An inaugural dinner

This dinner was made possible by Thomas, my new George Foreman indoor grill. Thomas is beautiful and has adjustable heat settings. He is a "lean, mean, fat reducing, grilling machine."

There was only a $10 difference between the 50 sq inch and 80 sq inch grills; that extra 30 sq inches is around the size of another sandwich. I opted for the larger one because we're gonna be cooking for 8 in the fall.

There is something about kitchen appliances that make me go a little crazy. Almost half of my Amazon wishlist is made up of bread machines and Kitchen Aid mixers in different colors. I highly recommend looking at Panini Happy if you're interested in an indoor grill. This blog almost makes me wish that I got a waffle iron instead.

Sandwich for two

2 slices of Santa Fe turkey ("Santa Fe" is just the name that Westside gave it, any deli turkey will do)

Handful of crumbled Feta cheese

2 slices of Havarti

Honey dijon mustard

1 yellow globe onion

1. Cut the onion lengthwise and slice into pieces that are around 1/3 inch wide. Put in a pan with olive oil at a medium-high heat. Make sure you're constantly stirring the onions so that they all caramelize evenly. After 5 minutes, turn the heat down to medium and continue to stir until all the onions are a golden brown.

2. Pre-heat the indoor grill/panini maker as you assemble the sandwiches. The order I used was: bread, dijon mustard, Havarti, Feta, turkey, onions, (Caroline added some butter on hers here) and bread. Stick it in the grill until the cheese is melted and bread is verifiably toasted.

Summer Salad

Caroline and I have been making this salad all summer. At first it was a result of having leftover produce (cilantro and green onions come in big bunches), but now we have these ingredients because we want to make this salad.

Romaine lettuce

Green onions

Cilantro

Tomatoes

Balsamic vinegar

Olive oil

1. Chop all the produce and throw it together in a bowl with the balsamic vinegar and olive oil. I like my salad super vinegary.

2. Eat to your heart's content.

Grilled Asparagus

As a practice in culinary flexibility, we've been choosing a different vegetable every week. We didn't get particularly creative with the asparagus, although we used it as a bed for our eggs benedict the other day.

Prepare the asparagus by washing the spears and cutting off the ends. Toss it in some olive oil, season it with salt and pepper, and then lay them evenly across the grill at a medium-high heat for 5 minutes.

We've also prepare the asparagus by heating the oven to 500 degrees and roasting them for 5 minutes.

What do you get when strawberries are on sale at Westside? A mountain of YUM.

We sliced the strawberries and used the grill to toast the bread. Then we lay down a thick foundation of nutella, piled the strawberries on top, and sprinkled it with confectioner's sugar. Utterly delicious.