Oven Broiler Sandwiches

You don't have to have a panini press to make delicious hot toasty sandwiches at home. I actually DO have a panini press but sometimes I don't want to get it out, or clean it, or add the calories of extra butter or olive oil on the outside of the bread. I have been making oven broiler sandwiches for years, and they are oh so tasty! This is also a good way to make a large batch of sandwiches at one time. This is a great quick meal for Sunday afternoon when we get home, starving & everyone wants lunch QUICK.

I used:
Mortadella as best I can tell it's facy Italian bologna Boar's Head makes a wonderful one, it has bits of pistachios in it. Yumm! You want it sliced very thin.
Genoa Salami - much nicer than hard salami you want one that is a nice deep color, some of the supermarket brands are almost pale pink, they're not as good. Private Selections at Kroger is of a good quality.
Pepperoni - you just can't go wrong with a bit of spicy pepperoni on your sandwich
Provalone is my cheese of choice - but I was out so I used what I had in the fridge, today.
You can also add some ham (which will make the sandwich sweet)
or Turkey (using more turkey and less of the higher fat sausage meats will help the sandwich have fewer calories)
Tomato also makes a nice addition.
I used Sourdough bread, but any kind of bread or roll works well.


Mix up some mayonnaise with Italian Salad dressing and spared it on the bread.

Next I like to add a layer of cheese, this helps the meats adhere to the sandwich & not slip & slide around as much. If you're going to use tomato, add it next. Then add the deli meats, ending up with a bit more cheese, which will serve as sandwich glue.

Position the sandwich halves on a foil lined baking sheet & position under the broiler until the cheese gets melty and the edges of the meats begin to crisp & curl up, you're going to love the way this brings out the flavors of the meat.

Now add any mustard, pickles or other dressings you desire. I drizzled in a bit more of the Italian mayo dressing. Put the two halves together and return to the broiler until the bread is toasted, flip the sandwich over & repeat.

The possibilities are endless with all the different combinations of meat, cheese, veggies, spreads & condiments. Go forth & create your own winning combination!

Tip-Of-The-Day BLT with Avocado

OK I burned the bacon. I cook it in the oven and my hubby phoned while it was in & I forgot about it... but if you are still willing to listen to my advice... I have a tip for you, today. I love Bacon & Tomato sandwiches (not technically BLT because I don't like lettuce on them) I toast bread, I slather on mayonnaise, I pickles, bacon and tomatoes, sometimes mustard, but the BEST thing about Bacon and Tomato sandwiches if you can get it, is avocado!!! I was born in California where I lived until about 9 years ago & as is proper to a California native I grew to adore avocados. When hubby was being transferred to Houston, TX I had one question... "Can you get avocados there?" The answer came back "YES!" and the rest is history. (You don't get them for free because they are falling off your uncle's tree faster than they can be eaten... but hey, you can get them for ready money and that is good enough.)

Anyway on to the tip. Generally I mush the avocado up with a bit of salt and then smoosh it into the bread with a fork. At some point I noticed that everything tastes better if the dill pickles are touching the avocado. I don't know when it came to me, but I always do this now... the next logical step is to add a spoonful of juice from the pickle jar to the avocado when you moosh it up (then you don't need to add any salt, because the pickle brine is salty). It is so wonderful on the sandwich! It's so good I sometimes make avocado and tomato and skip the bacon. Heck I have made avocado and pickle sandwiches.

Sorry I don't have any photos, but Robert has the camera, today... and besides, you don't want to look at photos of burned bacon... but give it a try. Avocado and pickle juice, it's some good stuff!!!

Dinner: Grown Up Grilled Cheese/Panini

I haven't posted any recipes in a long while due to the hurricane. Now that the kids are back in school I am back to work so I made an easy dinner, tonight. I first made these sandwiches a few weeks ago, they were a big hit with my family. Ethan is so enthusiastic about these that he was asking me to make him another before he had finished the first half, he ended up eating his entire sandwich plus half of mine! And I had been afraid he might be put off by all that green... Silly Mommy.

I have been doing a bit of grilled sandwich research (surfing) this morning. Lo and behold I came across this quote about the Monte Cristo sandwich (YUM!) On Wikipedia

"The first well documented appearance of the Monte Cristo sandwich is on menus at the Blue Bayou and Tahitian Terrace restaurants at Disneyland's New Orleans Square in 1966."

The Blue Bayou is where I have enjoyed most of the Monte Cristo sandwiches I have consumed and I have to say that they are WONDERFUL!

Pesto Mozzarella Grilled Cheese


I got this idea from Tyler Florence on the Ultimate Rainy Day Episode of Tyler's Ultimate. But he made pesto from scratch - I'm sure homemade pesto would be even better, but this is the quick and easy weeknight version & I have trouble finding fresh basil in large quantities, so I'm using prepared pesto.

Ingredients:
Loaf of Sourdough Bread
Tub of Prepared Pesto Sauce (find it in the refrigerated pasta section)
Mozzarella Fresca (Fresh Mozzarella it's with the specialty cheeses and usually packed in liquid - it's much softer than standard Mozzarella which has been aged.)
Olive Oil
1) Slice Mozzarella and Bread if not pre-sliced.

2) Spread pesto sauce on insides of bread, top one side with mozzarella slices and assemble. Brush one side of bread with olive oil (it actually tasted butterier than using butter!)

3) Place sandwich oiled side down on heated iron or griddle. Brush remaining side with oil.

4) Now in order to press the sandwich you will need something with some weight. Here is what I did. Top sandwich with a sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil, place the flat bottom of a cookie sheet on top of that (large flat surface that will press down on all the sandwiches) and top that with something heavy (I used my cast iron skillet or you could use some heavy cans.) Grill until browned and flip. When both sides are toasted remove to cutting board and cut sandwich in half.

Tips: On the TV show, Tyler used a nice artisan Sourdough and cut it into thick slices and grilled it on a Panini press. I found that when I tried to use my grill pan and weight with thick sliced bread, I did get those pretty panini grill marks, but only the ridge part of the sandwich browned, and the bread was too thick for the cheese to get warm enough to melt.
I did much better with both browning and melting using sourdough pre-sliced by the bakery (thinner uniform slices) and toasting the sandwiches on a flat griddle - still pressing the layers under under foil, cookie sheet, and cast iron skillet. You could easily make this a Tricolore Sandwich by adding slices of tomato. (The word Tricolore refers to the Italian flag: red, white and green - In Italian Cuisine dishes with these three colors are also described as Tricolore.)