Playing With My Panini

This week I was blessed with a gift certificate to Williams Sonoma for a hundred dollars. Wow! I was like a kid in a candy shop – wide eyed and overwhelmed by all that surrounded me.

I was torn between a pasta maker and a panini machine. But I figured I would get more use out of the panini machine since I could also use it as a grille.

I’m entering a new world here…I never thought of making panini before. When I wanted a panini, I ordered it in a restaurant.

Now I need to explore making paninis….

After perusing several of my favorite sites for panini recipes, I got the general gist of it and started lining up my ingredients.

A good, crusty bread is a must. This time I went with a whole grain baquette.

Cheese please.

Only fresh mozzarella will do….

Didn’t want to overdo it with the ingredients at this point. Remember this is the virgin run for me.

I played it safe with familiar ingredients…pesto, chicken tenders marinated in Italian dressing, mozzarella cheese and tomatoes!

Time to build the sammies…

I cooked the chicken right on the panini machine – it was beautiful!

While the chicken was cooking, I prepared the bread by spreading pesto on both sides…

After the chicken was cooked – 3 minutes in the grill!

It was time to stack the sammies…

Bread brushed with pesto.

Chicken.

A few slices of cheese.

Tomatoes.

Bread brushed with pesto. (again…other side)

Ready to go.

Oh gosh….I’m a little nervous here.

Don’t let me down!

Ha Ha! It was funny…I had the manual on one hand and the computer on the other.

Sometimes I just need to learn to sit back and breathe…

For what you see is what I got!

Not bad for the first time…

Can’t wait to play more!

So much more on this later…virgin run, ya know?