I love the rain and today the weather was perfect.  Don't get me wrong, I like the sun more, but a good rainy day like today was lovely.  Tomorrow is going to be sunny and after a steady rain makes everything look clearer, cleaner and smell lovely.

Nothing better on a rainy day that cooking comfort food.  I have to being by saying that the meal was already planned prior to the rain, but I think it came out better because of it.  I am going to digress a bit and lay the groundwork.  Every week, I do a menu which is pretty consistent from a general category stand point;

Sunday is usually the "big" family meal where I will go the extra mile and put more work into the meal; Monday: Sandwich night, or soup and sandwiches and in the summer salad and sandwich;

Tuesday: Mexican, "taco Tuesday" is how that came about;

Wednesday: Italian, not sure why, but it is usually some kind of pasta;

Thursday: American and lately another "Monday" night meal; and this is followed up by

Friday is Fend!! all the leftovers, normally my son has plans, or my husband and I meet out friends for a date night.  Saturday is normally this as well.

So with that said, this past week I moved the Sunday meal to Saturday night since we were having friends over for a football day and today was Sandwich night.  In preparation for that, and here is where I left off before, I decided to make Grilled Chicken and Avocado on a Ciabatta roll.  I found this great recipe and everyone was raving about. 

I normally made my bread from an Artisan style recipe that is a large batch of dough made up in advance and then I can pull from it and bake throughout the week.  Great stand by for anything from pizza to a crusty loaf. 

This time I was going for a very specific style of bread and found it at food.com.  (my new go to for consistently good recipes and variety.)

http://www.food.com/recipe/ciabatta-italian-slipper-bread-29100

This starts with a "sponge" which is sort of like a sourdough starter but only has to be made 12 hours to 1 day in advance.  I made it last night, and it turned into a very bubbly looking yeasty soft dough.   Today I made the full dough which was very easy and it baked up beautifully.  The recipe makes 2 loaves, one I did just like the recipe calls for and the other I brushed lightly with olive oil and covered in Asiago cheese.

         

I also made as a last minute add in, the Cheesy Potato Rounds which are basically potato wedges but so much quicker and easier.  They came out so good.

All  in all a pretty good Monday, even if I did have to work all day, but the cooking and baking totally made up for it and I got to enjoy a rainy day.