I know, you're not a cucumber fan. But I'm going to just throw this out there for anyone else who might be. These are a tasty, light and relatively healthy summertime snack food. Muriel taught me to make them (I feel the need to always cite my source, lest anyone think I have an original idea in my head).
CUCUMBER SANDWICHES
1 large cucumber
Red wine vinegar
Dried dill weed
6 slices bread
2-3 tbs whipped cream cheese spread (or regular cream cheese, softened)
Lemon juice
This takes some prep work, but it's worth it. Either peel the cucumber, or score it all over with a fork (pierce the skin and drag the fork all the way down, and repeat until the whole cucumber is scratched and stripey - I believe this is to vent the skin so the marinade can get in).
Slice the cucumber very thin, and stick it in a Ziploc bag. Pour in a little red wine vinegar, to taste - I add just enough to give the cucumber something to sit in, I don't like to drown them - and sprinkle in some dill - again, to taste. I like to slather on the dill.
Shake the bag around to coat the cucumbers, then put the bag in the fridge for a couple of hours. I leave mine overnight. Every time I open the fridge, I flip the bag around, so the marinade has a chance to get all over the place.
When you're ready to eat them, take the slices out of the bag and lay them on a paper-towel lined plate. Pat them all over with more paper towels to completely dry them.
Grab some bread - the thinner, the better, but I just use regular sandwich bread and gently smash it down a little bit thinner. I'm still getting all the carbs (or all the whole grain nutrition, depending on how you look at it) but I feel daintier if the bread looks thinner. I also always use wheat bread, but whatever floats your boat.
Definitely cut off the crusts. Cucumber sandwiches should feel light and fancy. There. Doesn't that feel fancier?
In a little bowl, mix together some cream cheese, lemon juice, and a good sprinkling of more dill weed. Spread this mixture thinly on each slice of bread. The purpose of it is to provide a delicious barrier between the cucumbers and the bread, so the bread doesn't get all soggy. Now layer some cucumber slices on one piece of bread, and slap another piece of bread on top. In the spirit of fanciness, I cut mine in half, or even into 3 delicate little strips. MMM. Pinkies out!
These go very well with cherry tomatoes on the side, for some reason.
Showing posts with label sammiches. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sammiches. Show all posts
(Keep Your Sticky Hands Off) Mama's Breakfast Sandwich
I have reached my saturation point. I've been cooking, eating out at restaurants, having just a little bit of pie (okay, just a little bit more) and eating on the go (ZOO NACHOS) for so long, that I literally cannot eat any more food. There's no more room at the inn, y'all. I could pretty much marry a taco, and we skipped taco night last night because I didn't want to die.
So while I drink a Slimfast and reflect on my life choices, I will tell you about my breakfast Sunday morning. It is my favorite thing to cook myself for breakfast on a weekend morning. It is my present to myself.
I start by toasting a whole wheat bagel. A giant, dense, calorific, carboholic whole wheat bagel. The bagel is to be lightly buttered upon exiting the toaster. While that's happening, I heat up a skillet and spray it down with non-stick cooking spray. Then I break two eggs into a cup, and scoop out/discard one of the yolks. This makes me feel like I'm being reasonably healthy. I mix in a little low fat milk (no more than 1 tbs.), and season it with some dashes of black pepper, Tony's and Tabasco sauce. I whisk it around with a fork and pour it into the pan. It sizzles and I smile.
I cook the egg until I can turn it (like an omelette) without breaking it too bad. I fold it over itself and make a little square out of it (or a little triangle, or a little lopsided rhombus, whatever, it doesn't matter). I scoot the eggs over to one side of the skillet, and heat up some pieces of sliced ham on the other half of the skillet, turning them once to sear both sides. I use thin-sliced deli ham, because it's what I have on hand, so I use 3-4 slices.
I pop the ham and eggs onto one half of the bagel, top it with some thin slices of swiss cheese and a pinch or two of shredded cheddar. Close the sandwich with the other half of the bagel, and stick the whole thing in the microwave for 30 seconds to melt the cheese. Then, as I do with all my breakfast sandwiches (they love me at McDonald's), I eat it with mustard and a Diet Coke.
