Patty Melts, Good; ANTM, Meh

Oh my goodness--it's been awhile! The patty melt Sandwich Night was followed by a whirlwind trip to Boston and Thanksgiving so I haven't really had time to put together a nice witty recap of the evening. Kris, Doug, Angie, and Karen came over for patty melts and the America's Next Top Model Cycle 11 finale. The show wasn't really notable except for the Unbeatable Banzuke like runway the finalists had to negotiate. Unfortunately, no one fell down. If only they had been on stilts or pushing wheelbarrows or something.
The patty melts, however, turned out quite nicely, as you can see by Karen's crazy cheese filled blowout sandwich:I made the patties on the panini press since I wanted them to be wide and thin to fill the bread with lots of burgery goodness. The result was tasty enough, but a little to flat and tough. It could be helped by getting fattier meat--I got the leanest ground beef. The benefit of panini pressing burgers, though, was a much less smoky and greasy kitchen! Someday I'll have an exhaust fan...
To the sandwiches! I gathered pumpernickel and wheat bread, the burgers, caramelized onions, sauteed mushrooms, muenster cheese, Swiss cheese, French dressing and Thousand Island dressing.
I gave folks the option of grilling on a griddle or on the panini press. Everyone chose the panini, of course.

Doug's sandwich formed a crunchy skirt of burnt cheese. Yum!
I'll try for another Sandwich Night before Christmas--stay tuned!