Cooking Journal: Sandwiches

Each month, I like to cook with a theme in mind.  This helps to provide me with some inspiration and also ensures that I don’t fall into the rut of making the same meals over and over.  Like most home cooks, I have a few favorites that I regularly serve.   But I also like to try new dishes and a theme helps me to do that.

In March, my theme was warm sandwiches.  I am a big fan of sandwiches because bread is involved and bread is my food love language.  This month, I made some old favorites, including this smoked turkey tartine with green peppers and Swiss cheese melted on top.  I serve it with homemade dijonaisse and it’s always good.  

I also made a Happy Waitress, a Jersey diner staple.  It’s American cheese, bacon, and tomato served open-faced and it’s delicious. 

I tried some new sandwiches as well. 

This one came from the Original Dish website and had smoked turkey, bacon, pickled red onion, melted havarti, avocado, and sprouts on rye bread with a spicy mayo.  It was delightful and will be making a return.

I mixed up a batch of house sauce, a recipe from the Jen Hatmaker cookbook, froze half of it and turned the other half into a saucy Italian sausage sub sandwich.  It was a warm and happy antidote for a cold and rainy March evening.

March has some days left and that means a few more sandwiches coming my way.  That’s happy!

Cooking Journal - Supper Guests

With T’s departure, I once-again embraced hosting friends for supper at my house.  I love planning and cooking for a dinner party on a Saturday night and I am glad to return to hosting guests.  

In the past few months, I’ve served a few new recipes and cooked up some old favorites. This week, we’ll celebrate JT’s birthday with some special suppers: he’s requested chicken tacos and fried chicken, two of his favorites that I am always happy to make.  I’ve made a list with ideas for hosting more people in the coming months - game nights, a tea party, backyard cookouts.  It’s all on the table and that’s very happy.  

The Joys of a Simmering Crock Pot

A few summers back, I saw a recipe for summer corn chowder on the  Southern Living Instagram feed.  This chowder is made in a crock pot and uses fresh corn, two things that I can always get behind.  The taste is full-on amazing, so that’s a third advantage.

I made the soup yesterday and the smell of the crock pot in the afternoon, plus the promise of a supper that could simply be ladled out when we were ready to eat, made for a happy afternoon.

Try it for yourself.  

Biscuit Magician

Though I’ve been making them for more than 30 years, I always love to stir together a batch of homemade biscuits.  My biscuit-making career started with the help of my now kitchen-stained Better Homes and Garden cookbook.  Using that recipe, I taught myself to make biscuits.  Over the years, I’ve read countless recipes and cooking magazine articles about the making of biscuits and then I’ve honed my technique accordingly.  I can make all sort of biscuits: sourdough, cheese, cornmeal, angel……but my favorite is the delicious old-fashioned basic: a buttermilk biscuit.

Buttermilk was not a regular part of my mother’s kitchen, but is was a part of my grandmother’s and it was certainly present in the Southern kitchens where I honed my biscuit-making skills.  I don’t always have fresh buttermilk on hand but when I do buy it at the market, usually to make fried chicken, blue cheese salad dressing, or chocolate cake, I always make sure to stir up some fresh buttermilk biscuits.

I

I measure the ingredients into a big bowl and as I stir together the dough, memories of previous biscuits flow through my mind.  Biscuits cut into a heart shape for an impromptu Valentine’s Day celebration; biscuits served with bacon, cream gravy, and scrambled eggs on a cold Winter morning; biscuits made in a hot Summer kitchen to slather with a batch of freshly-made jam; the batch I made at JT’s request in the fleeting days before we loaded up the car and drove him to college…..my memory fills with an steady parade of warm biscuits.  

I cut them out and line them up on the baking sheet, taking care that they lightly touch one another and then carefully dimpling each one with a slight press of my thumb before I slide the pan into a hot oven.

12 minutes later, there is a basket full of steamy hot biscuits, ready for hungry eaters and stirred together with memories and loves as the unspoken but magical ingredient.  