That sandwich will get me through a morning running after a preschooler. That sandwich will fill me up so long I can skip lunch or eat later than normal if need be. That sandwich is the equivalent of TWO fast food sandwiches, but that sandwich is NOT for sharing. I make Curt an egg and some toast at the same time, and he can eat that. Nobody touches Mama's sandwich, and everyone has a happy day.
So while I drink a Slimfast and reflect on my life choices, I will tell you about my breakfast Sunday morning. It is my favorite thing to cook myself for breakfast on a weekend morning. It is my present to myself.
I start by toasting a whole wheat bagel. A giant, dense, calorific, carboholic whole wheat bagel. The bagel is to be lightly buttered upon exiting the toaster. While that's happening, I heat up a skillet and spray it down with non-stick cooking spray. Then I break two eggs into a cup, and scoop out/discard one of the yolks. This makes me feel like I'm being reasonably healthy. I mix in a little low fat milk (no more than 1 tbs.), and season it with some dashes of black pepper, Tony's and Tabasco sauce. I whisk it around with a fork and pour it into the pan. It sizzles and I smile.
I cook the egg until I can turn it (like an omelette) without breaking it too bad. I fold it over itself and make a little square out of it (or a little triangle, or a little lopsided rhombus, whatever, it doesn't matter). I scoot the eggs over to one side of the skillet, and heat up some pieces of sliced ham on the other half of the skillet, turning them once to sear both sides. I use thin-sliced deli ham, because it's what I have on hand, so I use 3-4 slices.
I pop the ham and eggs onto one half of the bagel, top it with some thin slices of swiss cheese and a pinch or two of shredded cheddar. Close the sandwich with the other half of the bagel, and stick the whole thing in the microwave for 30 seconds to melt the cheese. Then, as I do with all my breakfast sandwiches (they love me at McDonald's), I eat it with mustard and a Diet Coke.
That sandwich will get me through a morning running after a preschooler. That sandwich will fill me up so long I can skip lunch or eat later than normal if need be. That sandwich is the equivalent of TWO fast food sandwiches, but that sandwich is NOT for sharing. I make Curt an egg and some toast at the same time, and he can eat that. Nobody touches Mama's sandwich, and everyone has a happy day.
I made the sweet potato fries
I made the sweet potato fries! I lined my pan with tin foil, and I think mine cooked faster than yours. At 425, it only took them 25 minutes or so to get nice and...well, as crispy as I think you can get them. Which is not crispy, but definitely not soggy! Nice. Very nice. I experimented with the broiler, but pulled them out after a few minutes because they started to burn. Oops! So no broiler for me, the tin foil apparently takes care of that.
Now what I'm doing is looking online for:
1. Tips to make them crispier. I don't necessarily need them crispier, but Shayne would like them better that way. I wish you could hear the sound he made when he tried one the first time. "EUGHhhh! Uh...I mean, that is not what I was expecting." But he put some on his plate, so it wasn't THAT bad, come on now.
2. A perfect dipping sauce. Again, not for me. For Shayne. Because natural vegetable flavor is for girls.
Curt might like them, if he would try one. But he was busy ramming hamburger bun into his face as fast as he could. I think he accidentally got a little bit of veggies and sauce mixed in (I made his sloppy joe with 1/2 sloppy joe meat and 1/2 mixed veggies - surprise, kid!), so I'll accept that as a win.
Overall review: will make again. And again and again and again. And if the boys don't want them, yay more for me.
I served them with sloppy-joes-from-a-can, so that was nothing special. I mean, they were very satisfying, definitely what I was hungry for, but I'll make my own next time. I was reading the ingredients on the can, and not feeling super happy about it. Can anyone even tell me what the hell "Natural Flavor" is? If it's natural, why do you have to add it in? Also, it's heavy on corn syrup. Not great. Can do better. Have been shown the way.
_______________________________________________
I believe tonight's lineup will be fish, veggies and potatoes. We love baked tilapia, and it's fast, fast, fast. I rub a little oil in a baking dish, add the fillets in, and hose them down with lemon juice. Then I sprinkle on some dill and a little lemon pepper, and bake it at 375 for 15 minutes. THE END.
