This week: Hot Sandwiches for Cold Days.
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-JT
make up some pork shoulder/butt in the pressure cooker and have hot pulled pork sandwiches all week.
It sounds similar to what I think are called “horseshoe sandwiches”, said to originate in central IL, maybe Springfield. But I could be mis-remembering.
No, I guess horseshoe sandwiches use a beer cheese sauce. Sounds very good, either way.
My current favorite hot sandwich:
Italian or French bread
Your favorite cut of steak, cooked and sliced thin
Steak juices
Mushrooms sauted in garlic/olive oil, with wine added
Provolone cheese
Salt to taste
Toast in oven until cheese is melted and enjoy!
I like grilled cheese made with mozzarella and a little bit of pesto.
I also like sautéed mushrooms and Swiss cheese in croissants, heat the foil wrapped stuffed croissants in the oven to melt the cheese.
My family’s favorite sandwhich:
Pan fried seasoned chicken breast over spring greens on a toasted ciabatta bun. Top with roasted red pepper aioli and feta cheese. Easy, fast, inexpensive and good. The restaurant that serves this uses salmon instead of chicken. I use their cheater aioli: sour cream, mayo and roasted red pepper blended to make the sauce.
2 - 16oz. Pinto Beans
1-10oz. Diced tomatoes and Green chiles...
1/2 cup diced onions...
1 tsp crushed garlic
One bottle of Negro Modelo
1/3 cup real bacon pieces...
1/4 cup of Cilantro...
One lime sliced into wedges..
Med-High heat.,...stir to combine...except the Cilantro and the Lime....
Bring to boil..and reduce heat to Med-Low....
Simmer 20 min....
Then stir in Cilantro and lime...and serve.
I had a wonderful grilled eggplant on ciabbata with mixed greens, sun dried tomatoes, and garlic aioli in a restaurant in Apex NC before Christmas. I want to go back because that sandwich is calling to me. ;)
It’s not a sandwich, but it’s a warm dessert for after the warm sandwich...Chocolate Almond Braid. One of these days I’ll have to try it!
https://www.facebook.com/buzzfeedtasty/videos/1696573170595325/?theater
Your favorite chocolate bar
Egg wash
Your favorite crushed nuts (we used almonds!)
Directions:
Lay out your puff pastry. Place your chocolate bar in the center, cut diagonal lines along the left and right side of the chocolate bar about an inch apart. Remove the corner pieces. Starting from the top, fold down the flap then alternate right and left until you are close to the bottom. Fold the bottom flap up and finish alternating between right and left. Tuck any extra puff pastry underneath.
Place the braided puff pastry on parchment paper lined baking tray. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle crushed nuts over.
Bake at 415F / 213C for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy!
Or should I link to Bruno Albouze's (sp?) fancy schmancy baked ham and cheese, made with home made whole wheat bread almost white bread in a pullman loaf pan with the lid on, crusts carefully cut off, toasted lightly, deli ham carefully folded and sandwiched and smothered in a Gruyere Bechamel sauce topped with a little freshly grated parmesan for good measure? I'll never get around to making that.
Instead I'll offer the following humble open faced broiled cheese, tomato and bacon sandwiches. I don't know if my mom invented it or got the idea from somewhere. We loved them. My dad sprinkled his liberally with Tabasco sauce.
After I left home, I didn't have a clue how mom made them. After a couple tries, I settled on this manner with no variations allowed. White or wheat bread lightly toasted under the broiler on both sides. Lay a slice of Deli Deluxe American cheese and broil until bubbly but not brown. Add the best tomato slice(s) you can find, summer ones where one slice fits the whole sandwich are best. Hold the finishing broiling until you have added 3 partially cooked half-bacon slices, then put under the broiler to crisp up. If the toast burns just a little where it's not covered with cheese, so much the better, as well as the bacon. Too much burning and you have ruined it. Eaten at the table with a knife and fork.
My kids were all crazy about them. They aren't exactly a winter sandwich; I don't make them in the winter hardly ever because the tomatoes now are a little better but too expensive. Roma, I never tried but might be a nice surprise.
Best to wait for a firm but ripe Beefsteak tomato from your or a friend's garden or a roadside stand or Farmer's market.
Yum.
P.S. I will only eat Deli Deluxe American cheese, the store brand is fine, the reason being is it's like the old way, and the new way the slices are thinner and you have to peel the darn plastic off.
Now since they have thoroughly ruined Velveeta, I am going to have to use a combination of grated cheddar and, yes, the Deli Deluxe American cheese, broken up in white sauce. I refuse to buy another box of Velveeta but it used to do in a pinch for the above, grilled cheese, and quick stovetop mac and cheese.
Here are 2 great sandwiches that I love to make. These are serves at the Foundry on Melrose Ave in LA. Chef there is Eric Greenspan. I reduced the butter in these.
Johnny Apple Cheese, a.k.a. Johnny Pastrami
. Makes 4 sandwiches
Ingredients:
1/2 pound butter, 1/2 cup mustard seeds
,5 Granny Smith apples, cored and sliced thin
1y, medium onion, sliced thin
, 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard,
 2 tablespoons honey,
1/2 cup apple cider
, 1/2 cup cider vinegar, 
8 slices of extra sour sourdough bread, 16 slices aged white Cheddar, 
1 pound pastrami, sliced thin.
