Paninis and My Handyman

I married my husband for three reasons: His blue eyes, great sense of humor and his Makita drill set, seriously.  Well, maybe there were a few other reasons too.....

At any rate, he really is quite handy.  I guess being in the construction industry for over 25 years, you tend to pick up a few tricks of the trade.  The problem is I have also been in the same industry for the same amount of time and we are both think we are the Chiefs in the house...neither one of us wants to be the Indian.  Makes for an interesting marriage that's for sure.  That sense of humor on both our parts comes in very handy also.

The Handyman's helpers in training.

Well my husband also has very good (and expensive taste) in washers and dryers.  Laundry is a very big thing to him.  His perfect dream house would have a laundry room bigger than our bedroom, I'm not even kidding here.  He loves to wash, dry and fold laundry, and truth be told he is much better at it than I am.  He says it's a sense of accomplishment to have everything clean and neatly put away in its place.

As you can imagine, we really put our washer and dryer to the test with all our family's laundry.  Recently our appliances were not working up to par, so I called in a reputable appliance company to come out and see what the dryer noise and leaking washer was all about.  Since our appliances are from Sweden, there aren't many companies that can repair them.  I should have kept that in the back of my mind during our "diagnostic appointment."

I will fast forward and spare the details.  The bottom line from them was " It's going to take several hours to take them apart as they are very difficult and timely to replace the dryer drum ball bearing and replace the water pump in the washer", to the tune of nearly $650.00 to fix the problems.

Now mind you, I am just coming off of Christmas and birthday budget$, so needless to say I almost had a breakdown right then.  I said thank you very much for coming out and I would need to discuss it with my husband.  Well, I called him and broke the news....a half hour later he called me back and said he was able to purchase the new ball bearing for $71.00 and the new water pump for $48.00.  Now, I am mad!

My husband assured me, no problem....we can do this.  He Googled instructions on how to replace these pieces and guess what (thank God for Google), there were actual YouTube videos on replacing these items in our exact brand, make and model appliances.

My Makita Man

In less than an hour, we had both parts replaced.  Now I am really, really mad!!!  I cannot believe that a company can get away with that - $650.00 ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? !!

Well once again, God Bless my husband and his Makita.  We were able to conquer corporate America and achieve DIY sucess - Victory Is Sweet !!  It was time to celebrate with his favorite lunch - paninis.

Prosciutto Paninis
Adapted from Giada DeLaurentiis

2 slices of fontina cheese
2 slices of rustic white bread
1 thin slice of red onion
1 thin slice of tomato
1 thin slice of prosciutto
6 fresh baby spinach leaves
freshly ground black peper
2 tsp. olive oil

Place one slice of fontina cheese on 1 slice of bread.  Top with the onion, then the prosciutto, tomato and the spinach.  Sprinkle with the pepper.  Top with the second slice of fontina, then with the second bread slice.  Brush both sides fo the sandwich with the oil.

Preheat panini grill or a ridged grill pan over medium heat.  Grill the sandwich until the bread is golden brown and the cheese melts, pressing down.