Presenting the Rachel!

We were a little harried tonight. Angie and I were both late coming home from work. Beth was busy laying in provisions for the coming storm. Angie couldn't find marble rye so I ran to the Franklin Street Bakery just before closing time to grab some. Check out their happy hour special: half price bread and pastries from 5 to 6. I had to get cupcakes since I was there. They, unfortunately, are still full price. But totally worth it.
Onto the rachel--we went pretty traditional--marble rye, thousand island, swiss cheese, sauerkraut (Franks, from the can, the best!) and turkey. We had beer cheese soup for an appetizer while we were letting the super thick sandwiches grill up! All in all, not bad.
We barely even missed any of the two hour ANTM premiere. I think this may be the dumbest crop yet. We'll see what drama unfolds. One chick explained that she could wear fur if the animal died from natural causes, like, you know, how animals fight in the jungle and one dies? She totally would make a stole out of that critter. Heaven help us.
We are excited to announce that our next sandwich will be the......DAGWOOD! We are so totally raiding the Everett's meat counter. Jalapeno loaf, here we come!

D.C. update

I don't have much to report on the sandwich front from D.C. I don't think D.C. is really known for its sandwiches, actually. I did, however, have a delightful corned beef on rye at a deli on Capitol Hill yesterday. And I had a fantastic Indian Taco at the National Museum of the American Indian on Monday. But even I hesitate to call an Indian Taco a sandwich.

Yummy BLT

I met my friend Jane (of the two sandwich lead) at the Minnesota History Center for lunch yesterday and had the best BLT. Rosemary foccacia with garlicky herb mayonnaise, arugula, fancy bacon, and a really good tomato. It doesn't seem right to eat a tomato that good in February, but I'm not going to ask too many questions! It came with sweet potato fries, too. I'm glad I don't work there, it would be too tempting to eat lunch at the cafe every day. I'd be poorer and fatter! They have a hot pastrami sandwich calling my name next. (I hope we pull that one out of the hat soon!)
So, go to Cafe Minnesota and have lunch. Check out Baseball as America, or my favorite exhibit, Weather Permitting.

The Rachel…

Is our next sandwich. Congratulations, Jane, for having a second sandwich drawn from the hat! Beth and I will be in DC on Monday night. Perhaps we will sample some of our capitol’s finer sandwich offerings as a special treat. Our next official sandwich night, however, will have to wait until we are back home. Wednesday night should work, especially since it's the same night as the season premiere of America’s Next Top Model. If only there were a contestant named Rachel, then it would be perfect!

Aaaah, the Jucy Lucy

Totally awesome.
I got the meat at Everett's, which really deserves its own post. My friend John says that Everett's employs the last butchers in captivity and I think he's right. They wear white aprons and hats, wrap the meat up in white butcher paper and write the price on it with a black grease pencil. We get all of our ground beef from there and only there. They grind fresh it from big chunks of beef. They'll even grind it for you while you wait, if you ask them. No weird 57 animals and E coli mixed up in 1 pound of beef, here baby.
Back to the Jucy Lucys. I got squishy white buns and American cheese and sliced dill pickles called "Hamburger Chips". Angie seasoned the meat with garlic salt, pepper, and soy sauce. Then she divided it in 1/6th pound portions and worked them into wide, thin patties. 1 piece of cheese for each burger, folded in half, just like at Matt's. Then sandwich two of the patties around the cheese and pinch the edges shut. You have to pinch them a bunch and Angie did a bang up job.
I made french fries like Beth used to make when she worked at the french fry booth at the State Fair. Cut them sort of medium thick, then fry them at 325 for a few minutes, drain them, then fry them at 375 quickly so they get brown and crunchy.
We filled our house with grease and smoke frying up the burgers but it was completely worth it.
We went a little unorthodox and added a piece of cheese on top as well. Quite delicious. Angie made hers a double, crazy girl.
Fear the cheese!

We actually watched Heroes last night after our L-Word/Thai food get-together, so we opted to watch a movie about Winston Churchill I had checked out of the library while we ate. It was pretty good, even if it put Angie to sleep in 5 minutes. But so do most tv shows after 9:00 PM.

An ode to Matt's

I've gone on about the Jucy Lucys for too long without mentioning Matt's Bar. Some fools claim the Jucy Lucy was invented at other South Minneapolis establishments, but they are wrong. Everyone knows they started at Matt's and that Matt's is the only place where you can get them done right.
That being said, we are going to try and emulate the Matt's recipe and technique in our very own kitchen Tuesday night. We're thinking we'll stay traditional with American cheese in the middle. But maybe we'll go crazy, who knows? Angie likes to stuff peppers in everything, after all!

The LIST, updated

We're getting ready for Jucy Lucys next week--but we'll have to eat them Tuesday night, while watching Heroes on tape. Why? Jen and Junior will be here and we're watching the L Word and eating Thai food with them. So many food and tv pairings! What will we do when America's Next Top Model starts? Eat carrot sticks and Baked Lays?
So anyway, thanks for all of your excellent sandwich suggestions. These are the ones that have made it into the hat. I have to exclude any sandwich containing fish (sorry, Peter) since Beth won't eat them. And sandwich night is for the entire house. I'm also leaving out the excellent peanut butter suggestions since they aren't dinnery enough. Also my friend Patrick's cheddar cheese and strawberry jam sandwich, for the same reason. But I'm totally making it for lunch.
New Additions:
Jucy Lucy
Patty melt
Rachel
California Chicken Club from the Mac Grille
Roasted Vegetable
Monte Cristo (or shall we say, Monte Crisco?)
Steak
Pulled Pork
Barbeque (we'll figure out what kind when we draw it)
Amy Boese's Giant Dinner Sandwich