The Grilling Season

T gave me a new grill for Mother’s Day.  I chose my favorite charcoal model and was excited to fire it up for the season.

Emphasis on fire.

These flames look more showy than it really was.  My charcoal was the instant light variety that bears watching.  We’ve had grilled burgers and chicken already and there will be many more in the coming summer.  Eating outside is one of my favorite warm weather activities and I am looking forward to the Summer cooking season, a fitting thing to celebrate for Memorial Day weekend.

A Sandwich on Every Plate

I don’t spend all my free moments defining my political goals.  Sometimes I just seek to feed my family.  On Saturday night, already anticipating a busy week ahead, I set a pound of navy beans to soak overnight.  The next day, I made bean and bacon soup.  Together with an assortment of grilled sandwiches, this soup will get us through a busy week.  On Sunday, we had the soup with grilled pear, cheddar, and bacon sandwiches.

On Monday, I made a grilled ham, swiss, and red pepper sandwich and served it with the soup.

Later this week, there will be Camembert and apple sandwiches and then ham, apple, and cheddar.  Sometimes we’ll have soup with our sandwiches.  Sometimes we’ll have salad.  Always, we’ll have a delicious homemade meal without a whole lot of fuss during these busy days.  That’s happy!

A Lucky New Year

Black Eyed peas for good luck in the New Year are an absolute requirement for my celebration.  Usually, I make a bowl of Texas Caviar to meet our good luck needs —— it’s a dip that features black-eyed peas but my recipe makes a heap.  This year, we had a smaller celebration and so I made Zannie’s Dip, a hot black-eyed pea-based dish that served our good luck purposes and was delicious to boot. 

I love a tradition that reminds me of so many memories.  Black eyed peas does just that.  That it tastes delicious is just gravy on a tradition.  Happy New Year, Y’all! 

New Year’s Eve Tradition

Fact:  My greatest culinary powers lie in the realm of appetizers.  I put out a spread.

Additional fact: It’s delicious.

I’m drinking quality bourbon, kissing my sweetie, and counting my blessings.  That’s a Happy New Year!

The Little Kitchen That Could

My kitchen is small — I joke that it’s a one-bootie kitchen — but that is largely true.  Two people at work at these counters have to coordinate carefully.  From the edge of one countertop to the other is only 6.5 x 8 feet.  Space is maximized as much as possible and from this small (and, I think, charming) kitchen comes a whole lot of delicious cooking.

At no time has this been as clear as it is this past week, with JT home and my parents in town.  I’m cooking family meals and prepping holiday treats on overload.  With T’s help, I’ve made sour dough bread; coffee cake; pulled pork with coleslaw; baked potato soup; cowboy chicken; homemade salad dressing, 4 pounds (!) of baked potatoes; caramel pie; chocolate kahlua cake; a host of dips and appetizers for Christmas Eve………and the party isn’t over yet because Christmas Day supper is on the horizon.  

The 20 plus years-old dishwasher is in overdrive, running loads three or four times a day.  I am grateful each time it gurgles to life.  And I am glad to have the blessing of family for whom I may stir, cook, and bake.  Here’s to a happy Christmas Eve, y’all!

Food Friday: Turkey, Brie, Cranberry Panini

I like Thanksgiving leftovers best when they can be turned into something new.  One of my favorite post-holiday treats are the turkey, brie, and cranberry panini sandwiches we enjoy after the holiday feast.

I mix the the cranberry sauce leftovers with dijon mustard and spread a thin layer on a slice of bread, add thin slices of brie cheese, and minced turkey.  I top it with another slice of bread, butter both sides, and grill it on a low flame so that the brie has time to melt while the bread sears.  The result is delicious enough to become a holiday tradition of its own!

Thankful

When I was a kid asking after everyone’s favorite holiday, my dad would choose Thanksgiving.  At the time, this seemed patently stupid to me; everyone knew that Christmas is the best holiday.  Yet there was my dad, suggesting that a family feast and time to be grateful for our blessings was the nicest day of the year.  For some time now, I’ve realized that my dad was on the right track as far as Thanksgiving is concerned.  I enjoy the tradition of day spent being thankful.

