Midweek meal

During the heat wave that we had in San Diego the last few weeks, it was way too hot my apartment to even think about cooking during the day. One night had a Rigatoni and Riggins night (aka: I made Sausage & Eggplant Rigatoni then watched Friday Night Lights), but that was a 2 night process – one to do pre-cooking another to actually bake – and shooting the food at night made it kind of ugly, so no blog was written.

Now it has finally cooled down a bit and I’ve caught the cooking fever.

I spent about an hour online looking up recipes the other night and practically everything looked good. If only I had the time and budget to make it all.

Today I started with two rather simple recipes for lunch time. One I got from the Trader Joe’s Web site, the other I got from watching Martha Stewart while peeling wrappers for my Primo Peanut Butter Cup Cookies.

I started with the Martha Steward tabbouleh salad. The recipe I found online dates back to a 2004 issue of Everyday, but it was the same one I saw her make on television. This is a really simple recipe that requires hardly any cooking – just the boiling of water for the bulghur wheat. The addition of fresh mint on the salad is delightful and refreshing.

Then it was on to TJ’s BABP (Trader Joe’s Bacon, Apple & Brie Panini). First off brie cheese with apple slices is a snack time favorite of mine that I don’t have very often, but really enjoy when I do. With the addition of bacon, confirming my mission statement that bacon makes any sandwich better, I was sold at hello.

For the sandwich I used my wonderful Cuisinart Gourmet Griddler. I grilled four slices of bacon with the top closed. This kept the bacon from curling and really kept the bacon from shrinking much. The recipe asked to spread butter on the outside of the roll/bread that you use while making the sandwich, but I just didn’t clean the grill plates of the bacon grease and skipped the butter. It worked just fine.

While in the Panini press mode the outside of the sandwich gets nice and toasty, but the inside gets nice and soft. The brie melted around the apple and softened the apple a little, but the bacon managed to keep its crunch. TJ’s BABP was a wonderful sandwich that I will make again very soon.