Thanks, everyone, for the sweet congratulations messages!!!! We are genuinely ecstatic at this point and can’t wait to find out the gender in 4 weeks.

I keep saying that I have more time to cook now since I don’t feel so bad around food. The truth is that we are extremely busy with our new house and we move in only one more week. Doctor’s orders are that I do not lift or move anything over 25 pounds, YAY for me! Unfortunately, that leaves a lot of moving to Shaun (and the movers we hired). At the same time, my mother will move in as well for 5 1/2 weeks. Four years ago, doctors found a brain tumor (luckily it turned out to be benign) and just discovered that the little piece still in her brain is growing back. She will start radiation here in Houston at MD Anderson, but the good news is that she will be living with Shaun and I and our dogs will have another house guest. They absolutely love my mother and know just how to win her over. So, with her at the home and me in the new house we are sure to come up with new and exciting recipes.

On to this fabulous simple sandwich!

When Shaun and I were in Rome we grabbed a quick sandwich and then headed to the Vatican. Little did we know that this would be THE BEST DARN SANDWICH we ever had. It had three ingredients: fresh foccacia bread, ham and mozzarella toasted in a panini maker and then wrapped in wax paper for a stroll.

If you’ve ever been to Italy you can agree that they just know how to make their bread. I finally decided that I too could recreate this sandwich and make it just as good and add some more components to it.

ENJOY!

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Ham & Mozzarella Panini

Yield: 4 servings

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Ingredients

• 1 loaf of focaccia bread (got our fresh loaf at Panera bread)
• 1 large tomato
• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
• 8 ham slices
• couple of chunks of mozzarella
• southwest chipotle dressing (made by Hidden Valley)

Instructions

Cut the loaf of bread into four each parts and then slice it down the middle so that you have eight pieces of bread.

Heat a sauce pan or panini press up so that its on medium to high heat. Spread a little bit of butter on each slice of bread and place buttered side down on panini press. Let the bread brown and then flip over and top with chipotle southwest dressing, mozzarella pieces, tomato, red onion, ham, and then bread. Let the sandwich warm for about a minute and then flip the sandwich over. Serve immediately so cheese is melted.

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