Bring on the Garlic Cheese Bombs!
I have to admit, summertime isn’t the most laid-back time of year for me. For a mom who also works from a home office, the school bell — not the first day of summer — signals my time to breathe again.
Right now, I’m caught up in a whirlwind of activity: taking my son, Matthew, to play dates, baseball games and junior-lifeguard classes while trying to stay on top of writing assignments. A two-day-old pile of clean laundry sits in a basket on the bedroom floor, getting thoroughly wrinkled. My email is piling up. And the house is looking a little scary.
But today, none of that matters, because it’s “Sandwich Day” at junior-lifeguard class. Sandwich Day is a much-revered tradition in our town. Every kid brings a few sandwiches, cut into small servings for sharing, to class. Then the voting begins. The rules:
° The sandwich must be homemade.
° Creativity is king.
° It must be made with love.
Hence the birth of the Garlic Cheese Bomb. It started last year, when
Matt and I put our heads together to come up with a concoction so
delicious, so oozing with yumminess, that it would be voted “best
sandwich” by Sean, the junior-lifeguard instructor. Matt got to pick
the ingredients and name our creation. I was in charge of making sure
he didn’t get distracted by “Drake & Josh” on T.V. while the Garlic
Cheese Bombs went up in flames under the broiler.
How to make such a delicacy?
° Start with huge slices of fresh sourdough bread.
° Spread butter lightly on one side of each slice of bread. Sprinkle
on garlic powder. Then add a generous sprinkling of shredded cheddar
cheese. (Seriously, 1/2 cup of cheese per slice isn’t too much. We’re
going for decadence here.)
° Broil in the oven to make garlic-cheese bread. (Check it often!)
° Resist the urge to blow off the contest and eat the bread as soon as it comes out of the over.
° Let the bread cool.
° Add ham, lettuce and tomato, nestling the ingredients between two pieces of the bread, with the cheese side out.
What about the love? That comes from Dad’s homegrown tomatoes.
Store-bought tomatoes will do in a pinch, but what says “Who loves ya,
baby?” more than tomatoes grown from itty, bitty plants from the
nursery, with Randy, my tomato-loving husband, watering them every
morning, tying them to their tomato-growing cages (and to the front
porch railing and to the upstairs deck railing… Yep, we have become the
Beverly Hillbillies) and checking, every evening, to see which tomatoes
are perfect for picking.
This is our second year to make Garlic Cheese Bombs. Last year, Matthew
took first place on Sandwich Day. This year, he lost to a reportedly
fabulous homemade meatball sandwich. (Although several
garlic-cheese-filled kids lobbied hard for the Garlic Cheese Bombs,
Matt reported.)
But no matter. It’s Matt and Mom together in the kitchen, sprinkling on
just the right amount of cheese and smelling the aroma of Dad’s
homemade tomatoes as we slice them, still warm from the vine, that
makes Garlic Cheese Bombs a winner in our family.
And when it comes to keeping a summer family tradition like that, the laundry and the deadlines can definitely wait.
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Tags: garlic, junior lifeguards, Kathy Sena, laundry, recipes, sandwich
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Oh, that sounds good!
Thanks, Mama Zen!
Yesterday was “cookie day,” and we made “tsunami bars” for junior lifeguard class. Take two slabs of brownie and add blue (for the ocean) icing in the middle. Sort of like a giant, square Oreo with blue frosting. Matt took first place!