Ham and Cheese-tastic

Our last Sandwich Nght was a nasty night weather-wise. 2 inches of snow fell during the evening commute. That doesn't sound that bad, but it turned all roads between St. Paul and Minneapolis into parking lots and turned my windshield wipers into worthless icy sticks, capable of clearing only a two inch arc of glass at their ends. Awesome.
We were expecting several people from St. Paul and I naturally assumed they wouldn't be crazy enough to venture out. I was wrong, of course. Kate could not resist the siren song of hot ham and cheese and slogged her way over. Karen did cancel, but she'd been driving in it all afternoon with two crying kittens so that's understandable. Angie and Katy did manage to drive the 12 blocks to come too.Enough of that! My real point is: Is there such a thing as too much brie? I kicked the festivities off right with a 2 lb. wheel of brie I purchased because it was on special at the supermarket. They lured me in with a free sample of baked brie and hooked me with the low low price. Having a wheel of brie is quite liberating from a sandwich point of view. You don't have to use it sparingly since it's the expensive cheese. No, you can pile your sandwich high with it's creamy buttery cheesy goodness. Aaaahhh.
(I started the day off with a Warehouse Panini Party: Ethan and I went halfsies. Mine was brie, roasted red pepper and hot pepper jelly on sourdough. His was Cory's super awesome meatloaf and brie on sourdough. It was a lovely warm-up!)At Sandwich Night, I had Black Forest Ham, brie, cheddar, Swiss, American, roasted red peppers, apples, and as many condiments as I could unearth from the fridge. We heated up the panini press and it was off to the races. I made two sandwiches. The first had ham, brie, apple and Dijon mustard. That was quite yummy. The second had ham, brie, swiss, cherry chipotle mustard and honey mustard. That one was even better.
Angie carefully sliced her bread into thinner slices so she could make four sandwiches on thin bread. As you can see, they are quite lovely.
And Katy defied the poisonous gluten (to her, at least) by making open faced hamwiches. I really wanted her to press some cheese between two pieces of ham in the panini maker but she opted for the toaster oven. Rebel.
For entertainment, Beth and I introduced our guests to the Biggest Loser. You should try eating fatty foods while watching it. It's fun!