Working on the fried egg sandwich

I've been on a fried egg sandwich kick lately. My current favorite combo (and there are so many to choose from) is a multigrain bagel, over easy egg, srihacha, and cheddar. Gorgeous.

This is a stretch but...

The best sandwich I've had lately was a salted caramel macaroon from Sweets Bakeshop in St. Paul. They sell a variety of French style macaroons--the kind with two meringue-like cookies sandwiching a flavored filling--usually buttercream or ganache. They are also made in all sorts of pretty pastel colors. In this case, it was a pleasing robin's egg blue cookie with homemade caramel in the middle. I was a little disappointed in the saltiness of it until I bit into a big salt crystal right at the end. Jackpot!
And yes, I did steal the image from their website because I ate the cookie before I could take a picture of it. Can you blame me?
Furthermore, their cupcakes are also insanely good. The grapefruit sparkler mini cupcake almost made me cry.

Steak-yumm!

Beth was cutting up a roast to make beef jerky when she had the brilliant idea to save back one big slice for steak sandwiches. I cooked it up the frying pan and sliced it into strips so it wouldn't be too chewy. You shouldn't have to fight with your sandwich after all.
The steak went onto a baguette spread blue cheese butter and a few leaves of spinach for color. The verdict? Yum!

Travelling Sandwich Correspondents, Keep 'em coming!

My friend Kate, frequent Sandwich Night participant and current Ann Arbor resident, sent in the following sandwich report."Both photos are from a place in Toronto called Dangerous Dan's. I went when I was visiting Rhys over New Years. First, the atmosphere: it's very (very!) informal, order at the counter, pop in cans, and apparently they serve pitchers of beer but we didn't get one since I was about to drive back to Michigan. But the best part is that the seating consists of old car seats, both bucket and bench, seatbelts still attached, probably from Chrysler Minivans circa 1991. (I'd be lying if I didn't say that sitting in these seats totally took me back - I made out in more than one Chrysler minivan borrowed by high school boyfriends from their parents.)

Anyway, so we walk in, and it's 1:00 on a Tuesday afternoon or something, so the place is totally dead and a little weird and the bathroom is uber sketchy and I'm a little skeptical. Rhys orders the Coronary (ingredients, copied from the online menu: "2 8oz Patties, 4 Slices of Bacon, 2 Slices of Cheddar and a Fried Egg on top. Served w/ Fries and Gravy, Can of Pop and Mayo as a garnish for sure!"). I was bashful and got a Greek burger (one patty, feta, tomato, tsatsiki, maybe onion?) with onion rings. Oh. Man. Seriously, probably one of the best burgers I've ever had. The meat was super rich and flavorful and just, meaty, you know? The bun was toasted and all the ingredients were good quality. The one problem, and Rhys had it too, was that the outside of the burger was a bit charred for our taste. The onion rings were good too. Sorry we forgot to take a picture until we paused for breath halfway through and remembered we should take a picture for you! This way you get the nice section, though.
Rhys' friend Sean went another time and got the Collosal Colon Clogger Combo, aka Quadruple C (24oz burger served with a quarter pound of cheese, a quarter pound of bacon, and 2 fried eggs, with a large shake and a small poutine) (photo attached). They deliver, but probably not to Ann Arbor or Minneapolis. Pity."
Thanks Kate!

Muffuletta Panini at Cheeky Monkey

This was on special at Cheeky Monkey yesterday. Yum. The only thing I'd change is to swap the giardiniera peppers for the traditional olive salad. It's still a pretty tasty sandwich, though. Also delicious? The poached pear salad.

30 Rock has good sandwich taste

30 Rock has once again proved its standing as the number one sandwich comedy on television. They mention sandwiches in some form every week. Usually it's some awesome sandwich Liz Lemon is eating. This week it was different.
The show opened with all of the staff pressuring Lutz to choose a good place for lunch. Known for always choosing terrible places, he finally blurts out, "Subway." Everyone groans. Yup, they have good sandwich taste.

In praise of waxed paper

My mother always said waxed paper keeps your sandwiches the freshest. And she's right. The paper is semi-porous, so it lets extra moisture out but keeps the bread from drying out. Plus, it unfolds into a handy placemat for your lunch.

Meatball Sliders!

We had leftover meatballs AND leftover Hawaiian dinner rolls. How could I not make meatball sliders?

