THE NEIGHBOURHOODWICH pork sausage + roast fennel + mushroom pâté

So, basically every day for the past year, I wake up, eat one of 3 rotating breakfast options, later I eat a salad, and by the end of the day, I'll probably have eaten a same-ish version of a vegan, viet-style soup. I didn't used to be like this! I used to make the same thing no more than 3 times. Then onto the next idea. My eating has become so routine, that even the things I do to break the routine, like occasionally making sandwiches for blog purposes, and eating things like, *gasp* bacon, have become routine. So I went into my local deli/sandwich supply magical happy house, determined to try something new. They make these really nice sounding apple and sage sausages ('cause who really thinks sausages look all that appetizing), and this weirdo mushroom pâté that just sort of spoke to me. It was nonchalantly crying out "why not?" And then I went out and bought fennel. Because honestly, fennel kind of scares me, as my only encounter with it had been one time using someone's strongly fennel flavoured toothpaste in the morning without realizing I was not to be expecting mint. Anyway, there's really nothing better in life, in general, than breaking routines, exploring, and finding out there are all these other things you can add to your life that you can enjoy, along with all the things you already have to do so. Which I guess is really the point of this blog. Yay for more things in life that are nice. Especially when they are things that you can eat!!!

THE BAROQUE chicken + egg + heirloom potato salad

Ok, this is straight up one of those times where I start with an idea, "Oh, I'm going to use up some of this roast chicken, and make a chicken salad," and then pursue it to near overkill. This sandwich has a Glorious Sandwiches near-record-breaking 17 ingredients in it, not counting the bread. Speaking of overkill, I have this sick sort of fascination with eating chicken AND egg together. It feels so depraved.

black & blue apple grilled cheese

This title gets its name from the SMOKED blue cheese used. Take a peek!

Honestly, blue cheese has always freaked me the fuck out. In fact, dairy on the whole had been a source of anxiety for years. I think once, when I was like 10, I had an unfortunate experience with chunky milk, and after that, I was just really, apprehensively, cautious when dealing with dairy. Milk had to be freshly opened, cheese had to be firm, yogurt had to be no more than a nano-second old. Blue cheese was just some scary, and revolting horror my parents kept in the fridge for posterity. Surely. Anyhow, older, wiser, more adventurous, and cheese being the most glorious of human discoveries, I thought it was about time that I tried some blue cheese. This stuff is Blue Haze, a smoked blue cheese from somewhere in Ontario. Appreciably smoky, but with a nice, rounded creaminess that I wasn't anticipating. I was expecting it to be all sharp, with an aftertaste of food poisoning. I guess it's another childhood misconception to let go of, this cheese was the shit!