Cheese, more cheese!

Today I made a sandwich for lunch that was sort of like a little trip to the Alps. I used Tuscan bread and layered on gruyere and emmthaler on dijon mustard with some spinach. A little French, a little Italian, a little Swiss...not bad! Would have been better on the panini press. I'll have to lug that to work some day for a lunch time panini party!

Prosciutto, mozzarella and fig jam revisited

Oh yeah, it's panini week at my house. Last night I made the prosciutto, mozzarella and fig jam sandwich again. It's the one on the cover of Grilled Cheese:50 Recipes to Make You Melt.
I followed Karen's advice and added goat cheese to the mix.
The verdict? Goat cheese and fig jam do indeed make everything better!

Panini 1-2 punch

I continued my panini party solo yesterday. I mean, the panini press was out and there were still lots of cut up ingredients...
For breakfast I made a peanut butter and banana on whole wheat panini. It was pretty awesome. Next time I will add a little honey and it will be perfect.
For dinner I made the one sandwich I didn't have room for on Monday night: sharp cheddar and country pickle. Yum. Plus I finally finished off the giant bottle of country pickle! Still working on the great condiment clear out. 356 to go.

Cheestastic!

The fancy grilled cheese Sandwich Night was a pretty chaotic affair yet still a great success. We might have set an attendance record--there were 8 of us: Beth, me, Karen, Kate, my friend Laura, plus Beth's co-worker Eric and his wife KJ and son Lyndon. Only Laura and KJ were Sandwich Night newbies. Eric and Lyndon joined us for the grilled veggie sandwich last year. This time, I'm happy to report that Lyndon was old enough to eat a sandwich. Yay! Last time he just got to watch and eat baby food. Boring.
It's a good thing so many people showed up because I went a little crazy at the Trader Joe's cheese cooler. The prices are so good--how could you pass them up? I assembled a great many ingredients featured in the grilled cheese cookbook.

We had sharp cheddar, jack, mozzarella, gruyere, emmenthaler, blue, and chevre. For condiments we had dijon mustard, country pickle, fig jam, green olive mustard, walnut dijon, honey mustard, and some grainy mustard. Add to that chopped tomatoes, sliced pear, radicchio, toasted pecans, cumin seed and prosciutto. On Karen's advice, I stuck to one kind of bread, sourdough, so we could more easily compare and contrast sandwich combos.
As usual, on a night like this, it was everyone for themselves in a frenzied melee of sandwich making. I lost track of all of the mixing and matching. I can tell you that the general consensus was that goat cheese and fig jam make everything taste better.
I had to try too many combinations so I was a bit of a glutton (a Sandwich Night tradition, of course) I made 1)fig jam, mozzarella, prosciutto; 2)pear, emmenthaler, gruyere, goat cheese, cumin seeds; and 3) blue cheese, goat cheese, radicchio, pear, jack cheese, pecans. I also made a sliver of jack and green olive mustard. They were all sooo good!

I even made a salad! I'm not sure whose sandwich this is. Doesn't it look pretty?

#25

I ate a smoked turkey, lettuce, honey mustard on whole wheat for lunch today. Eating light in preparation for our fancy grilled cheese panini Sandwich Night later!

New taste sensations!

#23 was a peanut butter and dandelion jelly on whole wheat. My friend Mel brought the dandelion jelly back from West Virginia. It's very mild--kind of tastes like honey. If you find yourself in West Virginia, you should hunt some up!

#24 came about through a discussion I had with a co-worker about the greatness of Everett's. He claims that Everett's stays in business solely due to sales of polish sausage and beef bacon. Beef bacon? Who knew there was such a thing? I had to try some. They keep a hunk of it by the beef sticks. I ordered a few slices and fried them up for a BS sandwich today. That's a bacon spinach, since I was flat out of lettuce and tomatoes are too scary in January. Beef bacon is salty and sort of tastes like pork bacon, except beefier and chewier. Worked well on toasted asiago cheese bread with mayonnaise and baby spinach!

It's official

Ice cream sandwiches are sandwiches! Now I can count the ice cream sandwich I had at Disneyland on January1. It was a cookies and cream Mickey Mouse sandwich. It was kind of terrible--frozen so hard you couldn't bite it. I gnawed at it for a while, then wrapped it back up and stuffed in my jacket pocket while we went on the Winnie the Pooh ride. After that it had thawed enough to eat. It still wasn't very good--not as good as the cheap ones you get at convenience stores even. Oh well, it still counts!

New Sandwich Night!

Monday, January 28.
Fancy grilled cheese--involving recipes from Grilled Cheese: 50 Recipes to Make You Melt and the panini press.
Viewing choices are American Gladiator followed by the Sarah Connor Chronicles.
Come over!

Reno 911 + Cubano= Good Times!

What a great night! Reno 911 lived up to expectations. So dumb. So funny. If you see it, make sure to listen to the commentary track. Totally worth it.

