For a few months during my sophomore year at NYU, I lived with a friend of the family, a single mom at the time who had a very demanding full-time job and was raising a two-year-old, S.. On the weekends and at night, I filled in when S’s nanny went home and her mom needed some time to herself. This little girl astounded me with a voracious appetite for things that most children her age would look askance at and absolutely refuse eating.
For her pre-school lunches, we would pack sandwiches of pan-cooked salmon, layered with mashed potato and broccoli or grilled lamb with thick slices of butter and other such delicacies. The little foodie ate every single bite. Not that I was surprised after seeing the way she woofed down her butternut squash soups, her olive tapenades, and her green salads at home. The sheer, obvious delight she held in her tiny face any time a nice meal was placed before her remains an image that spurs me on.
With Back-to-School season upon us and the ever growing forbiddance of packing nut butters in school lunches, our family pulled together to find something that might please us as much, or almost as much, as our favorite classic PB&J. My children, well, do not exactly look upon salmon in a beatific light. Suggest salmon, and they start running away yelping not-very-complimentary things. Sigh.
This sandwich, though, of gooey brie and strawberries macerated in balsamic vinegar, has a different effect altogether. If you’re making it for a Big Person or a mini-chef with a more experimental palate, you might consider adding a layer of arugula and some very, very thinly sliced red onions. If you are sending this sandwich to school with your Yummy, use those ice packs to keep the brie cool. We were pleasantly surprised to find some fresh wild strawberries at the greenmarket here in Vermont, but if you cannot find them where you are, buy frozen, organic strawberries.
Brie and Balsamic Strawberry Sandwich
serves about 4
*1 pint (2 c.) organic strawberries
*2 t-1 T. balsamic vinegar
*a wedge of brie, sliced.
*rolls or french bread (preferably some sort of crusty whole-grain bread), cut in half
Wash the strawberries with your Yummy and let them drain a bit.
Big Person: Slice the strawberries. Place them in a little bowl.
Measure out the vinegar to taste, starting with the 2 teaspoons and adjusting the acidity depending on the sweetness of the fruit and to the taste of your mini-chef. Let them sit (officially called “macerating”) for at least 5 minutes.
Assemble: Using about 1/4 of the ingredients for each sandwich, nestle the brie with the strawberries on top into the bread or rolls. For sending to school, wrap with plastic wrap and pack with an ice pack. At home, try grilling this sandwich like a panino, letting the brie get super gooey and fabulous.