I think it goes really well with garlic and herb mashed potatoes (FROM A BOX MIX), but Shayne thinks the potatoes are too dry/plain and need a gravy. There is no gravy that says to me, "serve with fish." No. So tonight I'm going to try a different approach and go with cheesy mashed potatoes (potatoes from a box, but I will mix in sharp cheddar and some seasoning).
Have you ever tried those veggie steamers, that you steam right in the bag in the microwave? They are brilliant. The Wal-Mart brand is just as good as the Green Giant or other brands. They take, like, six minutes to cook, and the vegetables are PERFECT. They are sweet and light and good. We're also going to have some of that, I think.
Saturday morning breakfast, I'm in a quiche kind of mood. Will report back on that, but I'm not sure how I'll be with weekend updating!
Now what I'm doing is looking online for:
1. Tips to make them crispier. I don't necessarily need them crispier, but Shayne would like them better that way. I wish you could hear the sound he made when he tried one the first time. "EUGHhhh! Uh...I mean, that is not what I was expecting." But he put some on his plate, so it wasn't THAT bad, come on now.
2. A perfect dipping sauce. Again, not for me. For Shayne. Because natural vegetable flavor is for girls.
Curt might like them, if he would try one. But he was busy ramming hamburger bun into his face as fast as he could. I think he accidentally got a little bit of veggies and sauce mixed in (I made his sloppy joe with 1/2 sloppy joe meat and 1/2 mixed veggies - surprise, kid!), so I'll accept that as a win.
Overall review: will make again. And again and again and again. And if the boys don't want them, yay more for me.
I served them with sloppy-joes-from-a-can, so that was nothing special. I mean, they were very satisfying, definitely what I was hungry for, but I'll make my own next time. I was reading the ingredients on the can, and not feeling super happy about it. Can anyone even tell me what the hell "Natural Flavor" is? If it's natural, why do you have to add it in? Also, it's heavy on corn syrup. Not great. Can do better. Have been shown the way.
_______________________________________________
I believe tonight's lineup will be fish, veggies and potatoes. We love baked tilapia, and it's fast, fast, fast. I rub a little oil in a baking dish, add the fillets in, and hose them down with lemon juice. Then I sprinkle on some dill and a little lemon pepper, and bake it at 375 for 15 minutes. THE END.
I think it goes really well with garlic and herb mashed potatoes (FROM A BOX MIX), but Shayne thinks the potatoes are too dry/plain and need a gravy. There is no gravy that says to me, "serve with fish." No. So tonight I'm going to try a different approach and go with cheesy mashed potatoes (potatoes from a box, but I will mix in sharp cheddar and some seasoning).
Have you ever tried those veggie steamers, that you steam right in the bag in the microwave? They are brilliant. The Wal-Mart brand is just as good as the Green Giant or other brands. They take, like, six minutes to cook, and the vegetables are PERFECT. They are sweet and light and good. We're also going to have some of that, I think.
Saturday morning breakfast, I'm in a quiche kind of mood. Will report back on that, but I'm not sure how I'll be with weekend updating!
Labels:
box betterfication,
fish,
sammiches,
taters precious,
veggies
by your command
So, you want to know about pre-cooked frozen hamburger patties? Let me tell you about them. I'm not going to lie, it's not the prettiest story.
The Omaha burgers that Mom sends us (HI MOM THANK YOU FOR THE BURGERS) do not have cooking instructions on the back. I guess because there is really no way on Earth you can fuck them up! You're probably meant to grill them, ideally. Like, outdoors in the sunshine while your children run around your manicured lawn and you have a beer, I guess. Shayne has cooked them on the stovetop in a skillet before, but I think that makes the whole house smell like a fast food restaurant. I don't want to smell like I've had to take a night shift at Wendy's to make ends meet (though now that I think about it, that might not be a terrible idea. DAYCARE IS EXPENSIVE AM I RIGHT?)
Thaw the burger patties (overnight or something). Preheat the oven to 350, and line a pan with heavy-duty foil. Plop the patties into the pan and salt/pepper/Tony's them up some. Cook them...well, I didn't time it, and it probably depends on how many patties you have in there, so let's just say...cook them until the GREASE CONGEALS ENOUGH TO SCRAPE OFF. Seriously. When they are browned and covered in chocolate-covered glop, pull them out of the oven. Scrape off the glop with a spatula. I move mine kind of over to one corner of the pan, like it is now in exile. Flip the burger patties over. Now (optional choice here) you can drain and rinse a can of mushrooms and spread them out in the pan around the burgers (shunning the grease glop that's in time-out in the corner). Salt/pepper/Tony's the mushrooms and other side of the burgers to taste. Stick them back in the oven and continue cooking until they are done. I always have to cut one open to see if it's still pink. I can't tell just by looking at the blasted things.
