Quick and Easy Chicago Style Beef Sandwiches #OscarMayerNatural #sponsored

As a Chicago-born gal, I have a special place in my heart for Chicago-style Italian Beef sandwiches. But making them can be quite a long process, starting with cooking a large hunk of meat, followed by slicing the meat really thinly.

For some folks, that's the hard part - the slicing. And and Italian beef sandwich just isn't right if the slices aren't thin. I have a meat slicer, but I'm weird. Most people would have to wield a knife.

The annoying part about making Italian beefs at home - for me - is that it ends up being a LOT of food, since it starts with that big hunk of beef. While I do love a good Italian Beef sandwich, don't want to make a month-long commitment to eating it. I want a few sandwiches, and that's it.

In Chicago, Italian Beef sandwiches were fast food. They were the thing you ran out to get if you didn't feel like cooking. They were the thing you stopped for on your way from here to there. They weren't fancy.

There are shortcuts, though, that make it a lot more convenient. Like using beef that's already cooked and sliced and all ready to meet the rest of the ingredients. This time, I used Oscar Mayer Natural slow roasted beef. They've sponsored this post, but I created the recipe based on what I like.

The classic Italian beef sandwich in Chicago has a few options. You can get them with sweet peppers, hot peppers, or both.

And you can get them dipped (or wet), which means the sandwich is dunked in the jus or that tasty beefy juice is ladled onto the finished sandwich gets the bread pretty soggy. It's messy, but that's what it's supposed to be.

I usually opted for sweet and hot meaning that I wanted both types of peppers, and of course I wanted the bread nice and wet. The sandwiches in Chicago use bread similar to French bread, and much of it is supplied by specific bakeries. The bread is pretty solid before it's dunked, so it holds up well to being soggy.

Obviously those specific breads aren't readily available outside Chicago, but you can still make a decent sandwich. The important thing is that the bread needs to be sturdy enough to handle the jus. Hot dog buns would dissolve. French bread or sturdy hoagie buns work well. If the bread is a little stale, it doesn't matter, so this is a great way to use up extra bread that's a tiny bit dry.

If you have leftovers, you can refrigerate the meat and peppers in the jus and just reheat gently the next day.

The beef isn't the only type of Oscar Mayer Selects Natural you can get - it is available in five flavorful varieties including Slow Roasted Turkey, Applewood Smoked Turkey, Rotisserie Seasoned Chicken, Applewood Smoked Ham and Slow Roasted Roast Beef.

If you're worried about what's in the cold cuts you buy, Oscar Mayer Selects Natural is made with no artificial ingredients, and is minimally processed. Selects Natural has no artificial preservatives (the back side of each package lists the ingredients used to preserve quality), no artificial flavors, no artificial colors, no gluten and no by-products.

Quick and Easy Chicago Style Beef Sandwiches
Makes 3-4 sandwiches

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 green bell pepper, seeded, cored, and sliced in strips
2 cups beef broth or stock (home-made or bought)
1 tablespoon dry oregano
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 7-ounce package Oscar Mayer Naturals slow roasted beef
1 hoagie roll per sandwich
Hot giardiniera peppers, optional

Heat the oil in a saucepan and add the bell pepper. Cook, stirring as needed, until the peppers are cooked through. These aren't supposed to be crisp-tender - they're fully cooked. Add the stock, oregano, and garlic powder. Bring to a simmer and let it cook for a few minutes so the flavors infuse the broth.

Add the beef and cook just to warm the meat - it's fully cooked, so there's no need to cook any longer.

Divide the beef among 3 or 4 hoagie rolls, depending on how full you want them. Add bell peppers to each sandwich, if desired. Ladle the jus onto each sandwich. Pass the hot giardiniera peppers at the table for people to add their own, as desired.

If you like, you can bring any remaining jus to the table for people to add more, or give them small bowls filled with jus to dunk the sandwiches.

You can learn more about Selects Natural and all the Oscar Mayer products on OscarMayer.com, Facebook at Facebook.com/OscarMayer, Twitter at @OscarMayer and on Tumblr at OscarMayer.Tumblr.com.
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

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Bahn Mi Rolls

Okay, okay, I know that "bahn mi" actually refers to the rolls, so the Bahn Mi Rolls is redundant.

I know that. But this recipe was named by Andrea Nguyen, the author of The Bahn Mi Handbook.

Ah yes, we Americans have co-opted another word and made it our own. That's what we do.

While the intent is to use these rolls to make bahn mi sandwiches, they're good for so much more. Like sub sandwiches, hoagies, grinders, muffalettas, Italian beef sandwiches, or pretty much anything else you want to put on a crusty roll.

Leftovers, after a few days, could be sliced into rounds and toasted for bruschetta or crostini. Or cut up for croutons or turned into panzanella. Yup, these are versatile. If you like baking bread, I suggest you give these a try.

The recipe in the book is quite a bit longer that what I've adapted, with much more detail, including photos that show how to shape the buns. So if you're not super-comfortable with making bread, go check out the book for more instructions.

The book suggests using a Vitamin C capsule or tablet, but I used sour salt. It's the came thing, but less trouble. You can find sour salt at some supermarkets and for sure online. It's handy to have on hand if you want to add a little tartness to foods, but you don't want actual lemon or lime flavor. My mom used it for her tomato soup if the tomatoes weren't tart enough.

You can knead this by hand, of course, but a stand mixer is sooooo much easier.

Bahn Mi Rolls
Adapted from The Bahn Mi Handbook by Andrea Nguyen

1/4 teaspoon sour salt (citric acid)
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons (one envelope) instant or rapid rise yeast
2 tablespoon vital wheat gluten
1 pound unbleached all purpose flour (3 cups plus 3 1/2 tablespoons), plus more as needed
1 1/2 tablespoons shortening at room temperature
1 1/4 cups very warm water (110 degrees)

Put the sour salt, salt, sugar, yeast, gluten, and flour in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low to combine. Add the shortening and mix until it disappears into the flour. Stop the mixer and add the water. Mix for a minute, or until the dough forms a shaggy ball around the paddle. Let it sit for 5 minutes.

