Benedictine Sandwiches

Garden and Gun bills this creamy cucumber spread as "Kentucky's Pimiento Cheese Cousin," so of course it caught my attention in my inbox. I've also seen some awesomeness of pastoral beauty, food, people and even basketball come from the Fried Chicken Leg state (see the outline of the state if you are confused by my descriptor), so I thought they might know how to do a sandwich well too.

It makes for a refreshing summer or spring tea sandwich, or as we fashioned it, mid-day girly lake weekend meal.

It might have been the kind of meal that made certain members of the opposite sex beg for ham or turkey, but bacon made it a bit more meaty and all the more Southern, kind of like a creamy T-less BLT.

For the record, my recipe is more a variation on a commenter's version than the restaurant recipe the magazine ran. It seemed a bit more home kitchen friendly and just plain practical because you strained the cucumber (spread with too much veggie juice=gross).

Also, post-sandwich photographing I discovered the spread is even better on buttery crackers because you can taste more of the cucumber-onion role in the mix than on the sandwich. Go figure, because I prefer pimiento cheese on crackers over a sandwich.

Grilled Cheese with Onions and Mushrooms

When it's pretending to be cool and dreary fall instead of spring like we're in England or something, I want comfort food.  I want my new favorite grilled cheese. (I am realizing I talk way too much about the weather when I blog; sorry, guys.)

My dad and brother came back from skiing in Utah this year raving about this grilled cheese with mushrooms and onions. When these two talk about a meatless lunch with that much enthusiasm and it fills them up for their millions of runs on the slopes a day, it's not to be taken lightly.

I picked their brains as to what made the sandwich so worthy of praise and made a go at it for Sunday lunch (also a theme on the blog lately). It's not complicated. Sauteed mushrooms and onions between gooey hot white cheese. But if you're taste buds are anything like mine, those two key ingredients make anything ordinary way tasty: pasta, a burger, a sandwich. Yummo. Also, serve it with sweet potato fries. Even more yummo.