When they're done, you can slice up some cheese (we like Swiss) and melt it on the patties real quick. Serve on whole wheat buns with mustard. Shayne is usually sad that I don't mix my grease glop WITH the mushrooms (for FLAVOR, don't you know) but I'm sorry, I can't do that. I consider that little pile of congealment the "oh God, I'm going to become a vegetarian" side of the pan. The burgers, though, they are the "never mind, meat is freaking awesome" side of the pan.
All of this should take less than half an hour. And then you have dinner and the baby stops crying and you get to sit down for a minute!
I wanted to make the sweet potato fries to go with the burgers last night, buuuut. I didn't. We had some potato chips. GREAT VALUE potato chips (which are actually pretty good and not made with any weird additives, I was pleasantly surprised.)
Dessert? We all sat around the kitchen table picking through a bowl of Jelly Bellies. Even Curt. He'd put one in his mouth, chew it up a while to get the flavor, then spit it out.
It's been that kind of week.
WHAT DID YOU HAVE FOR SUPPER, SISTER?
The Omaha burgers that Mom sends us (HI MOM THANK YOU FOR THE BURGERS) do not have cooking instructions on the back. I guess because there is really no way on Earth you can fuck them up! You're probably meant to grill them, ideally. Like, outdoors in the sunshine while your children run around your manicured lawn and you have a beer, I guess. Shayne has cooked them on the stovetop in a skillet before, but I think that makes the whole house smell like a fast food restaurant. I don't want to smell like I've had to take a night shift at Wendy's to make ends meet (though now that I think about it, that might not be a terrible idea. DAYCARE IS EXPENSIVE AM I RIGHT?)
Thaw the burger patties (overnight or something). Preheat the oven to 350, and line a pan with heavy-duty foil. Plop the patties into the pan and salt/pepper/Tony's them up some. Cook them...well, I didn't time it, and it probably depends on how many patties you have in there, so let's just say...cook them until the GREASE CONGEALS ENOUGH TO SCRAPE OFF. Seriously. When they are browned and covered in chocolate-covered glop, pull them out of the oven. Scrape off the glop with a spatula. I move mine kind of over to one corner of the pan, like it is now in exile. Flip the burger patties over. Now (optional choice here) you can drain and rinse a can of mushrooms and spread them out in the pan around the burgers (shunning the grease glop that's in time-out in the corner). Salt/pepper/Tony's the mushrooms and other side of the burgers to taste. Stick them back in the oven and continue cooking until they are done. I always have to cut one open to see if it's still pink. I can't tell just by looking at the blasted things.
When they're done, you can slice up some cheese (we like Swiss) and melt it on the patties real quick. Serve on whole wheat buns with mustard. Shayne is usually sad that I don't mix my grease glop WITH the mushrooms (for FLAVOR, don't you know) but I'm sorry, I can't do that. I consider that little pile of congealment the "oh God, I'm going to become a vegetarian" side of the pan. The burgers, though, they are the "never mind, meat is freaking awesome" side of the pan.
All of this should take less than half an hour. And then you have dinner and the baby stops crying and you get to sit down for a minute!
I wanted to make the sweet potato fries to go with the burgers last night, buuuut. I didn't. We had some potato chips. GREAT VALUE potato chips (which are actually pretty good and not made with any weird additives, I was pleasantly surprised.)
Dessert? We all sat around the kitchen table picking through a bowl of Jelly Bellies. Even Curt. He'd put one in his mouth, chew it up a while to get the flavor, then spit it out.
It's been that kind of week.
WHAT DID YOU HAVE FOR SUPPER, SISTER?
Labels:
defrostables,
sammiches
Sloppy Joes, Sweet Potato Fries, Angel Food Cake
So here we are, at our very first, very real post.