The Cubanos from Manny's were great, too. French roll, thin pork loin, ham, cheese, avocado, pickled jalapenos, chipotle aioli, shredded lettuce and tomato. Fantastic. I even had a slice of pickled carrot in mine!

Sandwich Alert!

Well, it's been a few days since the trifecta and I'm just about to have my first sandwich since that acheivement. What, you say? Rebecca goes 4 days without a sandwich? Can it be possible? I guess so--I've never paid such close attention to my sandwich intake before so anything could happen.
Today I have packed in my lunch a roast beef, muenster, spinach and honey mustard on whole wheat. Yum.
I don't usually count my sandwiches before they hatch, but I wanted to get the word out early that we are having a very last minute sandwich night TONIGHT! The occasion? My copy of Reno 911:Miami is ready for pickup at the library! I can't wait to see it, since Beth and I are developing an unhealthy addiction to the reruns of Reno 911 on TV every night at 11:00. (It's sooo past my bedtime.)
In honor of the setting of the movie (Miami) we are going to pick up Cubanos from Manny's Tortas. The festivities should start by 8:00 at our place. Come over! But let me know by 5:00 if you want me to pick up a Cubano for you, too!

Trifecta!

Without even trying, I managed to eat a sandwich for every meal yesterday. My first sandwich trifecta of 2008!
I started the day with spin class so I guess I thought I could consume some calories to make up for that level of activity.
I was starving after the gym and I knew a coffee and a pastry wouldn't cut it so I stopped at Brueggers on my way to work and got an egg and cheese bagel. It was okay. The scrambled egg cake was kind of gross and I should have asked the bagel artist to toast my everything bagel, but it hit the spot. Held me over to lunch!
At lunch, I decided to try one of the new offerings at the cafeteria at work--the Cuban sandwich. Two people I had lunch with this week had it, so I figured I had better try it out. It was tasty--probably not so authentic, but okay. It had lots of dijon mustard, so that gives it points. I think I'll try some of their other new sandwich offerings before I come back to this one.
Finally, we went over to our friends' house to watch the first two episodes of the L-Word last night. The good news--it's actually funny this season. Hallelujah! We got take-out from the 5-8 Club to accompany our traditional yell at the screen viewing. I got the Montana Jack burger--pepper jack cheese, chipotle mayo, shredded lettuce, tiny onion rings. That was tasty. I'd get it again!
Today's menu--salad?

Mmmmmeatloaf!

#14 and #15 were my favorite leftover sandwich--meatloaf. I make my mom's meatloaf recipe which makes fist-sized individual meatloves and has a sweet ketchup based sauce. To make them into a sandwich, I slice one of the cold leftover loaves into 5-6 pieces, then lay them on white bread (potato bread and egg bread are nice too) that has been liberally spread with mayonnaise. Top it with another mayonnaise-y slice of bread, squish it down a little and you are in business. It must be eaten cold. The sweet sauce and the mayonnaise mix well and the meat is delicious and the bread is soft. It's just perfect.

The best meatloaf sandwich I ever made was on homemade potato bread. I made them to eat as a snack between cross country skiing and watching dog sled races one day several years ago. It was bitterly cold that day and I remember sitting in the back of my friend Karen's car inhaling the sandwiches with that insane hunger you get after a good workout. Didn't even feel the cold. That's how good they were!

Here's the meatloaf recipe--you should try it. It's my favorite!
Lemon Meatloaf
2 lbs ground beef or turkey (I prefer turkey)
4 slices bread, diced
1 egg
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tsp seasoned salt
Sauce:
1/2 cup ketchup
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
Mix the first ingredients together, shape into eight mini loaves. Bake at 350 for 15 mintues. Meanwhile, mix the sauce ingredients. Spoon the sauce over the loaves after the 15 minutes in the oven. Return the loaves to the oven for another 30 minutes.

Lucky #13

Nine grain bread, roast beef, provolone, caramelized onions, apricot ginger mustard.

Not bad. Would have been better as a panini (most things are!)

Sadly, I'm about out of the apricot ginger mustard. I know I've got the non-resolution to finish the languishing condiments, but I will miss that one. I'm saving the last serving for a peanut butter sandwich. Yum!

I love my new panini press!

Thanks Peter and Meghan!

We put the press into action yesterday, making roast beef, provolone, and walnut dijon mustard on white bread paninis. Yum!


We had pickles with the sandwiches, managing to finish off two jars! (Each containing one lonely pickle floating in brine) Now there are only 465 jars of condiments left to finish.

The paninis were so good we are repeating them today, except with caramelized onions (found them in the back of the fridge--go figure) and horseradish.

Finally, enough mustard!

I hit the ratio correctly on my smoked turkey, spinach, hot mango chutney and dijon mustard on 9 grain today. Whooo boy!

I also finished off the chutney. One mostly empty condiment jar down, 100 to go!

#9?...#9?....

#9 was a repeat of #8, but with more chutney and mustard. Still not hot enough. But still quite tasty!
I ate it yesterday, which keeps me on pace for 365 sandwiches. Crazy.

