Isn’t it funny how marriage has its peaks and valleys? I am happily married. I married a wonderful man who works extremely hard every day away from home to provide for us. When he comes home, he happily shares in the housework, the cooking, the taking care of the kids, etc. I am spoiled and blessed all at once.
Even though I do consider myself to be happily married, there are times when my husband and I can’t stand each other. We get in those moods where every little thing the other one does bugs the heck out of each other. My husband, for example, likes to finish whatever I am doing. If I have a pot on the stove simmering something and the lid is supposed to stay on during the entire time, he comes into the kitchen and takes over…lifting the lid and stirring the pot. He thinks he is being helpful when really he doesn’t understand that I have things completely under control. I, of course, cannot imagine anything that I could possibly do to annoy him. OK – well maybe the beating him up in the middle of the night gets annoying, but besides that I am really the non-annoying one out of the two of us. (Kidding, of course!)
At times, we are annoyed with each other. Those times I will call our valleys. Then we have our peaks. The past few weeks we have been on a really high peak. Everything is clicking. We are communicating, loving, having fun, and enjoying each others company. The kids are happy, we are happy and things are just going swell.
We just came off of a wonderful weekend. We did not do anything overly special. We just spent a lot of time together…shopping, working around the house, going to the pool, watching movies after the kids went to bed and cooking. Yes… we did a lot of great cooking over the weekend. Cooking is something we do really well together and it is one of my favorite things to do with my husband. We made a lot of delicious dishes over the weekend, but one of the things we made stood out because of its simplicity. The dish that stood out was not overly complicated at all… in fact it was a simple recipe. We decided to try this recipe after sitting together on the couch, pouring over the August 2007 issue of Food & Wine magazine. We were looking through it together and were bookmarking recipes we wanted to try. It just so happened that we needed a quick idea for lunch, and the recipe for Grilled Chicken Sandwiches with Mozzarella, Tomato and Basil jumped out at us. What made these sandwiches delicious was the marriage of great ingredients that might not taste great alone, but put together are wonderful. Ingredients that blend well together to make a great tasting, yet not complicated, sandwich…. very similar to a good marriage. Two people who are better together than they are apart and while together, create a full life, where the peaks outweigh the valleys and the valleys make the peaks all the more better.
Grilled Chicken Sandwiches with Mozzarella, Tomato and Basil (Food and Wine August 2007)
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
- 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon thyme leaves
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
- 2 tomatoes thinly sliced
- 12 1/2-inch-thick chicken breast cutlets 2 1/2 pounds
- 6 ciabatta rolls split
- 6 1/3-inch-thick slices of fresh mozzarella
- 6 large basil leaves optional
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk 1/4 cup of the olive oil with the lemon zest, lemon juice, thyme, garlic and a generous pinch each of salt and pepper. Spoon 1 1/2 tablespoons of the mixture into a medium bowl, add the tomatoes and turn to coat. Add the chicken to the large bowl and turn to coat. Let the tomatoes and chicken stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- Light a grill. Brush the rolls with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil and grill over high heat until golden. Add the chicken to the grill, season with salt and pepper and grill over high heat, turning once, until cooked through and lightly charred, about 6 minutes. Place the chicken on the rolls and top with the mozzarella, tomato and basil. Spoon any tomato juices on the top half of the bun, close the sandwiches and serve.
Beautifully said! Beautiful sandwiches as metaphor!
Sharing, loving, communicating, tolerating, even hating (sometimes)…..all goes to a happy marriage.
I’m happy we both have them all! 😀
This was so beautiful! 🙂
Oh my…my mouth instantly watered when I saw this…looks so, so, so very good!!
Kristen these look soooooo good! I can’t wait to make these!
Good description of long married life! Some peaks, some valleys, lots of plateaus….
Kristen, I can so relate to you here. We too have our valleys there are times when I think if I will ever see a peak again LOL! But I have to say this sandwich is the summit of any sandwich!! Looks great!
What a beautiful description of marriage. You and Nick are both blessed and blessings to each other. Your beautiful children are so lucky to have both of you…mature beyond your years. Love you
Marriage is hard work, but I love how you guys work through it- and he helps in the kitchen- that is so cute! My husband just started a second job (to work on his truck that needs repairs) and he’s gone 7 days a week now. It’s VERY hard and it just started but I’m already beginning to feel the strain of it all, but we’ll work through it somehow…
What a nice post about marriage. 🙂 I really enjoyed it.
In 30+ years of marriage, I can’t remember a single time when my darling husband and I sat down, paged through a magazine, chose a recipe, and cooked it together! I did bookmark this one from F&W, too.
Wonderful post Kristen!
I love your tie in of food and marriage!
And, I must try this combination on some focaccia.
