Lesson 1: Grilled Bread Doesn't Make Good Leftovers

Three days ago, I moved back to D.C. from Queens, NY where I live and work during the summer. After two nights of indulging myself in the restaurants I'd missed for 8 weeks, I ventured back into the kitchen to cook my first meal in three months. The result: Grilled Chicken Sandwiches.

But not just any Grilled Chicken Sandwiches! -- the organic chicken is marinated in orange juice, the bread is grilled on my roof top deck, and the sandwich is smothered in a delicious remoulade topped by shaved lemon slices and arugula. This particular chicken sandwich was accompanied by a little salad, which was intended to be arugula. However, to my dismay, Harris Teeter -- our local grocery store -- had sickly looking arugula (only one good batch, which I snatched to put on the sandwich; this was tres disappointing since arugula should still be in season). So instead, I grabbed one bunch of red leaf lettuce and escarole, neither or which I had played with before, chopped it up, and sprinkled the salad with lemon juice and olive oil.

The recipe is here: http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/grilled-chicken-sandwiches-with-remoulade-and-shaved-lemon. (I recommending trying the recipe as-is once and then playing with all the ingredients to get it just the way you like; my remoulade is now a bit different than the one here, but it was a great starting place).

Since I am not at a place in my cooking where I can make up full meals off the top of my head, I rely a lot on recipes. I'm very picky, though, about where the recipes come from and so far, I've had a ton of success with Food and Wine. This particular recipe may be the best way to cook chicken that I've ever tried -- it's a favorite of mine, plus it's easy, so it was my first go-to recipe after a stint out of the kitchen.

In anticipation of my favorite chicken dish, I got a little over zealous at the grocery store last night when procuring items. I thought to myself, "I'll get extra bread and make double the recipe so I can have delicious sandwiches for dinner AND lunch tomorrow." So I grilled a full loaf of rosemary bread, each side basted with olive oil, salt and pepper.

In short, the meal last night was incredible as it has been each time I've prepared it. But for further summary, the meal today (lunch) was lackluster at best. Which leads me to Lesson 1: don't grill extra bread for leftovers. Even though I broiled it for a few minutes in the oven to reheat and re-crisp, the bread was hard as a rock and super chewy by the time I chomped into my sandwich for lunch. Another thing I noticed about the sandwiches, aged 1 day, was the lemon (which I had sliced last night to save prep work today) was especially bitter. Is there something chemical that happens after lemon sits for a day to make it so astringent?

In any case, in my attempts to become a professional cook, lesson learned: don't buy two loaves of bread to grill in anticipation of leftovers because some things are actually worse with age, including grilled bread.