Pull the dough off the paddle and attach the dough hook to the mixer. Knead on medium-low speed (2 on a KitchenAid stand mixer) for about 2 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and somewhat firm.

Transfer the dough to your work surface. No flour is needed unless the dough feels soft and moist. Knead the dough briefly. When you're done, it should be barely tacky ad not sticky at all. When you press it, it should immediately bounce back, but leave a little indent.

Drizzle a little oil on the dough, put it back in the stand mixer bowl, turn it around a few times so it's evenly coated. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm spot for 45 minutes, or until doubled.

When the dough has risen, uncover the bowl and turn out the dough onto your work surface. Divide it into 6 equal pieces, then form each into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and let the rest for 10 minutes, then form the balls into torpedo shapes. (The book goes into great detail about how to make this shape, but you can use any method you're comfortable with.) The torpedoes should be 6 1/2 inches long and 1 3/4 inches wide at the plump center.

Place the finished rolls on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Cover with lightly greased plastic wrap. I opted to just use a second baking sheet as a lid. Let them rise until more than double. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 475 degrees.

Set up the oven for steaming with a broiler pan or heavy pan on the bottom of the oven (or on a bottom rack, if your oven had exposed heating elements.)  Place a baking stone on a rack above the pan.

When the rolls have nearly doubled, remove the plastic wrap and let the surface of the rolls dry for the final 10 or 15 minutes.

Bring about a cup of water to a boil and keep it warm. Have a spray bottle filled with water standing by.

When the rolls are porpoise-like (my favorite description!) slash each each one with a sharp knife, nearly horizontal to the roll at the midline. It should be a very shallow cut.

Mist the rolls with the spray bottle and put the baking sheet in the oven on top of the stone. Carefully pour about 1/2 cup of water into the pan, then close the oven door. Lower the heat to 425 and bake for 22 to 24 minutes, or until the buns are golden brown.

At this point, my oven malfunctioned, the door locked shut with the oven turned off and cooling down. I had to rescue the rolls using a coat hanger to unlock the oven. So I didn't finish the rolls according to instructions. Instead, I took the par-baked and cooled buns to a neighbor's house to finish baking. Fortunately, it worked just fine.

If you're not dealing with a dead oven, turn off the oven when the rolls are done, leaving the rolls inside for another 8 to 10 minutes to brown and crisp a little more.

Let the rolls cool on a rack for at least 45 minutes.

About the book:

I have to admit that I've never actually eaten a bahn mi sandwich, so I can't really say if these buns are right or not. But they are really good.

I have a pate recipe bookmarked, as well as pickles. Both are traditional on bahn mi. When those are done, I can make a sandwich.

But to be honest, the pickles and pate and bread all look like I'd find other uses for them aside from sandwiches.

And this bread? Yes, I'll make it again. Well, I will when I have an oven.

Considering the narrow subject matter of this book, there's a good variety of recipes. There are sandwich ingredients, like the bread, pickles, and pate, but also mayonnaise, sauces, sausages, and terrines. Then there are sandwiches. And finally, non-traditional bahn-mi-like foods, including a bahn mi salad.

So even if you don't want to make a lot of bahn mi, there are recipes you can use for other purposes.

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English Muffin Grilled Cheese

Did you grow up eating English muffin pizzas? My mom never made them. I'm really not sure why.

But that doesn't stop me from thinking that they're a fun idea. I was thinking about making one the other day. Or I guess two, since I would have used both halves of a muffin.

As usual, the idea in my head usually changes several times before I even get the ingredients out. I started with pizza flavors, but then I started thinking about the grilled cheese sandwiches my mom used to make, with a slice of fresh, ripe tomato and a sprinkle of oregano.

Of course, I didn't make that, either. I started rooting around to see what kind of cheese I wanted to use and emerged with some Emmentaler and some Gruyere. They're the two most common cheeses to use in fondue, and they both melt really well.

So this is what happened.

English Muffin Grilled Cheese

English muffin
Emmentaler cheese, grated or cut in small, thin pieces
Gruyere cheese, grated or cut in small, thin piece
Tomato, sliced thickly
Dry thyme

Split and toast the English muffin.

Put the Emmentaler on one English muffin half, and the Gruyere on the other half of the muffin - as much as you like. Melt the cheese under a broiler or in the microwave.

Add the tomato slice to the bottom muffin, sprinkle with a bit of dry thyme, and flip the muffin top where it belongs.

Eat. Repeat as desired.

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Tuna in the Style of Lobster Roll

I grew up eating canned tuna, and it was pretty much either a tuna salad sandwich or tuna noodle casserole.

And the tuna in the can was pretty much always the same, too. I don't know if that was because mom purposely bought the same tuna every time, whether all the brands were that similar, or whether there weren't a lot of choices at the time.

So when the folks at Wild Planet Foods offered to send me some of their canned tuna, I was pretty sure I would like it. I didn't dislike the tuna I'd been eating for decades, so I didn't expect this one to be very different.

When I opened the first can from Wild Tuna, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality. It looked a whole heck of a lot better than what I was used to.

Since then, I've used a few different cans that I got from Wild Planet - every one they sent was different - and I've liked all of them so far. Because the quality was better than the average canned tuna, I decided that it deserved better treatment in a sandwich.

Instead of making a mixed, mashed and combined tuna salad that was heavy with mayonnaise, I left the tuna in larger chunks, and dressed it lightly with the mayonnaise.

Tuna in the Style of Lobster Roll

1 tablespoon diced onion
2 teaspoons sweet pickle relish or diced sweet pickle
1 large pimento-stuffed green olive, diced
2 tablespoons mayonnaise (or as desired)
1 5-ounce can Wild Planet tuna, drained

Combine the onion, relish, green olive and mayonnaise in a small bowl. Stir to combine. Add the tuna and mix gently to coat the tuna without breaking it up too much.

