Bread and sandwiches

For months now I've just been going through the motions with my lunch-time fare. Maybe a sandwich with some packaged store-brand deli turkey on el-cheapo wheat bread. Depending on how excited I might be about eating that sad sandwich on that particular day I might put some mayo or cheese in there. Maybe not though. To be honest the above is a fairly standard lunch "filler," and hard to get interested in. It fills a void pleasantly and that's about it.

Just the other night I discovered that my local grocery's deli sold it's day-old bread at a marked discount. If you're like me, you wander the areas between the fruits and veggies and the bakery area for just a little while hoping something grabs your interest. On this particular occasion I decided to pick up a day-old loaf of sourdough bread. Uncut, just a beautiful rotunda of crusty goodness.

After slicing out a heel piece and covering it in butter and making it disappear, I was able to slice out some nice sandwich-sized peices. Throwing them into a toaster oven for just a couple minutes added quite a bit more than I would have thought! I used the same old packaged sliced turkey, but added some mustard and lettuce and swiss and tomato... and suddenly I had a beautiful, exciting sandwich.

I will also say that the bread works quite well at grilled cheese, but is a bit odd when attempting french toast. It can't do everything. What's the lesson behind all this? Well, factory bread is often cheap and utilitarian and that is a boon. But for 50 cents more you can have something that really makes you want to eat it. Make the loaf yourself if you have the gumption, but a nice crusty chunk of goodness is the perfect thing to keep to make lunch exciting.