I was thinking this morning, this will be pretty interesting. We grew up eating the same foods, watching the same people cook but we mostly seem to have vastly different ways around the kitchen, different staples in our pantry…maybe we can shake it up a bit!
Alright, bear with me, because neither of these are recipes (i.e. tsp and oz and whodit and wasdat), they are mostly just throwing shit together haphazardly and hoping for a miracle.
I know you remember that Christy and I cooked pretty much every weekend during high school. Maybe you didn’t know that? I can’t remember when you moved out. ANYWAY, we did cook most weekends. Sloppy Joes are one of the things we cooked the most, because you could experiment with it and it was SUPER hard to fuck up too bad. When I’m in need of comfort food (and mom’s not at home!) and I am pressed for time and I also want to make both Will and myself happy in the tummy area (I am usually all three of these), I make SLOPPY JOES.
You can do this. This is right up your alley. It’s probably stuff you have in your pantry and fridge!
I guess if you wanted a recipe list it could go something like this:
SLOPPY JOES
(it makes enough for about 5 sandwiches)
1 lb. ground beef (this is a good recipe to hide ground turkey in, too, because dudes and babies can’t tell the difference because the flavor is so strong. I usually use turkey, but we were out)
1 med. onion, chopped up
2 stalks celery, chopped up
1 can tomato paste
1 can tomato sauce
1 - 2 cloves of garlic, minced
½ tbsp or so of brown sugar
have at the ready: mustard, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco (I don’t add salt because this is already a lot of sodium, if you ask me, and you DID, kind of)
I bet you could add some bell pepper, too, but I’ve never tried it. Mmmm. Also, I know you can think up a better cut of meat to put in this. I’m completely uncomfortable with meat, so I just stick to basics. It makes me pretty sad.
Brown your beef in the skillet with the onion and celery and drain. Then, really, just add everything else in. I probably start with about 2 tbsp of mustard and ¼ cup of ketchup. Just a bit of W. sauce and Tabasco.
The good thing about this is it’s real easy to mess around and add or subtract what you want. And if you fuck up and need to correct your mistakes by adding more to offset the goof up well it just makes ‘em sloppier! It’s a win-win situation.
Moving on to other easy things:
SWEET POTATO FRIES
I can’t keep these out of my mouth. Last night was the first time I tried them, so they weren’t perfect and never got really crispy (not sure if they are supposed to), but even then they were amazing.
I cooked them at about 425.
One potato = one serving, so in our house each person got a potato. Ok, I got a potato and Will got frozen crinkle fries. These were FAR superior in my book.
Peel your sweet potato and cut up in thin strips to look like…you guessed it, French fries.
Put them all in a bowl and drizzle some olive oil over them. Toss them until coated.
Spread out on a pan and sprinkle with kosher salt and black pepper.
I cooked them for about 35 minutes and broiled on low for maybe 10 minutes. They never got crispy-crispy, but they weren’t so floppy and cooked veggie like that I couldn’t pick them up with my fingers and eat them like real fries. Which I did. A lot of.
FUCKING UP AN ANGEL FOOD CAKE
So, I think I mentioned I started Weight Watchers, yes? There is not a whole lot of foods I can tuck into and make myself sick on without eating up a bunch of points. So far I’ve found spinach and pickles, which is not real appealing unaccompanied by other things (ok, the pickles are).
I can eat a lot of angel food cake. Maybe because it’s air?
A long time ago a coworker had tried WW (and failed miserably, oh dear) and although I wasn’t on it, he sent me a file full of recipes and their point values. One recipe was just basically a box of angel food cake mix and several other ingredients. I guess this portion should be called fucking WITH and angel food cake, not fucking it up. It was delicious.
The one I tried the other night (and Will has been eating it non-stop, so I guess I did something right!) was the Pina Colada cake. Basically you get your cake mix and mix it according to the package, but you add a can of crushed pineapple in it’s juice and ½ tsp each of coconut and rum extract. It was divine. I was worried because I didn’t have an angel food cake pan, I only had a bundt pan, which the box says DO NOT USE! but I just eyeballed the batter and didn’t use it all. It came out perfect. It’s a good summer cake that you don’t have to feel guilty about. I’m all for that.
All of these things together? A meal, if served with root beer in glass bottles.
