It has finally stopped snowing, how exciting is that? And its the weekend! Granted, I did not really get to enjoy my Saturday off, instead, I had what I thought would be an hour long meeting with my CEO, turn into over three and a half hours. Don't get me wrong, getting some face time is great, but it would have been much better to have during the week, meaning that I could avoid getting up six days in a row at 6am to keep up with my running training schedule nor when it means you really do not have much of a day left, you have part of an afternoon and of course in that part of an afternoon, you want to accomplish about seventeen million things and also be able to relax, I must be seriously crazy if I thought I could fit all of that into the span of a few hours! Maybe crazy is the wrong word and overly ambitious is the right word...I like that better, no negative connotations. Right?
Anyhow, when you have a three and a half hour meeting with your CEO or let alone any meeting that requires a significant amount of focusing/brain power, it takes until you are finished for you to realize hooooooooow drained you actually are, and wow, does it hit you like a ton of bricks. That's exactly how I felt when I arrived home, hours after I planned....so I thought apart from coffee, what is going to invigorate me for the afternoon and evening of tasks that I have ahead, well that's easy, an awesome, nutritious, and delish open faced sandwich or a tartine...got the idea for this from having my meeting earlier at Le Pain Quotidien. A Belgian originated chain that has organic sandwiches, salads, homebaked breads, etc -- an upscale chain coffeeshop. Their tartines are outstanding and so it got me thinking, hmm, there we go I will give you a recipe for a tartine!
On the note of having a ton of errands to check off on my to-do list this afternoon, I thought this has to be a quick easy simple recipe. Again inspired by Le Pain Quotidien, I decided to make the star of my sandwich a Young Belgian Goat cheese infused with honey, available for purchase at Fairway and one of my favorite recent discoveries. This baby is affordable, melts in your mouth, a welcome addition to any dish and is that perfect blend of being easily approachable but complex. I decided to use the bread I had in house, however, I think this sandwich would be best on a nice crunchy baguette, like the type you can buy at Le Pain Quotidien. I used though, Gourmet Garage's Pane Rustica, an Italian crunchy bread that makes a huge mess of crumbs on the floor when you slice it, but is a great base for our ingredients. Grab two slices of bread and put a dollop of honey on each. Honey in small quantities is really good for you and gives you that little sugar kick. Then top with a nice slab of your goat cheese. On top of that, for each side of the sandwich, I sliced up a dried fig and then topped it with a few leaves of arugula and a little bit of black pepper. That's it folks, easy, delish, and provides you with carbs, veggies, fruit, protein, and some sweetness to give you energy to get through the afternoon. I had it with a cup of coffee, but feel free to have it with the beverage of your choice. A nice cup of green tea would be lovely or at night, a nice crisp white wine would do the trick.
I hope you enjoy the tartine, I know it is a simple recipe for today, but it is a classically delish flavor pairing and will give you energy to get through your afternoon and evening.
Check back tomorrow for longer, more relaxed musings....
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