This makes enough for two hearty sandwiches. Lobster rolls are typically served on hot dog buns, but this is also great on any sandwich bread you like. Lettuce and tomato are nice additions, but it's great without anything added.

This isn't just for sandwiches, though. It would be good as a salad on top of greens, or scooped onto half of an avocado.

About Wild Planet

Mercury is a big concern in tuna, and the folks at Wild Planet have figured out (after a lot of testing) that smaller, younger tuna caught near the surface are safer than larger, older, deep-dwelling tuna - so they've been buying pole- and line-caught younger fish since the company was founded in 2001.

Besides tuna, the company also sells a variety of other seafood in cans, pouches, and jars as well as canned roasted chicken.

For more information, check out Wild Planet Foods online.

I received tuna at no cost to me. I wasn't required to create a recipe.

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Beer Cheese and Beer-Cheese Burgers for the #BlondeBBQChallenge

Cheese! Cheese! CHEESE!!!

I grew up in the Chicago suburbs, under the shadow of O'Hare airport's many flights, and just a few blocks from the entrance to the tollway that led to the Mecca of cheese - otherwise known as Wisconsin.

While there were a great many Wisconsin cheese products for sale at grocery stores in my suburb, a trip across the border gave me access to small cheese shops and giant purveyors of mountains of cheese.

It was wonderful.

I always brought a cooler with me, and I did a pretty good job filling it. And of course the nonperishable jarred and bottle products didn't take any cooler space, right?

One thing that often followed me home was a tub of beer cheese, often sold in a little crock.

I never really thought about what beer cheese was - I guess I assumed that it was cheese that tasted good with beer. Because that's another thing you can find a lot of in Wisconsin.

But no, beer cheese isn't just something that tastes good with a glass of beer - it has beer in it!

I decided that it was about time I made my own beer cheese, and then I went a step further and melted it on top of a burger. With a side of beer.

I was beery happy with the results.

My good friends at Guinness supplied me with some of their new Guinness® Blonde™ American Lager, along with a few other goodies (mmm ... beer) for my participation in creating a recipe that goes with beer. But once I had that beer cheese idea in my head, I had to go with it. And then I used it in a recipe that goes with beer.

Snickers is skeptical about the big metal tub. She thinks it's a doggy bathtub!

Guinness Blonde, if you haven't tried it, is hoppier than Guinness, but with a nice maltiness as well. I don't usually care for highly-hopped beers like IPAs, but I really liked the Blonde.

Besides being lovely on top of a burger, this cheese is great on crackers. Probably also good spread inside a celery stick, but around here we went for the burgers and crackers.

Beer Cheese Burgers

Mmmmm ... melted cheese!

For the beer cheese:
1/2 pound sharp (or extra-sharp) cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 pound mild cheddar or colby cheese, shredded
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons worcestershire sauce
6 ounces (1/2 bottle) Guinness Blonde

For the burgers:
(do you really need this?)
Ground meat, formed into patties
Beer cheese
Buns, to match the number of patties
Condiments and toppings, as needed

To make the beer cheese:

Cheers!

Pulse the cheeses along with the paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, and cayenne in your food processor until you have small bits.

Add the worcestershire sauce. turn the processor on, and with it running, add the beer. Continue processing until you have a smooth paste. If you think you need a little more beer, feel free to add it. Otherwise, I'm sure you'll find a really good use for that other half-bottle of beer!

Transfer the beer cheese to an appropriate container and refrigerate until needed. It will be soft right after it's processed, but it will firm up as it chills. If you need it softer for spreading - like on crackers - let it come to room temperature, and it will soften.

To make the burgers:
Grill the burgers as you usually do, adding the cheese to the top just before they're fully cooked. Close the grill and allow the cheese to melt - it doesn't take long, maybe 30 seconds.

Put the burgers on buns and add your favorite condiments. This time, I topped the burger with a large slice of tomato and a few pickled jalapenos.

Serve with a refreshing glass of Guinness Blonde, for adults only.

This post was sponsored by Guinness. 

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Italian Sausage Sandwiches with Honey Balsamic Glazed Onions

I love Italian sausage, if it's the right kind. As an ex-Chicagoan, I want fennel seeds in my "sweet" Italian sausage.

It's not really sweet, like sugar, but the sweet designation lets you know that it's not hot sausage. Which is fine for some things. But not for my sausage sandwiches, or on pizza.

And, if you're from Chicago, you know at least one person who pronounces sausage as sah-sidge. If they're really hard-core, you might even hear about the ever-so-popular sah-sidge sangwidge.

Yes, I'm serious.

This isn't the traditional Italian sausage sandwich, though. Oh, it's got the traditional peppers and tomato sauce. But the secret ingredient this time is the honey balsamic glazed onions. They add a sweet-tart flavor that really complements the sausage and peppers.

The onions cook down a lot, and they might just become your new favorite condiment, so consider making extras for burgers, hot dogs, pizza, and panini sandwiches. I had to stop myself from "sampling" the onions until they disappeared. They're insanely good.

The vinegar came from Honey Ridge Farms, courtesy of the blog group 37 Cooks, where we cook up challenge recipes using fun ingredients.

Italian Sausage Sandwiches 
with Honey Balsamic Glazed Onions

For the onions:
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 medium onions, sliced into half-moons
Pinch of salt
Several grinds of black pepper
2 tablespoons Honey Ridge Farms Balsamic Honey Vinegar

For the peppers and sauce:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 green bell pepper, cored and sliced into strips
1 red bell pepper, cored and sliced into strips
1 tablespoon dry oregano
Generous pinch of salt
Several grinds of black pepper
1/4 cup red wine
1 15-ounce can tomato sauce

For the sandwiches:
6 Sweet Italian sausages, grilled or pan-cooked
6 Buns

To make the onions:
Heat the olive oil in a medium saute pan. Add the onions, salt, and pepper. Cook on medium, stirring as needed, until the onions begin to soften. If they start browning, turn the heat down.

