Turkey & Brie. A highly complemented sandwich.

I love sandwiches. A girlfriend of mine always teased that whenever I was asked what sounded good for lunch, I'd reply, "Oh, I don't know. Some good bread, cheese, maybe some meat." To which she'd respond, "So. You mean a sandwich."

"Uh. Yeah! Sure. A sandwich."

They're my "go-to" of the food world. And it always amazes me that just a little extra effort on a sandwich is, like, SQUARED in the taste bud-reward-department. Which is a really great department. You spend half of the time of regular meal preparation and yet you end up with a delicious and satisfying repast. Who would argue with that?

I just found this beauty on, I think it was, Cooking Light's site. REALLY good sandwich. And GET watercress to make this, no substitutes. It COMPLETES this.

The flavors are so complementary and mild. I would be tempted to add some slivered white onion, but I think you'd lose the pepperiness of the watercress. And for all you southern Missourians - we get watercress at the Cabool farmers' market. Grown LOCALLY in our beautiful fresh springs!

NEAT-O!!!

Another watercress favorite is an incredible creamy potato, onion, and watercress soup!

Turkey, Brie, Green Apple & Watercress on Baguette

• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons coarse mustard
• 1 (8-ounce) French bread baguette
• 6 ounces thinly sliced smoked turkey breast
• 1/4 pound Brie cheese, thinly sliced - I probably used more. Okay. I used more.
• 1 cup trimmed watercress
• 1 cup thinly sliced peeled Granny Smith apple
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preparation

Preheat oven to 475°.

Combine honey and mustard in a small bowl. Cut bread in half lengthwise; place on a baking sheet and toast in oven 3-4 minutes, turn and toast just a bit longer (you want chewy, not tough). Spread honey mixture on bottom half of loaf; top with turkey and cheese. Bake until cheese begins to melt.

Arrange watercress and apple slices onto melted cheese; sprinkle with pepper. Cover with top half of loaf, and cut into 4 portions.

Fresh Salsa

NOT ONE of these photos have been retouched, lightened, or altered. Maybe they should have been, but I wanted to prove a point. They're straight camera shots. THIS salsa is THAT good. Suck it up, get a food processor (so much better texture than the blender but those'll work in a pinch) and make a batch of perfect classic SALSA!!!

FRESH SALSA

2 cans whole tomatoes

1 cup very coarsely chopped onion

1 medium jalapeno, seeded and chopped

1 medium red chile, seeded and chopped (or just another jalapeno or omit entirely for wussy purposes)

2 medium chipotle pepper (seeded if you're a superwus), add a little adobo sauce if you like it smokier and spicier

3 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled

big pinch sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 juice of whole lime

¼ cup fresh cilantro leaves, more or less to taste

Into a food processor, add one can of tomatoes into the bowl. Add the onion, peppers, garlic, sugar, salt, and lime juice. Process till smooooth. Or as you like... It'll get hit again in a sec.

Reserve the juice from remaining can of tomatoes, add remaining and PULSE until desired consistency, using juice only if necessary. (Salsa will create own juice).

Abuse this, without guilt!, on quesadillas, soft tacos and fajitas, add some with a little cumin when you cook rice as a great Tex-Mex side, drizzle on cheddar omelets,

or just wolf some down on

good tortilla chips!

We usually keep this or the fixins' on hand for emergencies.

I was innocently searching for "chile pepper" and he popped up.

It was too disturbing to me to just leave well enough alone.

Creme Brulee.

This is not, "Cooking Light".

The following post, good recipe, bad photos, is strictly for fellow hedonists. And its brief. Because I've been really, ruhhhheeeeally busy.

Necessary equipment you might not have:

• good instant-read digital thermometer
• (4) 4-5 oz creme brulee dishes or souffle ramekins (the former are more shallow with larger diameter - I can't find mine. they're somewhere. damnit.)
• and a tea kettle makes pouring the water a lot less, um, dangerous. for you and the custard...

the rest of the equipment most people have, but again, in a hurry, so read through if you need to!

La Creme Brulee

serves 4

2 cups heavy cream, chilled

⅓ cup granulated sugar

pinch salt

½ large vanilla bean, halved lengthwise (really gotta get a real bean, this is serious stuff)

6 lg egg yolks (again, go cage free, organic, clean-hippy, "granola" eggs - you'll thank me)

2 tablespoons turbinado (often called "raw") sugar, or Demerara sugar

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees.

Combine 1 cup cream, sugar, and salt in medium saucepan; with paring knife, scrape seeds from vanilla bean into pan, submerge pod in cream, and bring mixture to boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally to ensure that sugar dissolves. Take pan off heat and let steep 15 minutes to infuse flavors.

Meanwhile, place kitchen towel in bottom of large baking dish or roasting pan and arrange four 4- to 5- ounce shallow fluted (creme brulee) dishes or ramekins on towel. Bring kettle or large saucepan of water to boil over high heat.

After cream has steeped, stir in remaining 1 cup cream to cool down mixture. Whisk yolks in large bowl until broken up and combined. Whisk about 1/2 cup cream mixture into yolks until loosened and combined; repeat with another 1/2 cup cream. Add remaining cream and whisk until evenly colored and thoroughly combined. Strain through fine-mesh strainer into 2-quart measuring cup or pitcher (or clean medium bowl); discard solids in strainer. Pour or ladle mixture into ramekins, dividing it evenly among them.

Carefully place baking dish with ramekins on oven rack; pour boiling water into dish, taking care not to splash water into ramekins, until water reaches two-thirds height of ramekins. Bake until centers of custards are just barely set and are no longer sloshy and digital instant-read thermometer inserted in centers registers 170 to 175 degrees. This can be anywhere from 15 to 35 minutes, depending on the depth of the ramekins and your oven. Start checking at 15 minutes. Usually 25 minutes for creme brulee dishes and 30 minutes for traditional ramekins. NOTE: mine took almost 40 minutes this time. Your digital thermometer is your FRIEND. You want the coolest ramekin at JUST 170.

Transfer ramekins to wire rack; cool to room temperature, about 2 hours. Set ramekins on rimmed baking sheet, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until cold, at least 4 hours or up to 4 days.

Uncover ramekins; if condensation has collected on custards, place paper towel on surface to soak up moisture. Sprinkle each with about 1 - 2 teaspoons turbinado sugar; tilt and tap ramekin for even coverage. Ignite torch and caramelize sugar. Refrigerate ramekins, uncovered to re-chill, 30 to 45 minutes but NOOOO longer; serve.

note the sugar is like glass and can be lifted from the firm, cool custard beneath...

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Am I the only one that thinks this dessert is downright sexy?

Am I normal?

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, Peeps.

Easter pics later!!!