Matt's Jucy Lucy Named Best Burger in Minnesota

We found this out last night when we went to Matt's for a Jucy Lucy. The placed was packed. Jam packed. At 5:15, we could only find seats at the bar.
Getting named best burger seems to be more of a curse than a blessing. The servers were tired and the customers were slightly clueless. The woman seated next to me at the bar asked for an orange slice for her beer. Does she think she's in Uptown? What's next, demands for ice?
Happily, the Jucy Lucy has not suffered from all the attention and is still as delicious as always. So, make sure you go early. Or get take-out!

I could be crazier

I found a book at the library last night crying out for my soul. It's called Everything I Ate: A Year in the Life of My Mouth by Tucker Shaw.

The author photo documents everything he ate for an entire year, from fancy gourmet feasts to handfuls of trail mix and late night bowls of cereal.

I declare it to be super awesome. And if I get really compulsive I'll count his sandwiches....

Celebration Sandwiches!

Beth's brother Michael came home from serving with the National Guard in Iraq on Friday. Yay!!! We all went down to meet him at the airfield in St. Paul. I'm so happy he's home!I am also happy that Beth's mom invited everyone back to her house for sandwiches so I could blog about it!
She put out a lovely spread of sandwich fixings and her new panini press. I made roast beef, pepper jack, tomato and sweet dill pickle on sourdough. Yum. She also made her awesome potato salad. What makes it awesome? Bacon, of course.

BLT and A and BC=BLABCT?

BLT night was awesome! First of all, my pleas for more guests were successful since Jane came and Angie decided to postpone her trip up north. I had a momentary panic when I got home at 6:46 and saw two extra guests. Luckily, Everett's is open until 7:00, so we were able to procure more bacon. And we weren't even the last panicked customers. (Note to other late shoppers: They lock the IN door at 6:50, but the OUT door remains open. Good to know.) I fried up all two pounds of bacon (which Karen reported being able to smell from down the block when she parked.) I also had romaine lettuce, sliced tomatoes, mayonnaise, sliced avocado and crumbled blue cheese. Beth toasted a pile of sourdough bread. See how the lid keeps them warm?The avocado was delicious on the sandwiches, of course. The BLAT is one of my favorite sandwiches, after all. But the blue cheese was downright inspirational. Fantastic. Try it! I am going to expand on this concept to make a full Cobb Salad sandwich with the addition of sliced hard boiled egg and rotisserie chicken, mark my words. I'll let you know how it turns out.

We watched episode 2 of ANTM season 1. It includes the now legendary (in ANTM fan circles, at least) Elyse confessional rant. I have Elyse Sewell to blame for introducing the phrase "shit slice" to my vocabulary. Thanks!

We also took in two episodes of Reno 911 in an attempt to convert Karen to our ways. Not sure if we were successful, but she did laugh a lot. I think she had more fun watching us watch it.

SANDWICH NIGHT TONIGHT!

Apparently I wasn't obvious enough about the announcement of tonight's sandwich night.

Well, it's tonight and we're having BLT's and Karen's bringing America's Next Top Model Season 1 and we're going to have a grand old time. Even if there will only be three of us. Sandwich Night has happened with fewer participants.

Of course, the Sandwich Night motto is "the more the merrier" so if you can make it, come over tonight! Let me know if you are coming so I can get more bacon. It would be a travesty of all things sandwich if we were to run out!

Moving on...

I have finished all of the Bahn Mit leftovers. Yesterday I bought a loaf of squishy white French bread at Super Target. It turned out to be quite delicious for my last two bahn mit (dinner last night, lunch today.) Now I may eat other sandwiches.
In other news, I am getting perilously close to 193 sandwiches...

This just in...

A special guest blog from Kate! (Kate has just finished several weeks of archeological field work in northern Israel and is currently doing some research in museums in Jerusalem.)Here's her sandwich update:

"I'm in Jerusalem right now and remembered in the midst of eating my 10 skekel (a little over $3) lunch that I owed you sandwich pictures. So, here's my falafel, purchased in the Old City of Jerusalem and eaten on the stairs leading down to the Damascus Gate. Contents included: falafel balls, fries, hot sauce, tahini, tomatoes and cucumbers, and pickled red cabbage (I skipped the actual pickles, as careful readers of Sandwiches I Have Loved will note, I avoid pickles whenever presented). A little too much cabbage for my taste, but still tasty. All washed down with orange Fanta. Hits the spot on those 95 degree days, in the midst of a whirlwind museum tour."

Next Sandwich Night!

Thursday, July 24. 7:00 PM.
BLTs
ANTM Season 1.
You know the drill.

WBMP!

The Warehouse Bahn Mit Party was a great success. I used the leftover meatloaf from our Bahn Mit Sandwich Night (yay! more room in the freezer!) I also made carrot and daikon pickles and homemade mayonnaise. To that I added sliced cucumber and jalapenos. Ethan got nice soft rolls from Buon Giorno and cilantro. Karen picked up roast pork from a Vietnamese market on University Avenue. And Sarah brought cookies! Yum.
So pretty and delicious! They were HUGE. I could barely fit a cookie in for dessert.
Since our warehouse is filled with old exhibit props and other museum detritus, I figured it was high time to feature some of it in my pictures. And who hasn't felt like coddling a delicious sandwich like a baby?
Or offering a delicious sandwich to a skinless plastinated human?
Or a cast of a giant Olmec head?
Or eating a sandwich in the belly of the shark?