Add the balsamic honey vinegar and continue cooking, stirring once in a while, until the liquid is gone.

To make the peppers and sauce:
Heat the olive oil in a medium saute pan on medium heat. Add the peppers, oregano, and salt, and pepper. Cook for a minute or two, then add the wine. Let it come to a simmer, then add the tomato sauce.

Cook, stirring as needed, until the peppers are fork tender, but not mushy - or until they're cooked to your liking. If the sauce reduces too much, add water to keep it saucy.

To make the sandwich:
Put the sausage in the bun. Add the peppers and as much sauce as you like. Top with onions.

You should have enough toppings for at least six sandwiches, but it depends on how much you like the toppings. I've been known to make a sandwich with just the toppings, and maybe a bit of melted cheese inside the bun. Yes, I'm serious.

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I know how to make a ham sandwich, but ...

You might know that I'm mildly obsessed with my Hamilton Beach Sandwich Maker. I reviewed it, I wrote recipes for it, and I gave a bunch of them away.

It's fun to use, doesn't take a lot of space, and it's easy to clean. It doesn't heat up the kitchen. I don't need to use the stove. It's completely non-essential, but I use it often. Just because it's fun.

So, when I found out there was a cookbook dedicated to making things in a sandwich maker, I said, "Sure, I can review that." I don't think the brand is mentioned in the book, but are there others out there? I really don't know. I'm perfectly happy with the one I have.

The book is called Crazy for Breakfast Sandwiches, and the author is Jessica Harlan. It's a thin volume, with no interior photos - but they're probably not necessary. These are sandwiches... it's not waffle surgery.

Although some of the recipes in this book are pretty basic - available at the drive-through of the closest fast food chain - there are others that are a heck of a lot more creative. I mean, would you think of using your breakfast sandwich maker to create shrimp and grits stack, or a Chicago-style hot dog, or a French toast stack with praline bacon?

Probably not. But now that I think if it ... hmmm. Ideas sprout.

Let's face it, if you just got one of these sandwich makers, maybe you need some lessons in the basics, like where to put the egg, what order to layer things for the optimum melting without burning, and how long to cook your monstrosity.

There are also recipes for components you might use, like biscuits or pancakes. Of course, you can also by pre-made components and assemble them. But it's good to have options.

I felt compelled to cook something from the book, so I browsed for a recipe where I happened to have everything on hand, and ended up with a ham and cheese sandwich with butter, mustard, ham, cheese, and pickle. I used a burger bun, since I made those a few days ago and I had some left. Otherwise I followed the recipe, even though I was itching to ditch the pickle and add a sliced tomato and a smear of mayo.

It was a good sandwich, and a fine lunch. Did I need a book to tell me how to make a sandwich? Not really. But it inspired me to make a ham sandwich that was different from my usual fare. And that's always good. Nice to cook outside the loaf pan.

Meanwhile, if you've got a breakfast sandwich maker and you haven't ventured beyond sausage-egg-and-cheese, you might want to pick this one up. It would also be a great add-in if you're giving a breakfast sandwich maker as a gift, so the recipient can see the possibilities beyond breakfast.

I received the book from the publisher at no cost.

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Three lunch sandwiches made in a breakfast sandwich maker

After my last breakfast sandwich binge, I wanted to make some more ... lunchy sandwiches. So here they are!

English Muffin Pizza

This is a great use for leftover Italian sausage. Start with a generous smear of tomato caponata or some thick marinara or your favorite pizza sauce on the bottom half of an English muffin, then add some slices of cooked Italian sausage. Top with a nice melty cheese like mozzarella, or even jack. Heat in the sandwich maker until the cheese is melted.

Yes, I left this one topless. So you can make another sandwich from the other half of the muffin. Sneaky, yes?

Tuna Melt

I'm guessing that Tuna Melts are a love-hate thing, right? People either love them or say, "ewwwww, warm tuna salad!" But if they're done right, the tuna salad stays mostly cool while the cheese gets a little melty.

Instead of an English muffin, this time I used a bagel. To be honest, the bagels I bought were a tiny bit too large for the breakfast sandwich maker, but that was an easy fix. I just cut a wedge from the bagel, and pushed the cut ends together making a smaller circle and it fit perfectly. Sometimes you just have to improvise.

I started with a few slices of tomato on the bottom (which also helped keep the tuna salad from falling through the hole in the bagel!) then a generous portion of tuna salad, then some cheese. It was too tall to fit into the sandwich maker with the egg-cooking plate in place, so I just moved that aside and let it cook for about 3 minutes until the cheese was melty. Then I put the top part of the bagel on.

If I wanted that top part of the bagel toasted, I could have let that sit in the sandwich maker for a minute after I took the main part of the sandwich out, but I was fine with it untoasted.

Ta daaaa!

Veggie Delight

This little sandwich combines some of my all-time favorite foods. And the colors are really pretty together. The olives add a nice briny flavor to cut the richness of the avocado and cheese and the red pepper adds a bit of lightness.

For something meat-free, this is pretty filling and VERY satisfying.

On the bottom half of the English muffin, I spread some avocado. Okay, maybe it was a LOT of avocado. Then I added some pitted kalamata olives, sliced in half lengthwise. That went into the bottom half of the sandwich maker. I but a big slice of roasted red pepper on the egg-cooker part, then topped that with some mild cheddar cheese. I let that cook until the cheese was almost melted, then topped with the top half of the English muffin to let it get a little toasty. Another minute and I called it LUNCH.

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Cheese Fest - the recap - AND recipes from Hosea Rosenberg

I mentioned that I was going to a cheese fest here in Colorado, and said I'd give a recap.

So here it is: I ate waaaaay too much cheese. Is that even possible? Yes, maybe. Although I nibbled some cheese curds at dinner, so I guess I recovered quickly.

