A lunch fit for a sim

Over the last couple weeks I’ve found myself awfully busy.  I’ve been on a number of photoshoots so between travel to the shoot, doing the shoot and then editing, project delivery and accounting after the shoot, I haven’t had a lot of sim time.  Things have calmed a little bit, so as I prepare lunch, I’m looking to finish the last of the projects and get back to simming for at least part of the day today.

But there is one lunch that stands out for me as a simmer: grilled cheese!  I’m a bit of a foodie, so my grilled cheese has a few extra steps.  First, my doctor told me to follow a gluten-free diet (for me it’s not just a fad; we have a family history of gluten intolerance), so I make my own bread.  I use Pamela’s gluten-free bread mix but substitute about 1 tablespoon with grapeseed flour (I order a few varieties from Apres Vin).  The grapeseed flour adds a slight purple tint to the baked bread but it’s a wonderful flavor boost.  I use a breadmaker to mix and bake the bread, which is why the bread shown in the photo has that little cutout at the bottom. 

For the sandwich I use a mix of cheeses, usually a sharp cheddar and a jack or Swiss, that I grate in large strips.  I add a little mustard to the cheese then a couple slices of sandwich meat, usually smoked ham (my favorite meats right now are Hormel’s Natural Choice brand), but here I’m using turkey.  I heat the sandwich on a cast-iron griddle on my stovetop; my griddle was made by Lodge and the other side has a grill pattern for meats.  While the first side of my sandwich is browning and the cheese begins to melt, I press down on the sandwich with a bacon weight (something like this one) then wait a few minutes.  I drizzle a little olive oil on the top slice of bread and then flip the sandwich to brown the other side.  It takes about 10 minutes to prepare (after waiting a few hours for the breadmaker to finish and for the bread to cool a little), and the only thing missing is a bowl of tomato soup.  And yes, I normally make two, because who can stop at just one?

Omnomnomnom!