1. For the apple mustard chutney: In a pan over medium heat, heat two tablespoons of butter until it foams. Add the mustard seeds and toast in the pan for 1 minute, and then add most of the apples (reserve 8 slices) and onions and cook until tender. Add honey, cider, vinegar and Dijon mustard, and reduce until the liquid is absorbed. Take off heat and puree in a blender until mostly smooth.
In a large pan (cast iron is best) or griddle, melt half of the remaining butter and 4 slices of bread. Top each slice of bread with 2 slices of cheddar cheese and toast until golden brown. When the cheese is melted, add 1/4 of the pastrami to each slice, a dollop of chutney, and two thin slices of raw green apple. Cover with remaining bread. Add remaining butter, flip sandwich and grill until other side is equally golden brown. Cut each sandwich in half and serve hot, preferably with a frilly toothpick.
The Champ: Grilled Taleggio Sandwich With Apricots and Capers. 
Makes 4 sandwiches.
Ingredients:
15 dried apricots
1 tablespoon nonpareil capers
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
8 slices dark raisin bread
5 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
4 small handfuls arugula
8 ounces taleggio cheese, rind removed, at room temperature
4 pinches fleur de sel
1. Place apricots in small saucepan and add water just to cover. Bring to full boil and immediately remove from heat. Mix in capers, mustard and olive oil. Pulse in blender to chunky consistency; set aside.
2. Spread one side of each bread slice evenly (to the edges) with 1/2 tablespoon butter. With buttered sides down, top four slices with 2 tablespoons of apricot mixture, handful of arugula and equal portions of cheese. Top with remaining slices, buttered side up.
3. Place large skillet over high heat, and melt remaining 1 tablespoon butter. Reduce heat to low and add sandwiches. Cook until browned and crisp on both sides, about 2 minutes a side. Transfer to a platter lined with paper towels, and sprinkle each with a pinch of fleur de sel. Cut in half and serve.
Chef Greenspan sometimes serves the cheese sandwich with a layer of braised beef. I have not been able to find that recipe.
I found this last night. I am going to try it today.
file:///recipes/sandwiches/Grilled-Cheese-and-Pulled-Short-Ribs-Sandwich%20%20%20.html
We went to see Johnny, Sunday. He is extremely ill. He was lying on a small couch in the living room with a window behind the couch so he could see someone coming to his front door. He cannot walk. He was able to move on his own, swing his legs to the floor so he was sitting upright. He is attached to oxygen 24 hours a day.
I could understand most of what he said. He can get himself in a wheelchair from his bed so someone can move him from the couch to his bed, about 10 steps from the couch. His communication is down to his phone which he can still punch and the print on the phone is magnified so he can see the words. He can still smile and laugh.
Earlier, I had a terrible cold and could not go there until I knew I was not going to infect him with a cold. I had seven Christmas cards and two small gifts from Freepers to give him that came after my last visit there. He knows Freepers have not forgotten him.
According to him, the docs say he could live a few weeks more. Hospice has been there, put in a hospital bed, and someone comes every other day to give him a sponge bath and a whole bath once a week. Hospice is looking for someone to be there 8 hrs. a day. Pray they find someone soon.
He has a niece, whom I met, and she is a God send, and comes there before and after her work. She keeps up with the medicines, washes clothes and bedding, cleans the house like a pro., and brings food or she cooks it. Her name is Patience, what better name for an angel. His brother comes during the time Patience is not there, so they can have someone there most of the time.
Patience, with Johnny's directions, the day before, put a computer on a standing tray and that is now over his bed so maybe he can operate that.
He can use text on his phone and that is how we communicate. I knew he had to be a bit better when I got a text from him that said, “Don't have the memorial service yet.” Before that text, he was sending text that said, “I am dying.”
As a funny: when I took all the Christmas gifts and cards the time before this, I had a present to him from me. I bought him a throw blanket to keep him warm when he was out of bed. It is a garish blend of bright colors, supposed to be Cheetah colors - it is gross blanket throw and I thought it was perfect for him - no way he could lose that. Bob's opinion of the throw was, "I would never buy that."
Wellll, when Johnny sat up on the couch, the quilt over him slid back and that garish, very soft throw was over his body under that quilt. He said he loves his blanket and, in his mind, makes pictures of various objects out of the colors and black spaces. He showed me a cat's face he saw in those colors. It was true, that arrangement of the colors and black spaces, did look like a cat's face.
Patience told me, he has that blanket on him all the time and she got it one day and he complained, but she told him, "You will get it back, I need to wash it."
Here is that highly colored blanket:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/your-zone-50-x-60-microplush-throw-tie-dye-cheetah/29131613
Please continue to pray for Johnny that we can keep him as long as possible. We did pray with Johnny when we were there.
Free Republic is more than people posting their opinions on this and that - it is a place where people meet and form friendships that go beyond internet space. Without Free Republic, I would not have met Johnny and be able to help him at this desperate time. Thank you, Jim Robinson, for Free Republic.
Sweet and Spicy Peanut Dipping Sauce
4 tablespoons peanut butter (chunky or regular)
2 tablespoon salad oil
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 or 3 tablespoons granulated sugar (to taste)
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar or rice vinegar
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1/2 to 1 teaspoon Sriracha hot chili sauce (to taste), Can substitute Tabasco, Crystal Hot Sauce, Franks, etc.
Mix ingredients well. Serve as a dipping sauce,
or over white steamed rice, meatballs, noodles, pasta, pot stickers, egg rolls, etc. This stuff is really good.