There was a huge room full of cheese companies at the fest, with a lot of cheese samples. Some of the vendors were selling cheeses at the fest, others were just displaying. And there were a few related companies, as well.

Mostly cheese, though.

There was a pretty big crowd, and it was orderly, which is a good thing and a bad thing. It seems that even when lines aren't required, people get in lines and follow along. So there was a bit of waiting to get to the cheese samples and the cheese people.

But here's the deal. And this is something I thought about after the event. Some people paid their money and simply wanted to sample the cheeses. Munch-munch-munch. And maybe find some new cheeses they might buy - now or later.

Other people wanted to chat with the cheese people, ask questions about where the cheese was made, how it was made, what sort of milk, how long it was aged. Which is great. But every time a chatty person asked a cheese question, it meant that other people waiting behind them in the line had to wait for the questions to be asked before they could grab their little sample of cheese and move along. It would be rude to bypass a chatter to grab a sample, so people patiently waited in line.

And for the most part, the lines moved quickly enough. But some folks were confused about where lines started and where you were supposed to go at turning points. It was actually announced that there were no actual lines, but still people waited behind whoever was in front of them. Because it would have seemed rude to crash ahead to grab a sample of cheese when someone else was talking, right?

Maybe. I don't know.

Would there be a more efficient way to do this? Maybe a buffet of cheese samples, and a separate section where people could chat with the cheese vendors? Possibly samples there as well, but funnel eaters to the right and chatters to the left? It would mean that the cheese vendors would have to watch their sample supply in one place and chat in another, but many of the vendors had 2 or more people in their booths, anyway. One person could check the cheese supply every half hour, and spend the rest of the time chatting. Or let a volunteer refill all the cheese samples. Or something.

Anyway, that's not a criticism of the event or the venue. This is the same thing that happens at every event like this I attend. It was just something I thought of after I got home.

But I digress. Let's talk cheese.

There was a lot of it. You can see the vendor list in my previous post. I sampled some cheeses I'd never heard of before, a lot of cheeses in the cheddar family, a range of very young to pretty aged varieties. Some were smoked or had herbs or peppers for flavoring. One had green and black olives. I wish I could tell you whose cheese that was, but at this point it's a blur. Or maybe a cheese coma.

There were also cheeses from companies I'm very familiar with that I didn't sample, because I wanted to try as many new ones as possible. And some goats in the parking lot. Yes, goats. Awwww. Goats.

And then there were the speakers.

Best, for me, was Hosea Rosenberg who prepared three quick recipes while he took questions from the audience. A lot of what he talked about was about his experiences on Top Chef, but he also talked about life before and after the show.

And of course he talked about food.

Back when Rosenberg was on the show, he was chef at Jax Fish House. Now, he's got his own catering company in Boulder, Blackbelly Catering. And he seems like he's having a heck of a lot of fun.

Getting Thirsty?

There were small cash bars scattered around for those who wanted to indulge, and one of the speakers at the event talked about beer and cheese pairings. That talk included a chance to sample 7 cheeses along with three beers, a gin, and a coffee liqueur.

The coffee liqueur, made by Spirit Hound Distillers was pretty awesome. I mean, I've made my own coffee liqueur, but I'd buy this stuff. I'm not a huge fan of the commercial gins - too much Christmas tree flavor for me - but I liked the Spirit Hound gin a lot.

I didn't sample the beers - it was early afternoon and the gin had gone straight to my braincase and I was overstuffed with cheese. So I headed home. Mission accomplished.

Would I go back next year? Yep, sure I would. And I'd go hungry.

Want Recipes? I've got 'em!

Chef Hosea Rosenberg kindly offered to let me post his recipes here, which is pretty awesome.

The grape truffles were really interesting - it's simple in terms of ingredients, but the flavors mingled in ways you might not expect. He said the key is to get a super-thin layer of the goat cheese because the flavor of goat cheese is so strong, it could easily overpower everything else.

I wish I had a photo of the finished product, but I didn't take one. But the goat cheese was indeed a tiny layer. Like, the thickness of ... uh... really thin. As thin as you can get it.

Grape, Pistachio  Goat Cheese “Truffles” 
Recipe courtesy of Hosea Rosenberg from Blackbelly Catering. 
Used with permission; all rights reserved.
serves 4-8

40 fresh, juicy green & red grapes
8 ounces plain goat cheese
8 ounces shelled pistachios, toasted
grey sea salt
truffle oil

1.  Pick grapes, wash gently in cold water and dry on paper towels.
2.  Roll a very small ball of goat cheese in your hands (roughly half the size of a grape) and flatten in the palm of one hand with your thumb.
3.  Place one grape in center of goat cheese and gently work cheese around until grape is entirely covered.  Chill.
4.  Crush toasted pistachios in food processor until very fine.  Place in bowl.
5.  Roll goat cheese grapes in pistachios, gently pressing, until covered in nuts.  Chill.
6.  To serve, slice grapes in half and set on platter with cut side facing up.  Garnish each cut grape with a couple grains of salt and one drop of truffle salt.  Serve immediately.

Beets me

Next up, we have a beet "tartare." But before you start questioning the idea of raw beets, that's not what's going on here. Hosea called it a tartare because it looks like one. The beets are fully cooked.

Beet “Tartare”
Recipe courtesy of Hosea Rosenberg from Blackbelly Catering. 
Used with permission; all rights reserved.
serves 10

2 pounds large red beets
2 Tbsp mayonnaise
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp lemon zest
2 tsp  fresh parsley, chopped
2 tsp  shallots, chopped fine
2 Tbsp capers, chopped
hot sauce, to taste (optional)
kosher salt
fresh cracked black pepper

Boil beets in water until cooked through, but still al dente.  Remove from water and chill in ice water until cold.  Peel and dice very small.  Combine with remaining ingredients and season with salt, pepper, and hot sauce if desired.

Serve on crackers with shaved hard cheese (queso de mano from Haystack is our recommended choice).

