Summer is for Sandwich Nights, Too!

It's been too long. We must have another Sandwich Night!
Luckily, Karen has just received the first installment of America's Next Top Model Season 1 from Netflix.
I think we should have Bahn Mit. It's a summery sandwich. I've always wanted to make my own!
How does next Wednesday, July 2 sound? 7:00 should work.

What a Sandwich!

This is the Tennessee style Stacker from Cap's in South Minneapolis. Pulled pork. Sauce. Bun (yup, it's under there). And an ice cream scoop of coleslaw. Good for two gut busting meals. They even give you an extra bun with your doggy bag. I'll count it as one sandwich, of course. #139!

Solstice Burgers

I went to a Summer Solstice party on Saturday where my friend Martha made fabulous bison and turkey hamburgers. She mixes spinach, chopped portobello mushroom, and gorgonzola cheese into the meat. They are fabulous. She even made homemade buns with oats in them. I would have made a pig of myself and eaten two, but there were three desserts to save room for. There's only so much space in my tummy! (Shocking, I know.)

A Cuban to Remember...

Aah, there it is. I got a bolillo roll and layered it with Dijon mustard, roast pork loin, sliced pit ham, baby Swiss and homemade dill pickles. I sliced up the garlic cloves from the pickle jar and put those on too. Then I squished it in the panini maker (of course) and voila! It was super tasty.
I followed up for lunch yesterday with a slightly different variation: stone ground mustard, pork loin, ham and Swiss on a bolillo roll. (I finished the pickles on the other Cuban.) Since I was at work and away from the panini press, I simply microwaved it for 30 seconds. It was quite tasty, as well. I didn't even miss the pickles!

Strawberry Jam!

Our strawberry patch has been going nuts lately. I guess a cool, wet spring is what they wanted, even if it drove humans to despair. Lots of strawberries means lots of strawberry jam. It was featured in my "grade school lunch" on Wednesday. PB and J, carrot sticks, chips, grapefruit. No juice box.
The funny thing is that I wouldn't have touched that lunch in grade school. Well, maybe the chips and carrots. In grade school I ate 1/2 of a bread and butter sandwich on egg bread, two pieces of ham rolled up and secured with toothpicks, fruit cocktail, and maybe a pudding cup. Silly me, I thought sandwiches were gross.

Don't forget your New Year's Resolutions!

I know, it's June, for heaven's sake. But I made a resolution to finish off mostly empty bottles and jars of condiments in my refrigerator this year and I'd like to say that I am still making progress.


Yesterday, for example, I finished off the dandelion jelly Mel brought back from West Virginia last winter. It has a honey flavor to it and it's very tasty with peanut butter. I wonder how they make it?


Today I finished off a jar of sliced dill pickles on a pseudo-Cuban. I used cracked wheat bread, sliced pork loin, mustard greens, Dijon mustard and dill pickles. I found the pork loin in the freezer (resolution #2=eat the leftovers from the freezer). It was near the front, so it can't be that old. Unfortunately I don't remember cooking it. It's seasoned quite nicely with garlic and oregano. Did we have a Cuban sandwich night that I forgot to blog about? (Thank goodness blogspot has a search function: the pork loin is from February) Seriously, I am way too young to have this bad a memory!

But I am inspired to pick up some Swiss cheese, ham, French bread and more pickles tonight so I can make myself a Cuban to remember this time. Deeelish.

It's all in the bread

I have to take a minute to praise the fantastic variety and quality of bread available here in the Twin Cities. It's such good news for the sandwich lover. Recently we have taken the Franklin Street Bakery's Multi Grain Sourdough and turned it into Cheddar and Branston's Pickle paninis. The bread is dense and sour, but with lots of yummy seeds and bits. It was perfect in the panini press.
We also got a loaf of Miche from Rustica and had grilled ham and cheese sandwiches with Wood River Aged Provolone from the Burnett Dairy in Alpha, WI and honey baked ham from Everett's. Miche is a whole wheat and rye sourdough. Yum!
And finally, we topped off our melty cheese sandwich fest with Cheddar and ham on Honey Wheat from A Toast to Bread.
Yay for good bread!

Sandwiches for Obama!

Beth and I went to Barack Obama's speech at the Xcel Center in St. Paul last night. When we got in line with 30,000 of our closest friends, we lucked out to be across the street from the Dunn Bros. I went in to get a coffee and saw that they sell sandwiches as well. I snapped up an egg salad on whole wheat since I had no idea if we would get a chance to have dinner.

The egg salad was very tasty. The dressing was light and it was full of crunchy vegetables like celery and green peppers. Yum!
After standing on the sidewalk for 1 1/2 hours, the line started moving at 7:11. We shuffled in starts and fits until we finally got inside at 8:25. It's a good thing I had caffeine and egg salad to sustain me!

Can you see Barack?

Pleasant surprises about fast food sandwiches

1. Subway's Spicy Italian isn't half bad, especially if you put lots of veggies and banana peppers on it.
2. The turkey sandwich they sell at my work cafeteria is pretty good and it comes with fruit salad.
3. Jimmy John's Club Lulu on 7 grain is a delightful sandwich. And thanks to Joe for buying me one for lunch today since I'm helping on the Star Wars exhibit installation crew.