Bread, cheese, butter (Grilled cheese with prosciutto, pear, and fontina)

Though Aaron and I work the same hours and share the same nightmarish 2-hour commute, I am (unfairly) quite partial to reserving the kitchen as my exclusive domain. As such, I usually end up preparing dinner, so it's a bit of an extra special treat when Aaron volunteers to cook (or when I blithely volunteer him, anyway). He has no shortage of his own specialties and culinary history, but there's a dark side: Aaron spent several years of his formative existence declining to eat anything but Kraft macaroni and cheese and grilled cheese sandwiches. Now fully reformed and rehabilitated, he still carries a torch for the tried and true pairing of cheese and carbs, it's just that he's a little more enterprising when it comes to casting the supporting players. This grilled cheese sandwich starts with the holy trinity of bread, cheese, and butter, but also includes crisp, subtly sweet pear slices, salty prosciutto, and peppery arugula.

Extra crispy 

A Scone's Throw Away (Vanilla Bean Scones)

As is no secret to our barista, Aaron and I have an addiction to vanilla scones. More correctly, I have an addiction to scones, period. They are, in essence, a sweet biscuit and as I love both sweets and biscuits I find myself perpetually wanting to throw caution to the winds and luxuriate in creamy, buttery, crumbliness with reckless abandon. It just so happens that one of my favorite pairings for said exquisite crumbliness is vanilla.

Exquisite!

Bananarama (Roasted Banana Bread)

Perhaps it's embarrassing to admit to, but I just recently learned the "flax egg" trick of vegan baking. Whisk together one tablespoon of freshly ground flax seeds with three tablespoons of water and chill for one hour and you have a dairy-free "egg" with all the binding action of the original. Excited as I am with this new knowledge, I can scarcely resist the urge to try it out over and over again. Our friends Gregory & Piyanka gave Aaron a copy of the Forks Over Knives cookbook, so I have a hefty source from which to seek inspiration.

Inspiration: now in baking form

The Morning After (Chocolate Sandwiches)

On weekend mornings, I tend to be grumpily awoken by passionate, plaintive meowing for breakfast. Cats being fed, I trudge back to bedroom and try to get some more sleep. Early Morning James has one objective: more sleeping; and he will go to great lengths to ensure it. Of course, on some mornings you want to do something special and, at those times, it's nice to have a meal that can be easily prepared and quickly returned to the bedroom, too.

Morning pick-me-up

California Dreaming (Strawberry Avocado Banana Bread)

I certainly seem to mention the weather a lot, don't I? I blame it on the winter. Today was a strange mixture of sunlight and snow, with harsh winds and a bitter chill in the air. I know it may be the most hated state, but I can't help but keep joking about moving to California. One thing it certainly has on its side is strawberries and avocados: two of my favorite fruits. You can expect to see a lot of them on this blog. Thanks to a handy tip from our friend Jen, and my weekly pile of over-ripened bananas, this one was a snap.

Like a little slice of summer

Messing with a Classic (Chocolate Hazelnut Banana Bread)

Banana bread, it holds a mysterious power. Dense, moist, impossibly fragrant... I am hard-pressed to encounter one and not want to eat the whole thing. I had intended for today's post to be a variation on my mother's Blue Ribbon Banana Bread, I know I have the recipe somewhere. Unfortunately, fortune did not smile upon my quest and a quick Google search demonstrates that everyone and their mother has a recipe for Blue Ribbon Banana Bread. Which is the "true" version? The world may never know.

Blue ribbon added for effect