Grilled and Cheesy

The last recipe is a grilled cheese. Yeah, I know. We all know how to make a grilled cheese sandwich. Even our moms knew how to make them. But this one's got a twist, with apples two ways in the sandwich.

And some spices you might not think of.

As far as the cheese, since Hosea is a local, he chose a local cheese. You can find more info on Haystack Mountain's cheeses here.

Haystack Camembert Grilled Cheese with Apple

Recipe courtesy of Hosea Rosenberg from Blackbelly Catering. 
Used with permission; all rights reserved.

serves one!

bread of choice

Haystack Mountain camembert cheese, sliced

honeycrips apple, sliced

butter

apple jam (recipe below)

Spread butter on one side of two slices of bread and place in hot pan.  Spread jam on one side, top with cheese and apple.  Place other slice of bread on top and press with spatula.  Flip occasionally until both slices are golden brown and cheese is melted.

apple jam:

2 honeycrips apples diced very small

2 Tbps sugar

1 tsp dry mustard seeds

2 C apple cider vinegar

1 cinnamon stick

1 star anise pod

Combine all ingredients in pot and bring to boil.  Turn heat to low and simmer until thick and jammy. Remove star anise and cinnamon stick. Cool and keep in refrigerator until ready to use.

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Inspired by pasta (and a BLT)

When I found out that Hidden Valley had some new sandwich spreads, of course I wanted to play with them. These are interesting because they're made with white beans and cream cheese. The use of beans makes them a healthier option, but to be honest, I didn't know the beans were in there until long after the sandwiches had disappeared.

There are four flavors: Smoked Bacon Ranch, Country Herb Ranch, Oven Roasted Garlic Parmesan and Spicy Chipotle Pepper. I chose the Oven Roasted Garlic Parmesan. It reminded me of a pasta dish, with the garlic and cheese, and the first thing I thought of for a sandwich was chicken. I started by making a chunky chicken salad with diced chicken breast, sliced olives, and celery. I didn't need any more flavoring - the sandwich spread added everything I needed. It would have been good on its own - maybe in a lettuce wrap. But I made a more traditional sandwich - and of course it was on home made bread, because that's how I roll.

The spread I used would be great as a dip for vegetables, and would make great garlic bread. I could also imagine it drizzled over cooked vegetables or as a white sauce on a pizza. Lots of uses besides sandwiches, that's for sure.

But for today, here's a sandwich.

Inspired by Pasta (and a BLT)

1 cooked chicken breast (home cooked or a rotisserie chicken will be just fine)
12 olives, sliced
2 celery stalks, chopped
2-4 tablespoons Oven Roasted Garlic Parmesan sandwich spread
4 slices bread
1 large tomato, sliced
4 strips bacon, cooked

Combine the chicken, olives, and celery. Add 2 tablespoons of the sandwich spread and mix well. Add more if you prefer.

Divide the chicken salad onto 2 slices of bread. Add the bacon and tomato. Top with the remaining slices of bread. Slice and serve.

Hidden Valley’s line of new Sandwich Spreads & Dips will take your boring sandwich routine to another level. With new flavors like Spicy Chipotle Pepper and Oven Roasted Garlic Parmesan, your mouth will be thanking you and you’ll be on your way to delivering sandwich-envy.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Hidden Valley Ranch. The opinions and text are all mine.

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Brisket in the style of Chicago's Italian Beef

Have you ever been to Chicago? Do you know what a Chicago-style Italian beef sandwich is? Even if you've never had one, you might have heard of them if you ever watch food shows that travel the country and sample local cuisine. When those shows go to Chicago and they're not eating fancy food, you can just about bet they'll sample a hot dog, pizza, and Italian beef sandwiches.

I grew up thinking those beef sandwiches were no big deal - that they were as common as grilled cheese.

Yeah, right. They're that common in Chicago. Not so much in Colorado.

Italian beef wasn't on my mind when I started this dinner. You see, I recently got a pressure cooker for testing and I went to the store looking for something to pressure-cook. My first thought was corned beef. I'd seen them about a week before - at some store - but the store I chose that day didn't have any corned beef. i love cooking corned beef in a pressure cooker. It's never dry and always tender. I knew it would be a good test. And it would make great sandwiches. But no luck.

I looked for beef short ribs. Nope. Oxtails? Ha! Not a chance. What else?

I wandered up and down the meat section. Steaks, roasts, babyback ribs ... all relatively tender or meant for smoking or grilling. I found a pot roast but it was huge. I didn't want to feed the whole neighborhood.

And then I saw the brisket. It was a small-ish hunk, not a whole brisket. Enough for a couple meals. But what could I make?

My first thought was brisket tacos. I mean, why not?

But as I was putting the brisket into the pressure cooker, I decided to tone down the flavors a little bit - no overt hot pepper. I settled on using oregano and garlic, thinking that it would work for several cuisines.

But when I tasted it, I knew I had to do a play on Italian Beef sandwiches. Brisket isn't what's normally used, and you can tell the difference. But I really, really, really liked it.

An Ode to Chicago
Italian-Style Brisket Sandwiches

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 beef brisket 3(ish) pounds
Generous grinds of black pepper
2 teaspoons salt
2 cloves garlic, peeled
Generous tablespoon dry oregano
1/2 (ish) bottle white wine (I used Chardonnay)
Water, as needed

Heat the oil in your pressure cooker, salt and pepper the brisket on both sides, and brown the brisket on both sides.

Add the garlic, oregano, and white wine. If you don't have wine, water will do. Or you can use beef stock. Add enough water so the brisket is almost covered, but the top of it is just peeking out above the liquid.

Clamp the lid on according to the manufacturer's directions. Bring the pressure cooker up to pressure (the one I was testing didn't have options. Go for high. Everyone always uses high, anyway.) And cook for 55 minutes. Let the pressure reduce naturally, until you can take the lid off. The meat should be fork tender.

