Have I mentioned that I’m going vegan for January? I have about two and a half more weeks to eat all of the cheese…

Ingredients

– 2/3 cup Shiitake Mushrooms, chopped
– 1 cup Dinosaur Kale, stems removed, greens chopped
– 2/3 Cup Fontina Cheese, shredded
– 2 sliced Bread
– 1-2 Tbls Extra Virgin Olive Oil
– Butter
– Salt to taste

Heat olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Add shiitake mushrooms and season with salt. Toss as the mushrooms begin to brown. Add kale and continue to saute until the kale wilts and starts to crisp. Set aside. Spread butter on one side of each slice of bread. Add half of the cheese to an unbuttered sides of one of the slices. Add the mushroom and kale mixture and top with the remainder of the cheese. Top with other slice of bread, butter-side up. Heat a pan over low/medium heat and add sandwich to the pan. Grill until golden brown on one side. Flip and grill the other side as well. Let rest for a minute or two and then cut and serve immediately.

I’ll admit that I cheated a little and bought canned jam, but I was hungry and was daydreaming of the guava paste I’d had with a cheese plate at Dumont last week… The Goya guava jam I used is vegetarian – pectin is the thickening agent.

Ingredients

– 2 slices of good Bread
– 1/4 cup Guava Jam
– Cayenne Pepper (to taste)
– Sliced Havarti Cheese (I used a little less than 1/4 of a pound)
– 1-2 Tbsp Butter 

Directions

In a bowl, combine guava jam and cayenne pepper. Taste as you add cayenne until it reaches the desired level of spiciness. Spread a generous amount of jam on one side of both pieces of bread. Layer with havarti cheese. Put sandwich together and spread outside sides of bread with butter. Grill each side to golden brown on medium/high heat in a saute or griddle. Remove from heat, cool slightly and cut. Some summer pics.