LE CROQUE-MEUF ham + cheese + french toast

In case you didn't know, a ham and cheese is pretty much France's official sandwich. You can get it anywhere, and you can order it by it's given name, the croque-monsieur. A croque-madame is a croque-monsieur with an egg on top, and you know both are a cultural staple, because French Ikeas don't serve Swedish meatballs, but they DO serve both mr + mrs croques! This is a croque-meuf, which is a way hipper version of either, because «Mais allo quoi!» zis bitche iz on FRRRENCH TOAST. 

Get ready for a mega post, mes cheris. #sandwichpornpornporn

THE SUNNYSIDE baked egg + broccoli greens

"Guten Morgen Sonnenschein! Wie schön dass du geboren bist." I can't tell you how many times I stood in our kitchen, watching my friend Denise make a fried egg sandwich. This one's for you, my one and only Ginger. 

I don't have anything else to say today. Enjoy your friends. Enjoy the sunshine together. Go out on the rooftop. Don't shy away from a heart-to-heart. You have more to gain than you stand to loose. And eat cheerful looking food.

THE BRUSSELS DAY PARADE brussel sprouts + fries grilled cheese

I. Fucking. Love. Brussel sprouts. I eat them every day. I also have deep affection for Brussels. And if you didn't know french fries are actually Belgian, you know now. Here's my salute to Brussels. How I miss that twisted, ugly city. Also, yo Sybille, gardez-le bien à Bruxelles meuf.

THE MARCH BREAK chicken + tomato chow

Alright, I know it's only January, but this one tasted like March. You know what I mean? You know how some days, it just smells like spring? Well, in Canada, we have March break, where schools have a few weeks off in March, and like all the other jew kids, I always spent mine in Florida. Visiting the grandparents, if that wasn't clearly implied (and if you were wondering, I don't consider myself a jew, but for the hair, and various Seinfeld references the goyims don't get). ANYWAY. This sandwich, to me, tasted like Florida.

THE LUCKY CAT spicy peanut chicken

I have to explain for a moment, why I've started naming my sandwiches. And relay the reasons for this above poor choice right here. I started the blog in 2009, and kept it secret for at least a year. When I eventually started telling my friends about my really silly personal project, they naturally, started asking me to make sandwiches for them. I was all too happy to, because so often in the endeavour to make someone's dream sandwich, I really extended my own creativity, and came up with stuff I never would have thought I could have come up with. The sandwich dedicating definitely set me on a path. I'd call them, ask them to tell me what kind of a sandwich they would want. They'd request one or two ingredients, and I'd come up with the rest. They'd come over, I'd make it, and I'd usually photograph them eating it. But so often, I was surprised to be asked, "What's this one called?" I've been dismissing the notion of naming sandwiches, thinking listing their feature ingredients is good enough. And for some sandwiches, it is. But some sandwiches have some sort of personality, or context to them. So I thought it would be fun to finally start naming them. Here's The Lucky Cat, for your eye delecting pleasure.

THE "VERY ADULT" sweet potato grilled cheese

When you're younger, your older friends always seemed so grown up. They had things figured out. It could sometimes have made them seem slightly intimidating, but ultimately, you weren't threatened, because you knew by the time you were their age, you would have all the same things figured out too. Hahaha. Then when you're 27, you realize you're older now, than your older friends then, and you're still struggling like hell. And that makes you feel old. I had a good conversation with a friend the other day about this, and not comparing yourself to people who aren't you. What those people have is what they want, and you don't have to want that too. It's not race, you'll have what you want when you're ready to work at it, and it's ok if still wandering makes you feel old, sometimes. Pat yourself on the back for the things you've figured out, and remember, you hate yourself because you do nothing and have a grilled cheese. 

Here's a slightly more adult version of the simple childhood grilled cheese we all know and love. If you feel no nostalgia for that pan fried, orange cheese, crispy little sandwich, that tastes of never ending afternoons, and concentrated, gooey bliss, you have probably died inside. Go watch some Care Bears. Last photo even shows it with *gasp* ketchup. 

Scratch that. I'm gonna eat a grilled cheese, and watch The Jetsons. But like, before I was old enough to realize how 1950s sexist The Jetsons is.

the steak and egg

I. Love. Meat. Don't get me wrong, I would say the same about fruits and vegetables, just as someone who eats meat rarely more than once per week, I thought it apt to declare my love for eating animals and animal products. Ethically, and healthily raised, local animals, and their wonderful eggs and dairy. Thank you farmers, thank you cows, thank you chickens, sheep, goats. I love you all, and I consider it a treat, not a part of my diet, to enjoy these amazing offerings. Also it's nice to eat carnivorously sometimes. ARRR!

