How often do you eat mindfully? Or heck, indulge in lunch? No, grabbing a bite between meetings at your desk while scanning your email and listening to voicemail doesn't count.
Today, don't worry, I'll go easy on you, for five or ten minutes shut your office door. Turn off your phone's ringer. Close your laptop or turn off your computer monitor. Put away all distractions. Now, before taking your first bite really observe your lunch.
Is your lunch visually appealing? Did the person who made your lunch throw it together or craft it with care? Can you smell the individual ingredients in your lunch? The vinegar in the mustard?
Take a bite. Chew deliberately don't swallow your bite whole. Notice if the ingredients are evenly distributed. Or, did you get too much mustard or no salami? Take another bite. Is there too much bread to meat? Or too much meat or cheese to bread? Continue eating, pausing between bites to really think about your sandwich.
How do you like your sandwich?
My Recipe for the Perfect Salami Sandwich
After I photographed my sandwich, I realized that I'm very particular about my salami sandwiches. (I took an hour for lunch, half an hour just to eat my sandwich, so I considered my sandwich for a while.) Here's the recipe for my perfect salami sandwich:
- Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.
- Thinly slice a sour baguette on the diagonal. A quarter inch as pictured is too thick. When you put the two slices of baguette together you should have no more than a quarter inch of bread.
- Place the sliced sour baguette on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, and grind fresh pepper and salt to taste.
- Toast your sliced sour baguette for about 15 minutes or until golden. Watch carefully as the thin bread can easily burn.
- Take two slices, and coat one slice with Whole Grain Mustard or stone-ground mustard. Being able to see the mustard grains is a key visual element.
- Put the slices without the mustard into a toaster oven.
- On the slices in the toaster oven, lay a thin slice of French Basque Sheep Milk Cheese. Toast until cheese sweats and remove.
- Lay one or two slices of Italian hot salami across the mustard.
- Top with the cheesy slice of baguette.
- Eat mindfully.
Bon Appetit!
Eden