I don't make New Year's resolutions

But I have decided to finish all of the condiments currently residing in my refrigerator. Beth and I are really bad at using 90% of a jar of something and leaving the rest to languish in the depths of the fridge for all eternity. Then, when I clean it out, I either throw them away or stuff them right back in on the bottom shelf. Well, no more!
This leads me to sandwich #8: hot mango chutney, dijon mustard, smoked turkey and spinach on 9 grain bread. I had it for lunch today and it was pretty tasty, but not as hot as I had hoped. I was going for a good nasal clearing event, but it stopped just short of that. I will have to try again tomorrow! Which might just finish off the jar of chutney....yay!

#6 & #7

#6 was a Supreme Grilled Cheese from Pete's in downtown Los Angeles. We went there after seeing the Murakami exhibit at the Geffen Contemporary. The exhibit was fun. It's gotten lots of press for being commercial--there's a Louis Vuitton store in the middle of the gallery, set up like a cross between a store and a gallery display. Three sales people, no price tags...if you have to ask, you can't afford it! Back to the sandwich--cheddar, blue cheese, goat cheese and caramelized onions on Texas toast. Deeelish. I'll have to remember that combo for the future.

#7 was half of Beth's leftover Grilled Vegetable sandwich from Mo's. It was huge, so I'm counting it as a whole. I ate it on the plane on the way home Sunday night. We went to Mo's on Friday night with my family, plus my cousins and some family friends. It's a tradition! The sandwich held up pretty well after two days in the fridge and half a day in my backpack. It had eggplant, zucchini, peppers and onions with some kind of white cheese (mozzarella?) on a roll. Much better than anything I could have gotten in the airport!

#3, #3.25, #4, #5

#3 was an In-n-Out Double Double which I experimentally squashed in my NEW panini press! Result. Panini press 1, Double Double 0. They don't really need to be squashed. But it was still delicious. You'll hear more on the panini press later, don't worry!

#3.25 was one quarter of the grilled cheese I made for my mom on the panini press. I am going to have so much fun with that machine!

#4 was an "Egg McMilton" from the Village Coffee Shop (aka the Beachwood Cafe). Beth and I had breakfast with my friends from high school, Carrie and Jackie. We see each other once a year to mock ourselves and gossip about classmates. Mostly it's Jackie and I saying names to each other and Carrie saying, "who?" Anyway, back to the sandwich: English muffin, poached(!) egg, bacon, tomato slices. Pretty darn good.

#5 was an assortment of finger sandwiches served prior to the foreign film committee screenings at the Academy. I didn't even know there would be snacks there! Roast beef, pepper jack, aioli on multi grain roll. Pesto and eggplant on focaccia. I had 3 but they were little so I think they added up to a whole sandwich. The eggplant one was nice and tasty. The movies were quite good too. The foreign film committee is made of Academy members who screen all of the official entries for best foreign language film and rate them to narrow down the list to the 5 nominees. My dad's a member. It can be a fun committee to be on, if the movies are good. Or it can be torture if the movies are bad. Kind of a crapshoot. We saw Beaufort from Israel and XXY from Argentina. Both were interesting meditations on the human condition. Soldiers waiting to surrender a fort in Lebanon and an intersexed teenager trying to figure things out in Argentina. I don't think they'll be coming to a theater near you anytime soon, but you never know...

#2!

My lovely brother surprised me with a Tommy's breakfast sandwich this morning.

It is perhaps the greatest offering from that esteemed Los Angeles establishment besides chili cheese fries. It's a hamburger bun, sausage patty, fried egg, tomato slice, pickles, chopped raw onions, mayonnaise and, of course, American cheese and chili. Super! My nine year old niece even ate one.

There's no way to accurately describe it, really. Like a baby that is so ugly it's cute, the Tommy's breakfast sandwich is so gross it's delicious. The chili has a weird greasy viscous quality that makes it stick inside the bun for the most part. The American cheese gets all melty and adds to that viscous chili quality. The pickles are pretty awesome, as is the giant slice of tomato. And the sausage patty is so much tastier than a hamburger patty. That's why I pick the breakfast sandwich over the more traditional burger at Tommy's. Sadly, you can only get it at breakfast.
A quick update--I asked my niece how she liked Tommy's chili a few days later and she said she didn't know since she'd never had it. I reminded her about the breakfast sandwich and she said, "That was chili? I thought it was some weird orange cheese."
Don't get me wrong, the burger is fantastic as well. They take out the egg and sausage and put in two patties and mustard. My brother sang a long and enthusiastic serenade to his double chili cheese the other night. In between bites, of course. I'll have to get me one of those before I go home!

#1

Caprese Sandwich
Trattoria Restaurant, Disney's California Adventure
Lunch, January 1, 2008

Roasted red peppers, fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, olive tapenade on pretzel bread. Sounded better than it tasted, but the tapenade was nice and zingy.

It begins!