Recently in Sandwiches Category

Condemn me if you must, but Fresh Direct's rotisserie chicken is better than any roasted chicken I can make myself; mine always comes out kind of flabby with bits that never look like they're done. At $10 it's not really an economical option, but it's worth it to me to not have to deal with a raw chicken (Todd always tells me it's not radioactive, so that gives you a picture of how I act when there's raw chicken in the kitchen). It's their raised right chickens, which don't have antibiotics (so they say; I can't say I've done a lot of research). But it's tasty, with crispy skin, lots of slightly bland but not off-putting white meat, and a little, tiny bit of dark meat (so they can't be too free-rangey, can they?). Anyway, enough apologia. It lasts us, a family of 2 1/2, three meals, so it's not that extravagant. And it was terrific in these Greek-inspired sandwiches.

I didn't give August any of the tzatziki but think he would've liked it if I had: plain yogurt with about a teaspoon of dried mint (I bought this from Penzey's and never could find a use for it), a crushed garlic clove (so I could take it out later), salt and a couple inches of cucumber, diced. I made it the day ahead then drained off the excess liquid and took out the garlic clove before assembling the sandwiches: warm whole-wheat pita with slices of the rotisserie chicken breast, tzatziki and halved grape tomatoes. We had some lemon-rosemary roasted potatoes and orange slices on the side.

I made a green chili with the dark meat, which August did eat, but that's another entry.

I ate this combo for lunch yesterday and for dinner tonight, in two different guises. Tonight I dressed mixed greens with a balsamic-style cider vinaigrette, then tossed them with cubed cantal, diced apple and toasted walnuts. It was a great combo, the crisp, tart, sweet apple and bitterness from the greens and walnuts balancing the richness of the cheese and olive oil in the dressing.

Yesterday for lunch I split a roll, layered on shredded cantal, a slice of ham, thinly sliced apple, another layer of cheese and some mustard, then wrapped it in foil and baked it for 10 minutes.

I've decided to add a new category because I'm making so many sandwiches these days. This one was inspired by a Sarah Moulton recipe that was way too complex for me right now. Who has time to slice and blanch carrots, make tapenade, clean the processor, etc? So I just had goat cheese, chopped green olives and carrot strips made with the peeler. I'm sure it wasn't as good as the original, but it was a nice weekday lunch.

Todd's birthday was Wednesday, and he chose Les Halles (on Park Ave South) for dinner. I think it's because he read Kitchen Confidential recently and was curious to see the place Bourdain wrote so much about. It's funny because if we had given it any real thought the Les Halles in our imaginations would have matched the real one, but we both imagined something less dark, crowded and noisy. We were both game, though, and really grew to like the liveliness.

Our drinks were ho-hum, but we split an order of smoked herring and potato salad to start that was my favorite part of the meal. It was one whole smoked herring fillet, draped over four big chunks of boiled potato. The herring was not flakey, but had the texture of tough cold-smoked salmon. At first Todd said the texture bordered on revolting, but he grew to like it. The best part was that the potatoes get covered in all that smokey olive oil from the fish, the excess of which I mopped up with the good bread.

I almost wish I had stopped there, simply because I was so full after eating my main course that I could hardly enjoy dessert. I ordered merguez and frites. The four lamb sausages were very unevenly seasoned from link to link: the cumin and heat of the first one overwelmed any other flavor, but the second link was more mildly seasoned, and benefitted from the spicy harissa served with. Good fries and a few greens that offered a cool break from the heat of the lamb. Todd's steak (a NY strip, I think) was so sweet and tender, with a pronounced beefy flavor, like a good hamburger on the grill. (Is it depressing that I think his steak tasted like hamburger? I don't mean it that way.).

Chocolate-banana cake for dessert, which I would've enjoyed more had my tastebuds recovered from my main dish. Happy Birthday, Todd! I hope you enjoyed it.