Not Gourmet

When I cook, which is not often enough, I like to make it good. I like trying new things, mixing different flavors, and making up tasty dishes. My goal is reached when it looks like I slaved over a meal all day, when in reality it only took 20 minutes.

Tonight in an effort to make Bart a scrumptious dinner, I pulled out my quick gourmet staples and whipped up this delicious sandwich which took less than twenty minutes.

Here are some shortcuts I take when preparing meals:

• Buy a whole chicken that is already cooked. These are cheap, easy and can be the base of your meal
• Buy sun dried tomatoes or peppers, normally found in your produce section. They give whatever you are making a fabulous flavor.
• Jarred pesto sauce is the best. I use pesto on everything. Sandwiches, pasta, appetizers. I always have a jar of pesto in my fridge
• Always have good bread on hand; freeze it and just toast it in the oven when you are ready to use. I used ciabatti today for these sandwiches
• Never run out of minced garlic by buying it in the jar. It saves so much time and is much better than dried garlic

I quickly pulled the chicken off the bones and set aside what I needed and put the rest away for another meal. I will get at least 3 meals out of that $4.85 chicken. Heat some olive oil and garlic on the stove and throw portabella mushrooms in. Make sure to buy the mushrooms already sliced, this saves time. While those are heating, slice bread in half and put in oven to toast. While that is toasting, quickly cut calamata olives, tomato, mozzarella cheese, sun dried peppers, a red onion. Get bread out of oven and spread pesto sauce on it. Pile everything else (chicken, mushrooms, olives, peppers, tomato, onion) ending with the cheese. Put open face sandwich back in the oven under boiler for a couple of minutes. Voila. You are done. Serve with fresh sliced fruit.