As always, the base for a truly great meatball sandwich (besides great meatballs) is garlic butter. Do not put your pretty little meatballs on plain bread! I put a little garlic butter on the bottom half of the bun and then added one meatball, some sauce, a slice of provolone and a sprinkle of grated parmesan. That went into the oven for about 20 minutes to melt. I spread more garlic butter on the tops of the buns and put them in the broiler. When both were done, I put them together and it was dinner time.
The soft sweetness of the Hawaiian rolls went beautifully with the meatballs and cheese. I think we're onto something here!

Sandwich Soundtrack?

My friend Amy scored me a copy of The Sammies' new album, Sandwich. I must say that the cover art is fantastic! The CD itself looks like a slice of pimento loaf. The music is...fine. But look at that cover art!

California Cheeseburger Cure-all

I had some minor outpatient surgery on my arm yesterday. The surgery took all of 30 minutes, but they kept me in recovery forever. I felt fine. I was starving. The handful of saltines they gave weren't really doing the trick. The man in the bed next to me kept whining about wanting a steak even as a cardiologist was informing him that his heart was so messed up they couldn't give him the foot surgery for which he had come in. I believe the quote was, "No anaesthesiologist is going to put you under while your heart is like this."
Awesome.
Is it any wonder that I started fantasizing about where we could stop to eat on the way home? So even though the nurse who finally released me warned me to eat a "light meal" first, I couldn't miss the chance for a California cheeseburger at the Convention Grill. We had to drive right past it to get home, after all.
While not quite messy enough for my California standards, the California cheeseburger at the Convention Grill is quite tasty. They pile on a ton of almost caramelized grilled onions, leaf lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, American cheese (you can also choose from smoked cheddar, meunster, or Swiss) and give you a little cup of mayonnaise. The burger itself is nicely beefy and juicy. I cut it in half to be able to eat it one handed--a paper wrapping would help!
I got a chocolate banana malt, too. No room for their excellent fries. You really need a table full of people to finish off a basket of those beauties.
And, yes, I did feel better after that. Light dinner? I skipped the fries, didn't I?

A Sandwich Wake for Wimpy

Wimpy, who was Angie's Sandwich Night loving dog, died at the beginning of January. She was almost 16 years old.

We wanted to throw a Sandwich Wake in honor of the old girl, of course. Angie suggested we have some sort of ham sandwich, as that was Wimpy's favorite meat. (I thought her favorite meat was "all of them.")
Which is why I decided we should make a sort of Monte Cristo panini. That's sourdough bread, ham, Swiss cheese, hot Dijon mustard and hot pepper jelly, dipped in an egg and milk batter and cooked on the panini press. They were fantastic. Wimpy would have approved. RIP Old Lady.

It bears repeating

I've said it before, but I'll never get tired of professing my love for Buon Giorno's North Beach sub.
That delicious chewy and crusty bread, the crispy bacon, the crunchy romaine, turkey, fontina cheese and aioli. Aah, how happy you make me.

Turkey Sandwich, anyone?

January is the month when everyone decides to drop a few pounds. The gyms are packed. "Healthy foods" are on special at the market. Workout DVDs line the shelves.
I'm no different. I had a little too much fun over the holidays. I could stand to shed some of that "fun."
Turkey sandwiches make sense, right? Turkey is the lean protein you're supposed to eating to lose weight. But turkey sandwiches can be so boring. Most sliced turkey lunchmeat is slimy and tasteless. And slimy and tasteless meat makes a terrible sandwich, doesn't it?
Enter Seward Coop's Own Sliced Minnesota Herbed Turkey Breast. It tastes like they roasted a turkey breast, let it cool and sliced it. (Which is probably exactly what they did.) No added water or preservatives. No slime! Thank goodness!
Here's what I did with it today.

Wheat bread, turkey, spinach, a little butter, and peach apricot preserves. Yum.

And yes, I wrap my sandwiches in waxed paper like an old lady. Deal with it.

News from our far flung correspondents

When my friend Gretchen moved to Pittsburgh last summer, I told her she had try a world famous Primanti sandwich. It took her a while, but she sent this report last week:

"We did it! I had a Kolbassi sandwich at Primanti's -- the original one in the Strip District -- It was AWESOME. Did not have to eat for a week. '

She keeps telling me I need to make the trip to Pittsburgh. This sandwich might be a good enough reason, don't you think?

Scanwiches!

Check this out.
If only I had a fancy scanner and a really sharp knife...

A perfect Saturday

I had a great yoga class, picked up a lemongrass chicken Bun Mi on the way home, and the Entertainment Weekly and the New Yorker just arrived. Life is good.