You can serve the meat right away (and we did have some that night) but the texture of the meat will be better if you refrigerate it - in its juices - until it's fully chilled. Or, overnight. Until dinner the next day. Whatever works.

It's also a heck of a lot easier to slice it thinly when it's cold.

Slice thin and heat it gently in the juice. Serve on French bread with a lot of the juice. Yes, a real Chicago-style Italian beef is kind of soggy and messy. Hot giardiniera are pretty commonly served on beef sandwiches in Chicago. Or you can go for the "sweet and hot" which include both bell peppers (cooked) and the hot giardiniera.

About those peppers!

The two brands of authentic hot giardinera I can find here, in specialty shops, are Marconi and Vienna. Either one are good. I'm working on a recipe of my own, but I'm not quite there yet.

Bread, on the other hand ... well, you know I made THAT, right?

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Vegetable Panini (For Amy)

If anyone doubts that online friends are real friends, I can show you a photo of my red-rimmed eyes. My friend Amy Klein passed away on the morning of September 25, and I'm still reeling from the news.

Amy left behind a son, Jake (16), who she often mentioned. She recently settled her elderly mother into a nursing home. She had to move out of her mother's home - where she had been living while she cared for all of her mother's needs - so the house could be sold to pay for her mother's care.

Amy and Jake moved into an apartment with just a few belongings. I sent her two boxes of kitchen goods and a credit to Good Cook so she could do one of the things she loved: cook for her and her son. It seemed like a fresh start for her, relieved of the duty of being the 24/7 caretaker for her mother.

A vanilla milkshake in honor of Amy.

But shortly after she settled in, she went into the hospital. Pneumonia led to the discovery of her tumor and the treatment started. Doctors were optimistic, and as time went on, she posted that doctors were pleased with the condition of her tumor.

Although she had some trouble swallowing, she was doing better as the tumor shrunk, and she was excited about being able to have as many milkshakes as she wanted - no worries about weight, she needed to keep her strength up. She particularly liked vanilla milkshakes.

Through all her troubles with her mom, her money issues, and her medical issues, she remained positive. Even when she was about to go into the hospital for what was the last time, she was more interested in posting questions about what sort of corsage Jake should get for his date for his first homecoming dance - this past weekend.

Just recently, she said she was in ICU and after a day or two her texts became somewhat garbled. I hoped it had to do with medications and hoped that she wasn't saying what it sounded like. One of our group was thinking about flying out to be with her this coming weekend. But in just a few days, she was gone.

This time last year, Amy was busy cheering me up when Bob was in the hospital, and she always managed to make me laugh. The photo of the chicken, above, was one of her creations, and no matter what else was going on, that incongruous chicken with a fez amused me. Recently, she made it her profile picture on Facebook.

Shortly after Amy's diagnosis, she posted something else that made me smile, and it totally shows her sense of humor. It was this photo:

That's the attitude she always had. Sometimes things sucked, but she saw the humor in it.

In another conversation, on a less flippant note, she said: What's the point of being miserable when there's too much good and good people in the world?

That's a good way of looking at things, don't you think?

Are online friends real friends? Can we really know each other, if we've never met in person? Amy and I messaged each other and "met" online nearly every single day. Sometimes it was a simple "like" on a comment, or a smiley or a heart in response to a post. Sometimes it was a longer conversation. But we seldom went a full day without at least a glance and a virtual nod of the head.

When she saw that I posted about having to put down my dog last year, she mailed me - snail mail - a sweet handwritten letter. Who does that any more? While she was dealing with her illness, she still took the time to check in with me to see how I was doing during the recent floods in Colorado.

Amy touched many people's hearts with her humor, warmth, weirdness, and her concern for others, even though she never touched any of us in person.

I will miss her, and I will remember her.

For more conversation about Amy, check out this thread on Serious Eats. And here's the announcement in her local newspaper.

What better way to celebrate Amy than with a recipe?

Recently, the Cancer Treatment Centers of America sent me a panini recipe to post, and now seems to be an appropriate time. If you make this, serve it with a vanilla milkshake. That was something Amy particularly enjoyed.

Here's their preamble to the recipe:

CTCA, located in Arizona, is honored to serve patients throughout the state of Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region. The number of patients from Colorado who traveled to CTCA for their cancer treatment has doubled from 2009 to 2012.

National Panini Month is a time to perfect our sandwich building skills and “press” away to create the best hot sandwich we can. According to the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America “panini” is the Americanized version of the Italian word panino, which means little sandwich and refers to a class of sandwiches that became popular in the United States in the late 1990s.

Flavor is the key to panini, which are based on high-quality Italian artisan breads like focaccia or ciabatta. The sandwiches are layered, but not overstuffed, with flavorful combinations of cheeses, meats or roasted vegetables. Various dressings or condiments are added and the sandwich is pressed and lightly grilled. Panini-style sandwiches are popular in trendy restaurants throughout the United States.

According to American Sandwich: Great Eats from all 50 States, paninis are said to have originated in Lombardy, Italy, in response to the demand among Milanese office workers for a quick lunch without sacrifice in flavor and quality. In both Italy and the United States, paninis are eaten for lunch and as snacks and appetizers. In Italy, sandwich shops traditionally wrap the bottom of the panino in a crisp white paper napkin, providing a practical solution to drips while enhancing aesthetics.

FoodTimeLine.org notes the earliest print reference found for panini (as a food) in an American newspaper in 1956 in reference to food served at a fair. However, it is hard to tell from the article if the panini served at the fair is the same as the one commonly found on modern day restaurant menus.

Is your mouth watering yet? If you are ready to try your hand at making your own Panini – here is a delicious recipe courtesy of CTCA.

Vegetable Panini
Adapted recipe courtesy of Cancer Treatment Centers of America
Makes one sandwich

Vegetable oil or spray, as needed
1 ounce red bell pepper
1 ounce zucchini
1 ounce Roma tomato
2 ounces portobello mushrooms
Ciabatta bread
1 ounce fresh mozarella
1/4 cup fresh basil

Toss vegetables with a small amount of oil and place on a lined baking sheet and cook in a 350 degree oven until tender. Remove from over and reserve.

