Make meatballs while the snow flies

You may have heard that we had a little snowstorm in the Upper Midwest over the weekend. I grew up in Southern California and my only idea of Minnesota winters came from reading the Little House on the Prairie books. I thought blinding white out blizzards where you had to feel your way to the barn with a rope were a regular occurence. It was a little disappointing to discover that that doesn't really happen, especially in the city.

I did get to experience the famous Halloween Blizzard of 1991. I lived on my college campus and I didn't have a car so I simply enjoyed the sheer immensity of all that snow. It was incredible. I didn't know that I would have to wait almost 20 years to meet another storm of its magnitude. Bring it on, Snowpocalypse 2010!

Spaghetti is a lovely thing to make when you are snowed in. What's better than letting a pot of sauce simmer on the stove all day? And whates better than a meatball sandwich when you get tired of eating the sauce on pasta. Not much!

Beth made her awesome meatballs and was able to get to the store Monday to pick up rolls and provolone cheese. I spread garlic butter on the rolls, toasted them, then layered on cheese, meatballs, and a little sauce and toasted them some more. I finished them off with a little hot giardiniera peppers.

Mmmm--this makes hours of shovelling worth it!

Mmm..leftover turkey sandwiches

Aren't leftover Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches the best? There are so many options. You could pile all the leftovers on a piece of white bread, smother with gravy and microwave. You could pile all the leftovers between two slices of bread and eat it cold. Or, you could make a simple turkey and cranberry sauce sandwich. I layer turkey (salt and pepper it!) and homemade cranberry sauce between two slices of well buttered white bread. That's it.

It helps to have really good cranberry sauce and I made a tasty one:
1 bag cranberries
3/4 cup sugar
4-5 frozen strawberries
Place in a pan, bring to a boil and simmer for a few minutes until the juices coat the back of a spoon. You can always cook it longer if you're not sure. You don't want runny cranberry sauce on your sandwich!

Go west, young woman!

Our little Angie stayed with us for a night on her big move out to California. We had to have an appropriate sandwich in her honor, of course. I found a good candidate in 'wichcraft: red wine-braised flank steak with roasted peppers, onions, and gruyere. The only thing it was missing to make it a true Angie sandwich was mushrooms.

The recipe called for 2 1/2 hours to braise the meat so I cooked it up the night before Angie was due. The sandwich was almost lost when the braising liquid cooked off and the steak started to burn. I was so caught up watching Sherlock on PBS that I barely noticed the buring smell coming from the kitchen. I saved it just in time, but the pan juices were ruined. I improvised some new pan juices with beef broth and was able to shred the meat in it. It was a little overcooked tasting, but not terribly so. The whole incident reminded me of the scene in Julie and Julia when Julie burns the boeuf bourguignon she's making for the food critic because she fell asleep. My intended audience was more forgiving so I didn't have to start over. Phew!

I also made some changes to the recipe. First off, I forgot my list when I went shopping and I bought gouda instead of gruyere. That was no big loss--the gouda was delicious. I sauteed up a mess of crimini mushrooms to add to the sandwich which were a lovely addition.

We assembled the sandwiches and baked them in the oven until they were good and melty. Angie built a huge sandwich, as expected.

Hopefully the meaty deliciousness of this sandwich will convince Angie to come back and visit often!

Sandwich Night Celebration!

Sandwich Night regular Karen has a great reason to celebrate: she's adopting! Her new daughter is a 15 year old sandwich loving girl named Jacki. When Karen shared this news with me, you know my first response was, "Does she like sandwiches???"

And she does. And she has strong opinions about them. Such as, "all sandwiches must contain meat." I don't necessarily agree...but kudos for speaking your mind, young Sandwich Artist.

To celebrate, Karen hosted a Sandwich Night in Jacki's honor. I figured it was high time to return to 'wichcraft for some ideas. We chose two seasonally appropriate sandwiches: Cheddar cheese, smoked ham, poached pears and mustard on cranberry bread and roasted pumpkin, hazelnut brown butter and fresh mozzarella on white bread. I chose the second one as a not too subtle attempt to sway Jacki over to the dark realm of meatless sandwiches....

Karen invited lots of Sandwich Night newbies so we had some hesitation around the panini maker. It didn't last long. People started mixing up ingredients and making their own ham-pumpkin-mozzarella-pear creations pretty quick. I made one of each, according to the recipes. Just to try them, afterall. I preferred the ham, Cheddar and pear sandwich. But both were quite lovely.
My meatless sandwich trick worked too. As Jacki bit into her pumpkin sandwich, we asked if she had put any meat in it and she replied, "Pumpkin is the meat in this sandwich!" Aaah, a rule bending afficionado. I love you already.

Jacki's a fan of anime, so we watched Ponyo as our entertainment. It's kind of a crazy movie. It's best if you don't try to make too much sense of it. The character Ponyo is obsessed with ham, though. That I can understand!

On the road again...

I've just gotten home from a couple weeks of travelling and of course I have sandwich news for you.
I flew to Hartford, CT for work for a couple days. My connecting flight through Philadelphia was a pleasant surprise. The Philly airport is pretty nice! They have lots of food options including a Chick-fil-A. I've been curious about their sandwiches but have never gotten the chance to try one.
The star of the sandwich is the fried chicken filet. It's juicy and nicely spiced. And totally let down by a bland bun and a couple soggy pickles for company. How about some mayonnaise and nice crisp piece of lettuce, folks? I'll have to provide my own next time I find a Chick-fil-A!

Nobody Beats Mayslack's Meat

“It's smiling at me.”
My friend Chobot had just played 80 minutes of rugby, so any food looks pretty friendly at that point. It's the Original at Mayslack's, a Northeast Minneapolis institution famous for roast beef and also a sponsor of my old rubgy team. This sandwich has been on my radar for a while (should I make a Sandwich Bucket List?) but this was my first chance to try it.
The fantastically garlicky roast beef is piled on a soft pumpernickel bun. If you try really hard, you can get about half the meat into the bun to eat it. The banana peppers and sliced onions add the right amount of tangy crunch. If I could change anything, I'd serve the meat closer to the rare end of the spectrum. But it was still mighty tasty!
And yes, I shared some with Chobot. But only because I couldn't finish it, of course.

This explains a lot

Credit to my friend Amy T for directing me to This is Why You're Fat, a celebration of excess. I couldn't stop looking at it. There are quite a few featured sandwiches including the usual suspects circulating the web these days: Paula Deen's Lady's Brunch Burger, the KFC Double Down and the Denny's Fried Grilled Cheese. Yup, there's a lot to be scared of on the website. And of course, there's a lot to be inspired by as well....one of these days we might just make a hamburger with grilled cheese sandwiches for buns!