Check out this egg on animal sandwich, I even worked in an egg-cup! Good fucking way to start the day, if you ask me.

And never miss another sandwich again, join the Facebook page!

heirloom cherry tomato + roast red pepper + 3 cheese melt

So, I have some wonderful guests visiting from France, and as happens when you're all most distracted with having lots of fun, and doing as many things as possible, things start to fall by the wayside, and you forget to do things like sweep the floors, take out the mountain of empties, and get groceries and stuff. So this was one of those sandwiches where I was like "Ah, we have nothing to eat", but realistically, more like, "we have definitely enough things in the fridge, just nothing left that I feel like having for lunch." Luckily, I was making this glutenous sandwich for Sybille, and Sybille loves red peppers, and tomatoes. 

avocado + cabbage + tamari club

What's up friends? I decided to go out and buy a bunch of really lovely meat at the organic farmers' market last week, and then eat way too much of it all at the same time. What better way than with a classic Club!? But obviously not that classic. Enter tamari + avocado + cabbage + ginger + mint + lime + garlic + chili mayo. Sadly I only got a taste of this sandwich. I was still full from the chicken and egg sandwich made previously, but a hungry friend of mine came by and devoured it. Equally satisfying. Ok, that's a lie, but this was one mountain I was too full to climb.

roast beets + goat gouda + pesto grilled cheese

I'm very well obsessed with grilled cheeses lately. So I'm doing the tour around the selection at my local cheese outposts. This one is a goat gouda. Probably a running favourite. Not goaty, not piquant, but rounded, and far from tame. Damn. While I usually lean towards milky, extra aged cheddars, this one's kind of the perfect cheese. 

the chicken and egg (and bacon!)

Straight up, eating this sandwich makes me feel like I woke up in a farmhouse. Also makes me feel like I must hate chickens if I want to eat them every which way. SO GOOD.

For realsies though, big thank you to every hard working farmer who put their love into what they do to make possible the most scrumptious breakfast sandwich.

blueberry blue cheese

Close second title: Emily's blue period. 

Oh won't you join me on the Glorious Sandwiches Facebook page, and tell a friend. xxo

the strawberry caprese

Someone told me recently (or I read it on Buzzfeed, in any case some RELIABLE source #accuratereporting) that this year was poised to yield the very best strawberry crop in decades. Why? I haven't looked into it, but it's kept me with strawberries on the brain all summer. I just want to eat them all the time, make tarts, crisps, and pie, put them in salads, and start a jam factory in my apartment.

Alas, like most summer resolutions, this has gone almost entirely unattended. So here, to make it's debut in my summer, a strawberry featured sandwich, that is not gluten-free, so I couldn't fucking eat it anyway. But not to worry, this was one of the birthday sandwiches, so my parents were there to eat it, and tell me how nice it was. Hopefully this is not the last you'll be seeing of strawberry sandwiches this summer, and maybe(?) I will get around to making that jam. 

The Isemanburger

It's about time this blog got some MEAT.

I'm always intrigued when a restaurant has a namesake on the menu. It means they're repping it as their best offering, and in the case of a burger, it's the way they think it's best served. The way that has the staying power to anchor that menu, something people tell their friends about, and can keep coming back for for years. I wouldn't say I'm huge into burgers or anything, but a few weeks ago, when I had some friends visiting, they were positively salivating for a burger one afternoon. I scoured around the great selection of kraft restaurants in this restauro-centric neighbourhood I live in, and it turned out, the closest one had a burger on the menu, only one, and it was the item given the honour of carrying the restaurant's namesake. And furthermore, it was the tastiest sounding burger on offer. We went. We ordered 3 of the same. We ate. We collapsed in a pleasure-and-rendered-fat-dazed stupor. I won't tell you what was in it, because I don't want to upstage this post, but I'll share that later that week, I couldn't get the burger out of my mind. I went back, but alas, they are closed on Mondays, so I thought it best to march over to a burger-specific joint. Nice, local, well-fed, ethical meat, done as many ways as one could want to chose from, and they too, had a namesake burger. And as it happened, that was the burger with all the with-all that I most wanted. And it was good. So the week after that, I still couldn't shake this hankering for burgers. I decided to get a few patties at the local organic farmer's market near me, and make a signature burger of my own. This is the way I find myself topping a burger every time I make them. I just don't think there's a better way to serve a burger. So voilà, THE ISEMANBURGER.