I want to love the pork tenderloin sandwich

We went to Adrian's tonight to get a Juicy Lucy. Adrian's and Matt's are the traditonal rivals in the "who invented the Jucy Lucy?" legend. (We all know it's Matt's, right?)
The benefit in going to Adrian's on a Friday night is that you can walk in and get a booth at 7:30. Try doing that at Matt's! It's so crowded with the curious Jucy Lucy seekers that you end up waiting forever with the uninitiated who don't even understand how to seat themselves. Blech.
Beth ordered a Juicy Lucy--they come with an extra piece of cheese on top of the burger for extra cheesy goodness. I decided to branch out and try the pork tenderloin sandwich.
The pork tenderloin sandwich is a Midwestern specialty. It's a pork cutlet, pounded thin, breaded and fried and served on toasted bread. I should love love love this sandwich. It has my favorite things on it. How come, then, I have never had a pork tenderloin sandwich that met my expectations?
The Adrian's version was mediocre. The "tenderloin" was actually ground pork in a thick flavorless breading. It was on dry wheat toast, with lettuce and a mealy tomato. I added some mustard and pickles, which helped. But mostly it was bland and sort of soggy. I didn't bring my camera, so you are spared a photo!
So please tell me, is there a good pork tenderloin sandwich in the Twin Cities area?

California Dreaming

I'm settled back at home, facing a low of -10 tonight, so please indulge me while I get a little nostalgic for my recent vacation. Los Angeles was perfect this past week. 70's and sunny everyday, just like in the movies.

On my last day we went to the Village Coffeeshop in Beachwood Canyon for lunch. I've been going there ever since I was a misguided sandwich hating child. I used to order a hamburger patty and half an order of french fries. If my mom felt like sharing a milkshake, I'd get that, too.

It's really a shame, because I missed several years of eating their awesome club sandwich. They use real turkey breast and good crispy bacon. You can add avocado (why wouldn't you?) And it comes on sourdough toast. Pretty near perfect.

Beth and I shared one. And a chocolate milkshake, too.

I should buy stock in Tums

When my brother and I get together in Los Angeles, he always tries to kill me with greasy hamburgers. We stuff in as many Double Doubles and Tommy's Chili Cheeseburgers as possible during late night drives to revisit places from our childhood. The possible number seems to diminish every year as we get older (but not wiser).This time we only got in one late night burger run to the In-n-Out in Burbank. It came after a fantastic supper with some family friends so we were already full when we got there. But tradition is tradition and you can always find more room! Plus, we watched the David Hasselhoff cheeseburger video on my brother's iPhone to get us in the mood.
Most of us showed some restraint and got cheeseburgers. My brother got a Double Double. Aren't they yummy looking? I love the Thousand Island dressing and the big hunk of iceberg lettuce. This is what a cheeseburger should look like. When I first moved to Minnesota, I was disappointed to get plain cheeseburgers with just buns, patties and cheese. To get mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato, you have to pay extra and order the "California cheeseburger." The irony is that a Minnesotan California cheeseburger is a pale comparison to the condiment laden gooey joy that is an actual cheeseburger in California. There's a reason they wrap them in paper, folks!

Tortilla soup sandwiches???

I had some leftover chicken and lots of tortillas the other day so I made tortilla soup. The loveliest part of tortilla soup is all of the yummy garnishes. Avocados, lime juice, cilantro, feta cheese? Yum, yum, yum, yum.

We ended up with one small bowl of soup left over. It’s too complicated to take to work for lunch so it sat in the fridge for a couple days until I got the brilliant idea of making tortilla soup paninis!

Bear with me here. I added more shredded chicken to the soup. I spread the chicken mixture on one piece of sourdough bread. I topped it with sliced avocado and cilantro. On the other slice I spread feta cheese and a slice of provolone. I threw the whole works into the Panini press and let the magic happen.

And happen it did. That was one tasty sandwich!

Insanewiches?

You bet!
I might have to contibute to this fine website

New Year's resolutions, like Utopian communities, are doomed to fail

Do you know who I admire?

Bloggers who post everyday. They post every day, even when they are sick or busy or have nothing special to report. These good bloggers manage to post things which are entertaining and that keep their readers coming back.

I know I’ve been negligent as a blogger this year. But I haven’t stopped eating and loving sandwiches, and that’s what matters, right?

So here’s my promise for 2010. I will post everyday. And I will be funny. (Or at least I will intend to post everyday and be funny!)