I love sandwiches.

Anything-and-bread.  My kind of meal.

Sandwiches really can run the gamut from simple to extravagant – and it doesn’t really take a lot to go from simple to way over the top.  A couple of ingredients and a little imagination.

One of my favorite tricks is to use tapenades as sandwich spreads.  Roasted red pepper and artichoke tapenade on a roast beef sandwich?!?  Excellent.  Add cheeses, something green and crunchy like lettuce, pickles, sprouts, pea shoots… And then put it on focaccia or ciabatta, or another rustic-type bread and it’s over-the-top.  Grilled cheese sandwiches with Happy Hal’s Jalapeno Relish… Turkey with lingonberry sauce, onions, and spicy mustard…   So many concepts, so few meals…

Tonights sandwich was cheesy chicken with mushrooms and bell peppers on a french roll.

I chopped up a couple of small chicken breasts and sauteed them with bell peppers and mushrooms.  When all was cooked, I stirred in a Welsh cheddar with chives and shallots.  Creamy goodness!  The cheese just coated everything and every bite was crusty bread, cheesy chicken, and crunchy peppers with little bits of mushroom.

Really good.  And really simple.

It doesn’t take a lot of effort to change the ordinary to extraordinary.

Use your imagination next time you’re making a sandwich and take it over the top!