Warehouse Bahn Mit Party

We're making Bahn Mit for lunch at the Warehouse tomorrow. Holler if you want to come!

"Veggie Dogs"?

Tonight's attempt at a meal that would both beat the heat and use up leftovers led to a curious sandwich. My friend Amy went to Japan last year where she ate a concoction called a Veggie Dog. It consisted of a hot dog bun, cottage cheese, avocado and mango chutney.
Hmm. It was interesting. I think the chutney wasn't quite right--too gingery or something. Serves me right for buying the fancy chutney at Lund's, rather than sticking with old Major Grey's.

She's baaack

Little Angie showed up Sunday night to squat for awhile. I had to make room in the freezer for her giant bag of ice (she's recuperating from knee surgery). Making room in the freezer means discovering the leftovers of Sandwich Nights past. In this case, it was gyro meat.

Our homemade gyros came together rather quickly after a trip to the Midtown Global Market and to our vegetable garden. It was a lovely accompaniment to our latest vice: 4 seasons of Reno 911 on DVD.

I cannot help myself

I am fascinated by competitive eating. I can't help it. After reading about the Nathan's Hot Dog contest this year, I had to go review other competitive eating records. (Don't follow this link if you have a weak stomach!)
I learned that the records for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches is 42 in 10 minutes. Grilled cheese is 47 in 10 minutes. There's too many hamburger records to count. And the record for pulled pork sandwiches, one of my favorites, is 45 in 10 minutes. Oh my.

4th of July Shenanigans

We had folks over for hamburgers and hot dogs on July 4th. I made a ton of burgers since I guessed people would eat those rather than dogs. I was forgetting the allure of the Everett's hot dog, however. Those babies got snapped up. (I think the chili I set out for fixings helped). I very much enjoyed my one chili dog. Which is 63 less than Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi had at Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. That's almost 1/3 of the way to 193 sandwiches, and in 11 minutes!
Way to go, Joey Chestnut. And God bless America, home of competitive eating.

Bahn Mit!

Sandwich Night was a great success. Even though one of Beth's co-workers accused us of eating "viet-paninis" and even though our Bahn Mit weren't absolutely authentic, we did make some tasty tasty sandwiches.

I got several baguettes from the New French Bakery--they tend toward craggy and chewy rather than the French bread usually used for Bahn Mit: soft and white on the inside and crunchy on the outside. I do love the former, but I think the later is better for Bahn Mit. Live and learn! The New French Bakery bread was still delicious even though our sandwiches were chewier than desired.

We put together this spread:

Clockwise from the top: pickled daikon, pickled carrots, red pepper and daikon, pickled carrots and daikon, Vietnamese barbecued pork, basil ginger turkey and pork meatloaf, cucumbers, pickled cucumbers, sliced jalapenos, fresh cilantro, fresh Thai basil. Not shown: homemade lime mayonnaise.

As usual, we descended upon the ingredients in a creative frenzy. Karen's friend Susan (who came all the way from Philadelphia for her first Sandwich Night) kicked off the assembly by mushing her meatloaf on her bread so it resembled the pate which usually comes on Bahn Mit.

Here are my sandwiches (since more is always better!) One has mayo, meatloaf, BBQ pork, pickled cucumbers, cilantro, carrot, red pepper and daikon pickles and sliced jalapeno. The other has mayo, BBQ pork, carrot and daikon pickles, cucumbers, sliced jalapenos, basil and cilantro.

Both were mighty tasty!
We watched the very first episode of America's Next Top Model ever while we ate our sandwiches. What a show. Elyse Sewell was awesome from the start. And they had bikini waxes. On camera. Make sure you wince with pain fiercely!

Since it was Karen's birthday, we had chocolate cupcakes with mint frosting to end the night.

Bursting with Sandwich Night Excitement

Yay! I'm excited for Sandwich Night tonight. I have a ginger basil pork and turkey meatloaf ready for slicing and cilantro, jalapenos, and cucumbers ready to go. I'm going to make homemade lime mayonnaise. Kris is bringing fresh pickled daikon, carrots and red peppers. Karen and Susan are going to investigate other meats at one of the Asian markets in St. Paul. I'll be picking up baguettes at the New French on my way home.
And, since Karen is a birthday girl today, I made cupcakes!

Pretty Sandwich Pictures

I've been busy plotting the Bahn Mit/ANTM Season 1 Sandwich Night and have not been posting photos of some tasty sandwiches I've eaten recently. Enjoy...Grilled Swiss and provolone with avocado on cracked wheat bread. Mmmm...
Proscuitto, honey (from my friend Martha's hives!), brie and mustard greens on Rustica bread. I had this one at a small panini party at the warehouse with Ethan.
Ethan's salami and fresh mozzarella panini with signature finger pointing. He took the lettuce out to grill, then put in back in to eat. Interesting technique!
And finally, cheese stuffed turkey and bacon burger from a Bruce Aidells recipe. He made the recipe as an homage to the hickory burger at the Apple Pan in Los Angeles. It was okay and a fair amount of work to make. I say, if you want a burger that is an homage to the hickory burger, you should hop a flight to LA and get one of your own. Don't mind the wait, there's plenty of room along the wall and good people watching.