Surprise sandwiches!

When I went to Brasa for lunch today, I was planning to order their awesome rotisserie chicken with two delicious sides--cheese grits? collards with smoked turkey? jalapeno creamed spinach? masa cakes?
I was thrown for a loop when the server brought over a brunch menu, though. How does this sound? Scrambled egg end chorizo sandwich with avocado, pico de gallo and black beans on a soft bun?
That's what I thought! Good enough to leave my plans behind and jump right into that tasty morsel! Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera (I wasn't planning on a sandwich, after all) so I don't have a photo. You'll have to imagine it.
And yes, the sandwich was excellent!

Perhaps a trip to Oregon is in order?

My Auny Peggy clued me into an article about the best sandwiches in the Portland area. I made the mistake of reading it while I was hungry. There are some tasty tasty sounding sandwiches, I'll tell you what. I need to get out there and try some!
So be sure to grab a snack before you open that link or you'll be as hungry as I am right now. Would someone bring me a fancy Portland sandwich, please? Pretty please?

Save the date!

March 10!
That's the premier of America's Next Top Model Cycle 14.
Check out a sneak peek of the contestants, courtesy of one of my favorite ANTM bloggers, fourfour.
Fourfour draws our attention to the show's use of portmanteaus-combining words to make a whole new word. Remember "smize"? Lordy.
Well, Karen had a great idea for our Cycle 14 premier Sandwich Night: portmanteau sandwich!
Do you have a suggestion for a sandwich made from two other sandwiches? Something that will be delicious, like the Monte Cubano?
Post it in the comments. If I get enough ideas, I'll put it to a poll.

Oh Canada!

"They should call these diabetes mellitus type 2 bars" said my friend Amy as she struggled to finish her Nanaimo bar at our Olympic Sandwich Night. The Nanaimo bar is Canada's favorite bar and it originates from a city just south of Vancouver. It's layered like a sandwich with a graham cracker, chocolate, and coconut crust, custard buttercream filling and chocolate topping. It's just a teeny bit rich.
The bars capped off a lovely evening. I decided to have salmon burgers for Sandwich Night in honor of Vancouver, the Olympic host city. I found the recipe online. I used canned salmon and added red onion, basil, salt, pepper, hot sauce and an egg to bind it. I cooked them in a frying pan and served them on the lovely large hamburger buns from Lund's. I made cilantro wasabi mayonnaise and had red butter lettuce as well. They were quite delicious! I made sweet potato fries as a side. They were awesome dipped in that cilanto wasabi mayonnaise. And, since it was Valentine's day, I had to make the patties heart shaped, of course.

Gold Medal Sandwich Night!

The Olympics start tomorrow!
I love the Olympics as much as I love sandwiches. Therefore we must bring the two together, don't you think?
How about Sunday the 14th?
7:00?
I don't think Vancouver has a signature sandwich so I think I'll feature that Northwest Coast favorite, salmon!
What do you think? Salmon burgers? Teriyaki salmon sandwiches?
And yes, I know it's Valentine's day. But don't you think salmon and the Olympics are romantic?
Let me know if want to come over!

I love my fellow sandwich lovers

My friend Ethan is a great lover of sandwiches. He is also an awesome photographer. Check out the beautiful marriage of his love of sandwiches (specifically the bahn mit) and his gift for taking pictures.
Please don’t lick the screen.
Your monitor thanks you.

Saints? Colts? We are the winners!

Here's our Cuban sandwich in honor of the Super Bowl being in Miami. I roasted a marinated a pork loin in orange juice, olive oil, garlic, onions and oregano. Then I roasted it. I sliced it thinly and we layered the pork with ham, Swiss cheese, dill pickles and Dijon mustard on soft French bread. We cooked them on the panini press. They were quite yummy and enjoyed by all, including Tinkerbelle.

The Superbowl is in Miami...

and we're expecting a snowstorm tonight, so why not stay in and make Cuban sandwiches?
I'm using a recipe from American Sandwich:Great Eats From All 50 States by Becky Mercuri.
Would you like to come over?

Hmmm...

This article popped up on my Yahoo! homepage the other day. How could I resist a story on the 10 Worst Sandwiches in America?
It turns out to be one of those guilt inducing articles about the highest calorie and fat offerings at chain restaurants. It also tells you a substitution lower in fat and calories on the same menu.
It got me thinking. First of all, I don't really eat at a lot of chain restaurants. Perhaps it's because I live in the city and they aren't so many chain places nearby. Or perhaps it's because chain food has been so focussed grouped and value engineered that it's usually just plain nasty.
Whatever the case, I've only eaten one of the 10 worst sandwiches and that's the meatball sub at Subway. And I stopped eating those years ago when the meatballs started creeping me out too much. I still recall it was pretty tasty sandwich in a satisfyingly nasty way, especially if they put the cheese on the bottom and you added banana peppers and olives on top. I laughed at their alternative: swap a footlong meatball sub for a 6" roastbeef and save 850 calories, 41.5 grams of fat and 2,220 mg of sodium. Also save half a sandwich. And be stuck eating nasty Subway roastbeef, which is just as creepy as the meatballs.
Hmmm...I think I'll just make my own meatball sandwich. And remember to work out and eat my veggies.

How to jazz up a cheese sandwich

Use fancy mustard and good cheese! This is wheat bread, spinach, white cheddar and honey tarragon. It was so good I made it two days in a row.

I got the mustard from the clearance bin at the supermarket. I can't imagine why. It is lovely lovely mustard and it wasn't even expired. (I checked. Like mustard can really go bad.)

The cheese is from Bongard's Creamery. It's my favorite brand of inexpensive cheese. So yummy.

I love mustard, too.

Here's all the mustard I could grab quickly from my refrigerator. I like having lots of different kinds of mustard so my sandwiches never get boring. I'm opening the honey tarragon one tomorrow. I can't wait!
And yes, that's a gallon of yellow mustard. Want some?