Kristen – everything from the Raspberry Cheesecake Shakes up to this delicious looking chicken sammie sounds and looks heavenly!!!
I was especially taken with this sandwich and the peanut butter cookies – will be making them both!
And hoooo boy can I relate to the "Peaks and Valleys" heheee Good thing is the "valleys" are never too low. =)
Excellent recipes – thanks so much for sharing!
xoxo
Great looking sandwich and nicely written on marriage and food. It’s the peaks and valleys that makes a scenic marriage. 🙂
You described my marriage – fabulous guy who spoils you rotten, takes care of the family, yet occasionally makes you crazy. I put that down to hormones, though.
Beautiful sandwiches. I’ve got to try those this week! Thanks for the recipe!
I love the post and the sandwiches – ciabatta is one of my favorite types of bread.
I have that issue in my sight and am about to take a coffee and go sit down with it.
It sounds like you two are having a great ‘peak’ now. Love to hear that. I have the same ‘P&V’ with Mike, its just what marriage is about. Thank goodness for peaks!
Photo is gorgeous!! Yum! I can taste that sandwich!!
Prettiest sandwich I have ever seen. What I wouldn’t do for a bite!
And such a beautiful post about marriage. Your hubby sounds like a great guy.
Marriage does have it’s highs and lows. I agree though: let’s just hope the highs are more frequent than the lows! My husband and I spent a similar weekend together, and though we didn’t do anything "exciting" spending all that time together doing mundane, everyday things was so refreshing. 🙂
This was such a lovely entry!
I used to get sandwiches like this at the Whole Foods store near me, now I go to Wegman’s for them. They are my favorite ingredients on a sandwich. Awesome.
My OH is a pot stirrer too–very annoying. Unless I wanted him to do it, in which case, lovely 😉
This recipe is definitely one I can use 🙂
Jim is always taking over things I’ve started too. Funny though, that he never wishes to butt in and take over when I’m doing things like.. eh.. cleaning the toilet!! 🙂
What a nice post, it makes us all feel normal! I love the part of the cooking together, when you choose the recipes you want to try. And this sandwich looks delicious!
i’m glad you had such a great weekend and are in a great mood! oh, and that sandwich…mmm!
Your post is a wonderful tribute to your marriage and your husband. And the burgers, well, I think you said it best – great tasting, yet complicated, like a good marriage.
These sandwiches sound perfect…as does your marriage, highs and lows included. 🙂 My fiance doesn’t cook with me, but he is an appreciative recipient of whatever I dish out, lol!
Did you use your own fresh basil? That’s probably my best "grower".
I loved this post – both the recipe (definitely going to "borrow" that one from you) and your musings about working through a great marriage!
Thank you, Kristen. Namaste!
How do you find the time to cook from the magazines? I guess college, work, and running take up all my time, but this weekend I’m going home, which means my dad and I get to cook. Yeah!
lovely. lovely post and lovely sandwich.
i’m so glad you made these and posted about them! i have been drooling over that recipe for the past few days, and you may have just convinced me to try it tonight.
I love cooking with my fiancee. We always have such a great time, sipping wine and preparing a greta meal together!
Good, acurate description of marriage. I think now a days people assume it is going to be all peaks and that something is WRONG when you go into the valley or hit a plateu…it’s just life.
Kristen, I completely understand what you mean about the peak and valleys. Sometimes the valleys makes the peaks higher! 😉
We have our share of valleys too and while climbing back up to those peaks can be a challenge sometimes, the view is always amazing when you reach the top. That was a gerat post and oh yeah, that sandwich looks amazing!
This looks delicious! I might try it sans chicken. I love tomato and basil together. Mmmmm…
Love the way you married your marriage and this recipe. Classic.
isn’t it wonderful to have great lovely-goodness weekends? they are the best! hah, chris does the same thing with lifting the lid on things when i’m cooking or flipping things over, eeek! its so easy to get stressed and at each others throats, nice to have sweet husbands like ours that get over it 🙂
oh you didn’t think i forgot about this delicious sandwich did you? YUM!! looks incredible, i’ll take one please …… 🙂
I know I say this a lot, but it is so wonderful to hear from the POSITIVE side of married life. Also, the realism that makes up the world we live in.
Thank you for your honesty and bravery and for making us not-yet-married people able to see the beautiful potential of our future (warts and all).
I LOVE your blog! 🙂
Kirsten
What a lovely description of marriage! Delicious looking sandwich too!
Hi Kristen,
What a wonderful post!
I just saw a few pictures.You have such beautiful kids!Some of your pictures are priceless!.
Thank you for stopping by my blog.It means a lot to me as I am very new to the world of blogging.
I will be coming back to visit you soon.
TBC
sandwiches are all you need!