Look At This Lunch!

I love avocados. I love goat cheese. When I saw this Avocado Goat Cheese sandwich on the menu at Z Cafe (389 Main Street, Worcester), I knew I had to have it.

I chose the foccacia bread (other options included sourdough and ciabatta, along with the usual rye and wheat). Besides the namesake ingredients, the Avocado Goat Cheese sandwich features tomatoes, spinach, and a balsamic glaze.

This sandwich made me glad I'd tried an independent establishment for lunch. I very nearly went to one of the chains for lunch, since I didn't have much money, but I didn't spend much more on my lunch at Z Cafe than I would have at that chain: $6.50 for the sandwich, with an apple on the side (the other options were chips and coleslaw).

Z Cafe is only open for breakfast and lunch on weekdays, but they host private functions in that space on weekends and evenings, as well as catering. eatatz.com

Sardines: Your Questions Answered (If You Had Any)

Hence the phrase "packed like sardines".

I decided to indulge my morbid curiosity and finally try sardines.

I bought sardines packed in olive oil, and also the sardines packed in spring water, and tried them both. Now for the Q&A.


Q.: What did they taste like?
A.: Short answer: canned fish. More nuanced answer: the sardines in olive oil tasted like albacore tuna. The sardines in spring water were different, blander, and I can't explain it well. But it might pass for tuna if enough mayonnaise was added.

Q.: What motivated you to try sardines?
A.: They are a good source of Omega-3 fatty acids, which are "brain food", as well as being beneficial in numerous other ways. Also, I also seldom eat tuna, because of the concerns about mercury. I have already gone through heavy metals detox, which sounds like it should involve Alice Cooper or something cool, but involves IV treatments. I'd rather not undo that.

Q.:What about bones? It must be hard to pick tiny bones out of tiny fish?
A.: While the spines are easy to pull out, deboning is not necessary. The bones are soft and small, and you can just eat them, they add a little crunchiness to the texture. Also, it's a good source of calcium.

Q.: What about sodium?
A.: The brand I bought had 250 mg in the can packed in oil, 200 mg in the can packed in spring water (no salt added). 10% and 8% of the daily value.

Q.: How do you serve sardines?
A.: I was eating them straight from the can (after draining them) because I was home alone and that's when I get lazy. Here are the serving suggestions from the cans.
Packed in oil: "Delicious on crackers, bread, toast, sandwich wraps, or straight from the can. Add to your next open-faced broiled cheese sandwich."
Packed in spring water is similar, but ends with "Add to your next green salad".

Q.: Would you buy them again?
A.: Maybe, if it was on sale at the right price point. (I got these 5/$6, ie: $1.20 each.)

Indoor S'mores

I made s'mores in the oven for my family's potluck on Sunday. They were a hit.

The great thing about these is that they are incredibly easy to make, and pretty cheap too. I made 30 s'mores, and that was only about 2/3 of a $1 bag of marshmallows, plus about 2/3 of a box of graham crackers (which I'm sure I paid less than $3 for), and 4 Hershey milk chocolate bars (the regular size, breakable into rectangles) which were less than $1 each. I had bought 6 of those bars, so I could have made many more s'mores, but 30 was more than enough for our group.

I have also made these s'mores with gourmet dark chocolates, like Green & Black's Dark 85%, which was very intense, so I used only one square from the bar on each s'more.

Preheat oven to 400F.

Line cookie sheet with foil or parchment, if desired, to make for easy cleanup.

Arrange graham cracker halves on cookie sheet, top each with a marshmallow.

Bake for about 4 minutes.

Take out of oven, top with chocolate (2 rectangles from the Hershey bar per s'more was just right), which should melt from the heat of the marshmallow, but if it doesn't (it might not if the room is cold), give the s'mores about a minute in the oven.

Top with the other graham cracker halves.

Enjoy!