I was thinking this morning, this will be pretty interesting. We grew up eating the same foods, watching the same people cook but we mostly seem to have vastly different ways around the kitchen, different staples in our pantry…maybe we can shake it up a bit!
Alright, bear with me, because neither of these are recipes (i.e. tsp and oz and whodit and wasdat), they are mostly just throwing shit together haphazardly and hoping for a miracle.
I know you remember that Christy and I cooked pretty much every weekend during high school. Maybe you didn’t know that? I can’t remember when you moved out. ANYWAY, we did cook most weekends. Sloppy Joes are one of the things we cooked the most, because you could experiment with it and it was SUPER hard to fuck up too bad. When I’m in need of comfort food (and mom’s not at home!) and I am pressed for time and I also want to make both Will and myself happy in the tummy area (I am usually all three of these), I make SLOPPY JOES.
You can do this. This is right up your alley. It’s probably stuff you have in your pantry and fridge!
I guess if you wanted a recipe list it could go something like this:
SLOPPY JOES
(it makes enough for about 5 sandwiches)
1 lb. ground beef (this is a good recipe to hide ground turkey in, too, because dudes and babies can’t tell the difference because the flavor is so strong. I usually use turkey, but we were out)
1 med. onion, chopped up
2 stalks celery, chopped up
1 can tomato paste
1 can tomato sauce
1 - 2 cloves of garlic, minced
½ tbsp or so of brown sugar
have at the ready: mustard, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco (I don’t add salt because this is already a lot of sodium, if you ask me, and you DID, kind of)
I bet you could add some bell pepper, too, but I’ve never tried it. Mmmm. Also, I know you can think up a better cut of meat to put in this. I’m completely uncomfortable with meat, so I just stick to basics. It makes me pretty sad.
Brown your beef in the skillet with the onion and celery and drain. Then, really, just add everything else in. I probably start with about 2 tbsp of mustard and ¼ cup of ketchup. Just a bit of W. sauce and Tabasco.
The good thing about this is it’s real easy to mess around and add or subtract what you want. And if you fuck up and need to correct your mistakes by adding more to offset the goof up well it just makes ‘em sloppier! It’s a win-win situation.
Moving on to other easy things:
SWEET POTATO FRIES
I can’t keep these out of my mouth. Last night was the first time I tried them, so they weren’t perfect and never got really crispy (not sure if they are supposed to), but even then they were amazing.
I cooked them at about 425.
One potato = one serving, so in our house each person got a potato. Ok, I got a potato and Will got frozen crinkle fries. These were FAR superior in my book.
Peel your sweet potato and cut up in thin strips to look like…you guessed it, French fries.
Put them all in a bowl and drizzle some olive oil over them. Toss them until coated.
Spread out on a pan and sprinkle with kosher salt and black pepper.
I cooked them for about 35 minutes and broiled on low for maybe 10 minutes. They never got crispy-crispy, but they weren’t so floppy and cooked veggie like that I couldn’t pick them up with my fingers and eat them like real fries. Which I did. A lot of.
FUCKING UP AN ANGEL FOOD CAKE
So, I think I mentioned I started Weight Watchers, yes? There is not a whole lot of foods I can tuck into and make myself sick on without eating up a bunch of points. So far I’ve found spinach and pickles, which is not real appealing unaccompanied by other things (ok, the pickles are).
I can eat a lot of angel food cake. Maybe because it’s air?
A long time ago a coworker had tried WW (and failed miserably, oh dear) and although I wasn’t on it, he sent me a file full of recipes and their point values. One recipe was just basically a box of angel food cake mix and several other ingredients. I guess this portion should be called fucking WITH and angel food cake, not fucking it up. It was delicious.
The one I tried the other night (and Will has been eating it non-stop, so I guess I did something right!) was the Pina Colada cake. Basically you get your cake mix and mix it according to the package, but you add a can of crushed pineapple in it’s juice and ½ tsp each of coconut and rum extract. It was divine. I was worried because I didn’t have an angel food cake pan, I only had a bundt pan, which the box says DO NOT USE! but I just eyeballed the batter and didn’t use it all. It came out perfect. It’s a good summer cake that you don’t have to feel guilty about. I’m all for that.
All of these things together? A meal, if served with root beer in glass bottles.
Labels:
desserticles,
sammiches,
veggies
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