Assemble roasted vegetables on sandwich bread and top with fresh mozzarella and basil.

Grease a hot flat top (or a skillet or grill or griddle) with oil - or use a panini press. Cook both sides of sandwich until golden brown and cheese has melted.

Serve hot.

About Cancer Treatment Centers of America:
CTCA is a national network of hospitals focusing on complex and advanced stage cancer. CTCA offers a comprehensive, fully integrated approach to cancer treatment and serves patients from all 50 states at facilities located in Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Tulsa. CTCA provides patients with information about cancer and their treatment options so they can control their treatment decisions. For more information about CTCA, go to www.cancercenter.com.

I posted one of Amy's own recipes right here. Because she would have loved that.

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Gadgets: Hamilton Beach Breakfast Sandwich Maker

Let's be perfectly clear: The Hamilton Beach Breakfast Sandwich Maker ($29.99) is not a gourmet, high-tech, fancy cooking tool for super-serious cooks.

Not at all.

What it is, though, is fun. And it's well-built and sturdy, considering what it's designed to do. And it works just like it's supposed to.

The whole idea is to make a breakfast sandwich like the ones from fast-food restaurants. You could certainly do that with normal cooking equipment - a toaster, frying pans, egg rings - but that's really not the point. This gadget makes the process a little more user-friendly. Or maybe I should say kid-friendly.

Or cooking-challenged friendly. Because this isn't really like cooking. It's a simple assembly process that just about anyone could manage.

The idea is that you start with the bottom of a muffin, add meat, cheese or vegetables on top, then close that section and put an egg on the next layer and put the top piece of bread on top of the egg. Close it up, and in about five minutes, the egg is cooked, the bread is toasted, and everything is very hot. Slide the bottom out from under the egg, and there's a complete sandwich.

Letting kids make their own fast-food-style breakfast sandwiches might help picky kids get involved with cooking - which is supposed to help them become more adventurous - and mom could limit the selections to healthier choices.

Younger kids would still need supervision, because this machine does get hot while it's cooking, but they could choose their ingredients and make their own special breakfast sandwiches with a little help. Older kids could work unsupervised, making breakfast or an after-school snack.

Kids with allergy issues who can't have fast-food style sandwiches might also get a kick out of making their own sandwich that looks like the real thing. And since this is small, it's something that could be brought along on trips to make a safe breakfast in a hotel room or in someone's home. Or an adult with allergy issues that prevents them from using the communal toaster and microwave might keep something like this in their office.

Since it takes about five minutes for an egg to cook in the sandwich, this isn't the best bet for someone who needs to make a half-dozen breakfast sandwiches. In that case, you might as well break out the frying pan and egg rings. But for someone single, a breakfast sandwich could be done in the time it takes to brew coffee.

Besides breakfast sandwiches, I've used this to make English muffin pizzas and hot ham-and-cheese sandwiches on biscuits, so it's not all about breakfast.

Is this for everyone? Absolutely not. Is it for some people? Definitely yes.

The product was supplied for the purpose of a review on Serious Eats; this was previously published on Serious Eats.

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Bacon, egg, cheese and tomato? Oh, yes!

Hello, breakfast! Or lunch. Or dinner. Or mmmmmm bacon.

Bacon and eggs are good friends, right? And bacon and tomato are part of a classic sandwich. Add some cheese and an English muffin, and you've got a breakfast sandwich people will be fighting you for.

Let's take just a second to talk about cooking bacon. There are all sorts of methods - microwave, oven, stovetop ... Which do you choose?

I know some folks say that cooking in the microwave or in the oven is more efficient, but for some reason, I like cooking it in a pan on the stove. Maybe it's tradition or maybe I'm just stubborn.

One problem with cooking bacon in a pan is that it tends to curl up. The way to solve that little problem is with a bacon press - sometimes also known as a grill press. You can use that press to flatten or hold down things other than bacon, like when I used it to cook chicken on a grill. In that case, I cooked the chicken on my outdoor grill, but it would be just as good indoors on a grill pan.

Too much bacon in the pan? Nah.

Besides flattening foods (or in the case of bacon, keeping it flat), the press helps cook food faster and a little more evenly. The idea is that you heat the press while you're preheating the pan - or the grill - and when you put the press on top of the food, it cooks that food from both sides at once.

Mmmm. Crisp bacon!

If you don't want the bacon swimming in grease while it's cooking, you can use a grill pan rather than a frying pan or skillet. The bacon fat (oh, lovely bacon fat) drips down into the grooves of the pan, so your bacon is frying instead of turning into confit.

And then, of course, save that bacon fat - it's good for cooking other things.

Bacon, Egg, Cheese and Tomato English Muffin Sandwich

So good!

For each sandwich:
2 slices bacon
1 egg
1 slice cheese (I used colby - use what you like)
1 slice tomato
1 English Muffin, split

Cook the bacon until crisp. Cut in half or thirds, to fit the English muffins.

Cook the egg in an egg ring that will make it fit on the muffin. Cook it any way you like - scrambled, over easy, sunnyside up - or any other way.

Keep in mind that this is a sandwich, so an egg with a slightly soft yolk would be fine, but you probably don't want it completely runny. I opted for a soft yolk, but not super-oozy.

Or, if you prefer, poach the egg.

Toast the English muffin.

Now, stack it up! Put the cheese on the bottom half of the muffin. If you want that cheese melted, you can pop it in the microwave for a few seconds, or in a toaster oven - or whatever works for you*.

Bacon goes on top of the cheese, and then put the tomato on top of that. Put the egg on top of the tomato. Put the muffin top on, and serve.

Repeat as necessary.

*Or, you can assemble the sandwich then heat in a sandwich press - I used one that's specifically made for breakfast sandwiches like this.

Good Cook provided me with the bacon press as part of their Kitchen Experts program.

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