My Thanksgiving day started early so that the yeast rolls would have plenty of time to rise.  As the coffee brewed,  I stirred together pumpkin pecan bread for our breakfast.  As the bread baked, I sat with my coffee and laid out the day’s master plan.  We eat our supper in mid-afternoon and so I plan according, with a precise plan to bring the feast together.  It’s a process I greatly enjoy.

The day unfolds with ease, the kitchen smells amazing, and I feel incredibly grateful to have this happy home and a family to enjoy.  Our list of blessings is great and we know it. 

That’s happy!

Jam Making

This past weekend, T and I decided to stir up some jam.  Usually, we make jam at the peak of strawberry season.  This year, that peak blew past us.  But there are still strawberries around and the prospect of cold weather without the consolation of fresh-tasting homemade summer jam was unthinkable, so we got to work.  Homemade jam is one of those projects that is always worth the effort.  We canned 7 pints this weekend and will make some more before the cool weather sets in for good.

That’s happy!

Nervous Energy

Right after we dropped JT off, T had surgery on her left arm to remove an unwelcome lump.  It’s likely to be a benign lipoma, but while we await the pathology report and she recovers from the surgery (complete with a nearly 4 inch incision and a left arm totally casted for the first week of recovery), I have a lot of nervous energy to burn off while I serve as her nurse.

Enter cooking, my traditional task for showing my affection.

I’ve roasted chicken for T.  I baked a tomato pie with garden tomatoes and made zucchini pancakes with local produce.  This afternoon, I’ve stirred together an amazing summer corn chowder recipe that cooks in the crock pot.  We’ll have that for supper alongside some grilled bacon-wrapped shrimp.  Later this afternoon, I’ll bake some brownies.

Tomorrow, I plan to make toasts with chèvre, radish, and scallions, one of those easy combinations that tastes far more amazing than the time that goes into it.  We’ll enjoy it with leftovers from the week and the taste will remind me to stop and enjoy these last days of summer.  

I always enjoy cooking.  Unlike most things in my life, it’s work that usually ends in a finished product, which I suspect is much of the enjoyment I derive from it.   It’s something I can do while T heals and we try not to fret.  It’s my way of showing love and burning off energy.

It’s also delicious and that’s happy!

The Industrious Snow Day

Yesterday, we had the day off for the sort of snowstorm that was perfect because of its timing.  This storm brought snow, ice, and sleet but not in abundance and temperatures slipped back over freezing overnight so that today’s morning’s drive won’t be horrible.  A Tuesday holiday makes for a shorter week and I was determined to both get things done and enjoy my day off.  Over morning coffee, I made a to-do list and then got after it.  I started a load of laundry and did some schoolwork.  I  completed my taxes (and shook my fist at Donald Trump, whose tax cut didn’t help me a bit).  Then I took a break, made a cup of tea, and settled in with the cats to read my book for a bit.

I baked some shortbread and made a few treat packets to give away.

I worked on the paper craft flowers that will be my March front door wreath and now I am ready to assemble the wreath.

I took after my nightstand and the tiny drawer therein, which has become completely crammed over the years.  First, I emptied the drawer onto a towel on my bed and marveled at the amount of book marks, paper, pens, and safety pins one woman can toss in a drawer.  Below is a picture of the empty drawer.

And here is the heap I had stuffed in it.

As the heap thinned, I found some treasures.  These pictures of two year old JT were charming.

I also found my grandfather’s pocket tape measure.  I suspected it was in the drawer and finding it was a treat.

After throwing out the trash, I sorted out the treasures that remained, decided which ones spark joy (I know that idea sounds silly, but it really works), and then neatly returned those items to the nightstand and the drawer..

Like all of the other Marie Kondo-inspired clean-ups I’ve made, this one is lovely because it will make my daily life nicer.  

I wrapped up the day by making a pot of red lentil soup which was warm and spicy; a perfect bowl for a cold day.  This recipe is a keeper, both because it’s easy to make and because it’s delicious.

