they become golden brown, flip the sandwiches to cook the other side.
4. Remove from heat when both sides are golden brown. Let the sandwiches sit for 1-2 minutes to cool before slicing.
5. Enjoy!