I realize this is supposed to be a blog about jewelry, or at least crafts, but….I’m pregnant. I’m spending a lot more time thinking about food than pretty much anything else, and I figured – why not write about it? Maybe (most likely) my readers have never had this delicious sandwich I’ve been eating ever since tomatoes came in season.

Background: when I was in my early 20s, I traveled around Europe with a girlfriend. We spent several days in Barcelona, and down the street from our hotel (a really cheap place that my grown-up self might be afraid to stay in these days) was a cute cafe where you could get sandwiches to go, in addition to other yummy treats. Every morning, I would get fresh squeezed orange juice and some kind of pastry or something for breakfast, and a cheese and tomato sandwich for later, in case we weren’t near any restaurants at lunchtime (yeah, not likely, but I really liked these sandwiches).

So, years later, I decided to try to recreate them. Here’s the recipe:

-baguette sliced the long way (or two slices of your favorite bread, ideally a locally baked crusty-type artisan bread)
-a few slices of organic heirloom tomato (because I’ve tried a lot of tomatoes, and that’s the tastiest kind I’ve found for eating fresh – especially if they come from my mom’s garden – but any tomato you like could work, provided it’s ripe and in season, otherwise the flavor will be disappointing, in my opinion)
-butter
-thinly sliced jarlsberg cheese (or similar – regular swiss is a bit stronger than the flavor I remember though)

Butter the bread, then layer on some thin slices of the tomato, cover with a single layer of the jarlsberg cheese, and enjoy! I’ve had about 5 of these sandwiches in two days, and I’ll keep eating them as long as I can get fresh, locally grown tomatoes!