....of sandwiches and men

We came home from church today with no kids. None. The teens stayed at church for pizza and game day. Maggie went to her cousin's house for the day. So after Charles and I took my mom home, we came home to an almost empty house....although here was a small, smiling dog waiting for us.

I had nothing ready to cook, so Charles suggested grilled cheese on the new bread we got yesterday at the Farm. There was a man selling fresh artisan breads on the walk into the restaurant area. He had such a soothing, gentle, eloquent way about him while selling the bread (he had actually made some of the loaves in we were admiring) that we talked about him and tried to describe him on the way home for a while. His appearance was that of a bread baker, but when he spoke, you could tell there was much more to him than baking bread. He was not necessarily highly educated (although that is quite possible nor was he putting on an act). He was very sincere....you could tell it was just his personality. It was more an attitude of relishing life and language. He said several phrases that I found unique at the time, but now I can't remember the words. He had a truly artistic way of thinking and speaking that showed his enjoyment in the people around him and the simple act of creating rustic, artisan loaves and selling them. I could have watched him interact with people for a long time.

We bought two rustic, wonderful looking loaves. One was cranberry/walnut, with huge chunks of fresh cranberries, not dried, and crunchy walnuts. The other loaf was a 9-grain rustic bread. We split the loaves with our friends who took us when we got to our house and sampled it a bit. Then I should have HID it! Some of the teens who were here yesterday ate some of it. I am not very generous or forgiving when I have certain things I think are special and being saved for a special time. Grrrrrr.

Oh yes, back to lunch. I cut slices of the loaves. Charles is unadventurous and had the 9-grain with regular American cheese (someone had eaten his Pepper Jack cheese he was looking forward to but he is way more forgiving than I am) and I had the cranberry/walnut bread with shredded cheddar cheese and a thin slice of cream cheese. Then I put them in the George Foreman grill and let it do it's George Foremanish magic! The only thing missing on my grilled cheese was a slice of bacon. It was delicious, but that would have put it over the top. Or another idea was to put a little more cream cheese and a slathering of strawberry or raspberry jam on it, then grill it. Maybe I'll have that for breakfast if there's time.

And now it's shaping up into a lazy, restful Sunday afternoon.