It was nice to have some time to catch up and relax in equal measure.  This morning, I head to school refreshed and with a much shorter to-do list.  That’s good news!

Shortbread Superpower

For the last few months, T and I have been on a Netflix bender watching the Great British Baking Show.  I am a well-established Anglophile and I’ve been transfixed by the things that the English bake.  While the meat and game pies horrify me, the tarts and shortbreads have been thrilling.  For Christmas, I asked for a shortbread pan.  T gave me one and this past weekend, I got to work.

I made vanilla shortbread.

I made lemon shortbread.

I think it can be safely said that I have now added shortbread to my baking superpowers.  That’s happy and delicious!

What’s That Burning Smell?

On Christmas Day, the corn pudding I was baking for our supper overflowed in the oven.  T helped me scramble and supper was served on time (and it was delicious).  The oven problem was left for later.  So far, so good.

The next day, I curled up on the sofa to read and when I got hungry I turned on the oven to re-heat some Christmas leftovers.

Wait for it.

Of course, I had forgotten about the spill in the oven.  I remembered when the smoke alarm went off as smoke was pouring out of the oven.

Oh that……..

Windows were opened and the oven was shut off.  I considered, again, how it is that I am an adult.  When the oven cooled, I cleared out the charcoal.  

Sheesh.

Favorites

Holiday cooking is one of my favorite parts of the season and today I got after two of JT’s best loved treats.  Pretzel turtles are in the house, or will be after they have cooled off on the front porch refrigerator..

And so are the 1970s, in the form of cheese balls.

Yeah, that’s right….balls.  One for Christmas Eve and the other for New Year’s Eve (unless we eat it first).  After they have chilled, they will be coated in toasted pecans and served with crackers.  They are as good as you remember, by the way, and you should make some at once.

That’s happy and delicious. 

Ready, Set, Bake

T and I have been gobbling up Netflix showings of the Great British Bake Off.  We love everything about it, even the week that features the horrid English delight in meat pies.  The challenges are great and the competitions are so charmingly English, with nary a whiff of smack talk and good humor all around as the contestants bake and utter the most-charming of English phrases.  The show is a delightful Angophile’s dream come true.  We love it.

The English bake a metric ton of things so vastly different from our American efforts and I’ve been fascinated with the abundance of delicious-looking items they whip out of their ovens.  I keep threatening to try my hand at some of these things and this weekend I got my wiggle on and did some baking.  I baked a Victoria Sponge and then cut it into smaller heart-shaped cakes that I filled with my own lemonberry jam and homemade creme patisserie mixed into freshly whipped cream.

They were pretty to look at and delicious to eat.  I don’t think I’m in line for Star Baker, but I made a jolly good effort.

Compromise Plan

If I can’t have flip flop weather for every day of this slow-moving Spring, I can at least have strawberry pie.  My recipe is an old fashioned favorite and it smells and tastes like summer.

That’s happy!

Letting Go: Tacos for Supper

The backstory: This year, as JT prepares to head off to college, I’m writing about the traditions that spell love in our home.  I’m thinking of them more mindfully than usual as I prepare to send my bird from his nest.  For me, these traditions  were always about a securing a happy and well-loved childhood in preparation for a happy adulthood.  They are about creating memories that will endure and this year, writing about them is helping me to think about the next chapter in our lives.

Chicken tacos are the house meal of Sassafras House and if we love you, you’ve been invited to have chicken tacos at our table.  They are both a treat and an everyday meal, a hands-down favorite that never goes out of style.  We have them to celebrate birthdays and the first day of school.  We have them to mark the end of the week on Friday.  We have them on Tuesdays because, why not?  Tacos spell home and family, they spell love and tradition.  And they are always delicious.  Taco supper looks and tastes the same every time.  In that familiarity is the tradition at the heart of my home.  

We had our most recent taco supper on Sunday, to celebrate JT’s 18th birthday, the end of the wrestling season, and the love of family.  

That's happy and delicious!