glorified grilled cheese

when is grilled cheese okay for breakfast? when it has an egg on it! (or all the time). in any case, a wonderfully crusty spelt loaf and aged cheddar were beckoning and i couldn't wait until lunch.

i topped my sandwich (instead of stuffing it) with an egg, heirloom tomato slice and a ginormous basil leaf, because i was really looking for a grilled cheese vehicle and wanted to keep my cheesy goodness purely intact as possible.

if you're gonna go this route (extra toppings or not), there are very few ingredients involved so quality is crucial. i mean it! do no skimp. save your wonder bread and american cheese for something else. and as we transition to the fall season, read up on your heirlooms, if you haven't already. i must say, they were absolutely out of control at the santa monica farmers market a couple of weekends ago.
glorified grilled cheese

• cheese: a nice aged cheddar made me happy
  
• bread: crusty, please!
  
• nice thick slice of tomato
• a couple of basil leaves
  
• fried egg: over easy, lots of yolk, please

• combine as desired. in my case, this involved buttering two slices of bread, frying them butter side down with cheese on top, cooking until the cheese melted , sticking them together and topping them with the rest of the ingredients.

baked honey figs

by now you probably realize that i develop food obsessions. i.e. i'll get an item in my head and can't shake it out until i accomplish global food domination! aka cook that food and eat it asap.

this week's (and last month's) obsession? figs! so when i saw a basket of these yummy morsels at the farmer's market last week in la, i NEEDED them. really, i was beyond want; i'm talking desperate need. and then i had them at home and wanted to do something with them. some quick internet research yielded a few baked honey fig ideas but i focused on a simple recipe from amateur gourmet as a jumping off point.

in a nutshell: cut open figs, drizzle with honey, citrus, vanilla mixture, and bake until bubbly. serve with a dairy item. (for specifics, see below)

as an accompaniment, i recommend my latest obsession: humboldt fog cheese. make sure to let it sit out to uh, mellow and do it's thing. you won't be sorry.

yummy figs
adapted from amateur gourmet

• figs
• honey
• splash of vanilla
• liiiiitle bit of citrus: original recipe calls for orange zest but all i had was lemonade, so in it went

• cut open figs
• mix together honey, vanilla and citrus and pour over figs
• bake at 375 until bubbly (about 15 minutes)