Wow: It's January 2 as I write this and I just noticed I couldn't be bothered to publish my "Happy holidays: I won't be posting until January 3!" entry for before Christmas. Oops. I'm going to make up for it by writing interminably about sandwiches.

Clearly my break was very relaxing if I couldn't get around to clicking a few keys. But it was not unproductive. I'm happy to say that during my break, I enjoyed all my favorite sandwiches. You wanted to know which ones these were, right?

Jimmy Johns' Beach Club. The Beach Club is the sandwich I feel most perfectly straddles the line between "healthy" (the vegetarian) and "delicious but hard to justify too often" (the Vito). You could tell me that Jimmy John's can never really be healthy but I don't want to hear it. I love their bread and their cheese and their seasoning and their alleged low-fat chips taste pretty full-fat to me. I love Jimmy John's so much I don't want to admit to myself that it's "fast food." I figure, since it's cold and there are no french fries, it is not fast. I got Beach Club this the day after my cousin's wedding as a reward for not eating Beach Clubs for several weeks prior to the wedding.

Al's roast turkey on a baguette with Provolone, not Swiss. Al's Deli is probably my favorite dining establishment in Evanston. It's a tiny European-style joint where the ingredients are the best and the homemade cookies and soup are fantastic. Going the Monday after Christmas was wonderful because there were no Northwestern students around to make us wait in line. I usually like the turkey sandwich (on baguette), the brie on special occasions. It always feels like a good day if you've had Al's.

Ba Le Shredded Chicken or Barbecue Pork Banh Mi. Ba Le makes banh mi which is another sandwich I like to pretend is healthy: it's the cilantro and shredded carrots and daikon that make it taste so fresh and good for you but the delicious baguette and sweet barbecue pork or shredded chicken with mayo make it extra tasty. I sent my husband out to get three for us: one each for our friend Fuzzy, him and me. Steve returned and said "I did something dumb. Sandwiches were Buy 5 Get the 6th Free so I did that." I said "That wasn't dumb: that was the smartest thing you've ever done."

Gaztro-Wagen Naanwich: I crave a Gaztro-Wagen I'd say every quarter or so. I think it's unfair that their sandwiches come on naan, which is proven to be the most delicious of breads, so sometimes I think I don't even like the sandwiches that much but will just eat anything that comes on naan. I also like the plantain chips. Sometimes they're super salty. They taste faintly of plantain and I too pretend they're healthy. This time I had the mushroom, goat cheese and onion, the trifecta of things my husband hates.

Honorable mentions:

Peanut butter and jelly. Because I am a modern woman/bad wife Steve often opts or is forced to opt to make his own dinner which usually consists of PBJ and various other things. I confess every night I catch a whiff of that sandwich and get jealous. Well, Christmas is the time of giving. Of sandwiches. To me. Dreams can come true.

Tuna melt. I always forget about the tuna melt. I love the single slice of melted cheese and the english muffin, and the tuna is fine too. A little tuna melt goes a long way for some reason: about one a year is good. I had it at the Bagel at Old Orchard mall in Skokie.

Spinach stuffed pizza from Pizano's. Does this count as a sandwich? Probably not. But it is something else I really wanted to eat over break that I did. It has starch and cheese and a tomato and a vegetable so it's kind of like a sandwich.

Grilled cheese. To date, my mom makes the best grilled cheese ever (she sort of makes the bread french toast style and uses a really gooey amount of cheese). The grilled cheese I had was honestly not that great (it had a lot of goat cheese on it which doesn't really work in this case) but it was noteworthy because I ordered it from the restaurant at Neiman Marcus, the menu at which included the following note:

Neiman Marcus is all, "You can have a few calories, but not too many or else we're all going to have to LOOK at them on your gross body. Happy shopping, fatties!"

Which is not the message you'd like tainting your anticipation of (what should be) a very delicious sandwich.

Which is why the grilled cheese is last on this list.