My son and I can’t tell you the name of this sandwich, because it’s adapted from a book we’ll talk about in a day or two. We will give you our version of the recipe today, though . . . then we’ll tell you about the book.

But first I just want to send my love to any of my readers who live in Japan, have loved ones there, or are connected with the devastation there in any way. My prayers and thoughts are with you.

This morning I learned of a blog that is hosting an online bake sale at the end of March. I will keep you filled in as I learn more about it.

Until then, let me tell you how we made the sandwich . . .

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After babble.com named me as one of their favorite mommy food bloggers last month, they asked me if I would also like to blog on their website. The food portion of their site is called The Family Kitchen, and I have joined Jenny Rosenstrach of DinnerALoveStory.com, Julie Van Rosendaal of Dinner With Julie, Kelsey Banfield, The Naptime Chef, and Caroline Campion, from devilandegg.com. It will be a lot of blogging, and a lot of fun to work with these women.

If you ever feel neglected here at sophistimom, then go on over to Babble.com‘s Family Kitchen, and you can see what I am posting over there. But for an easier time of it, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to become a fan of my new sophistimom facebook page, where I will always have updates of what I am posting, and where. Or, you can always just click on one of those cool new buttons over there on the right and register for my RSS feed, (my facebook page), or follow me on twitter.  But only if you want to.  No pressure.

Today I posted a recipe on babble for a crust-less quiche, which you see in the picture sandwiched in between the two halves of that biscuit. Click on over to see that recipe, and read about how I came up with the idea.

When I made these biscuits, I did something I have never done before in my life: I used the leftover bacon grease. Some of you may think that’s cool, others may think it’s disgusting. I knew it couldn’t be much worse than using hydrogenated oil, and thought it would add to the flavor and overall texture of the biscuits, so I gave it a whirl.

I think it really delivered.

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Well, neither is my son, but that’s how he fences. He even started fencing that way before I showed him The Princess Bride.

Now I know you all don’t need a recipe for this, but I thought it would be fun to include anyway, since I packed it for my 10-year-old’s first fencing competition. He kept trying to grab the bread and use it for foil practice.

According to my little girl, the trip up to Weber State was longer than the trip back. No kidding. Between the stop at Target (where we bought the stuff for the sandwich), filling up the tank, stopping at Wendy’s to prevent an accident, and a #3 traffic jam (my kids make me rate every traffic jam—”Is this a 10, Mom?” “How does this compare to the last traffic jam? Wasn’t that a 7?”), the trip to the competition was most definitely more hectic.

Which is why I am glad we packed something simple—I made it in the trunk of my car.

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The name of this sandwich would have had me running to the other room if I were a kid.  Good thing those days of culinary naivete are over.

Because this was so good.

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Tartines are open faced sandwiches that are popular in Paris. What a fantastic way to add to our collection of recipes for our apple week!

My son and his friend gobbled these up this afternoon. So if your kids are open minded, and willing to eat apples with cheese, these tartines may just be a big hit at your house.

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Can you really go wrong with any of these ingredients?  Brooke and I enjoyed these lovely sandwiches at our picnic alongside the roasted beet salad (glad I had air conditioning, with all the roasting, I must say).

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Want an idea on how to use the chicken I posted yesterday?  This is what I did with it.

Many chefs use tarragon to flavor chicken, and I wanted to make a salad with it.  Since it is also a major flavor component in béarnaise sauce, I wanted to incorporate those flavors, too.  But do you really think I wanted to go crazy making a béarnaise sauce, with the egg yolks and the vinegar?  Mm, not so much.  Not today, anyway.  Besides, I needed something a little less runny for a chicken salad.  Basically I just started with mayonnaise and added shallots and tarragon.  Et voilà, I came up with a béarnaise flavored dressing, perfect for a chicken salad.

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I just found some new taste testers for my recipes.

A couple little girls are spending the day at our house, and I was making these wraps for myself.  When it was lunchtime, I offered them English muffin pizzas or fish tacos.  They both said fish tacos. (My first thought was, Oh no, they’ll eat all my tuna!), but then I marveled at the idea that perhaps, somewhere, some children in the world, are not picky!

It turns out, the tacos were a hit, and the girls’ only complaints were that the avocado slices were falling out.
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This is a such a simple chicken salad, it’s not really worth posting, but I wanted to give you at least a little inspiration for the chicken that results from the chicken stock recipe.  I’ll make a more interesting one soon.

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What you see in the picture is not what we ate.

When I was making the egg salad, the kids pulled the kitchen chairs up to the island to watch. Everything was in the bowl, ready to mix, when I went to get a spoon. As I turned my back, I heard a sound, like sand pouring out of a glass. Then my two-year-old started shouting, “I did it! I helped you!”

In the bowl was a mountain of salt.

I thought I got it all out, but as I stirred, I heard the crystals scraping along the bottom of the bowl.

A word of caution: be careful with the salt. You can always add more—you can’t always take it out.

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