Category Archives: Cheeses

Breads, Cheeses, Chicken Salad, Food, Mayonnaise, Meats, Open Faced Sandwiches, Parmesan, Roasted garlic, Rosemary-Garlic bread, Sandwich Styles, Sandwiches

Chicken Salad Sandwich With Capers and Parmesan

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As our kitchen renovation draws nearer to its conclusion, and after having lived for weeks now with a dusty house, no kitchen, a fridge in the garage, and the top of our washing machine as our kitchen counter, we remember this sandwich from our ‘old kitchen’ days. This is made from a great chicken Wendie made which we turned into ‘chicken salad #2‘ and added to a fresh slice of roasted garlic bread with capers and Parmesan on top. We also torched the Parmesan a little to give it a golden look, and to achieve the oddly comforting feeling of warmth near the top of the sandwich. Saturday we are getting married, so the frequency of posts have significantly eased of as our backyard weddings draws nearer. We will post lots of sandwiches after the wedding 🙂

Chicken Salad Sandwich With Capers and Parmesan
Chicken Salad Sandwich With Capers and Parmesan
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Baking, Bell Pepper, Cheeses, Food, Fruits, Garlic, Ham, Ingredients, Jarlsberg, Mascarpone, Meats, Mushrooms, Onion, Parmesan, Pepitas seeds, Pizza, Pizza dough, Tomato, Toppings, Vegetables

Pizza Recipe: Black Forest Ham, Red Onions, Heirloom Tomatoes, Sautéed Garlic Mushroom, Jarlsberg/Parmesan Cheese, Peperino Seeds (pumpkin), Pesto/Mascarpone Sauce, Roasted Garlic

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This pizza makes for an excellent dinner if you are having a few friends over to share a nice bottle of Barolo. The black forest ham is great on sandwiches, and excellent on pizza. It’s not overly salty and thus goes really well with the veggies. As always, enjoy making pizza, have some fun, and don’t be afraid to experiment a little. Pizzas are the Chef’s playground, they are very hard to mess up, and everyone always enjoys fresh-baked bread. Just buy decent ingredients, and kick loose. We made this pizza on the spur of the moment, with ingredients we mostly ‘found’ in the kitchen. Adding Peperino seeds was purely because we had some. Black forest ham? We had some. Green bell pepper? Yup, we had some. That’s how we make pizzas, and the best ones go on the blog for you guys.  So go crazy tonight. Make your own pizza, or try this one.

Pizza: Black Forest Ham, Onions, Heirloom Tomatoes, Sauteed Garlic Mushroom, Jarlsberg/Parmasan Cheese, Peperino Seeds (pumpkin), Tomato Sauce, Roasted Garlic
Pizza: Black Forest Ham, Onions, Heirloom Tomatoes, sautéed Garlic Mushroom, Jarlsberg/Parmesan Cheese, Peperino Seeds (pumpkin), Tomato Sauce, Roasted Garlic

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Basil, Cheeses, Food, Herbs, Olive Oil, Parmesan, Pesto, Pine nuts, Roasted pine nuts

Fresh Basil Pesto

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Pesto is a wonderful spread or topping for sandwiches and appetizer, in addition to its obvious uses in pasta. It’s very easy to make yourself, and when our sweet basil plant starts to grow out of hand we always have a use for the basil. If you live near a well stocked grocery store (We have Trader Joe’s here in California), look for a bag of basil and try this yourself if you don’t have the plants.

Pesto Recipe

  • 3 cups of rinsed fresh basil leaves.
  • 1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
  • 3/4 cup of olive oil
  • 1/2 cup of pine nuts
  • 3 garlic cloves

Start by placing the garlic cloves in  a food processor. Pulse a few times until the pieces are as small as they can get. Add the basil and pine nuts, and pulse again. Add the olive oil slowly while running the food processor, and finally add the cheese.

Tip: The Simply Recipies blog has excellent advice for freezing fresh pesto, plus a slightly different version. In general don’t sweat the exact measurements, but try and taste it and adjust. The quality of the basil can vary over the course of the year, or from region to region, so you may need to add more or less cheese and olive oil.

Breads, Cheeses, Fish, Food, Fruits, Mascarpone, Melon, Olive-Rosemary Load, Open Faced Sandwiches, Pesto, Salmon, Sandwich Styles, Sandwiches

Mascarpone Pesto With Smoked Salmon Sandwich Topped With Honeydew Melon

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We always are looking to try new ingredients on our sandwiches, and for a while we have been thinking of ways to use melon. Melon can provide  a little sweetness and also a little bit of crunch (Depending on the ripeness of the melon of course). It’s fresh, so we added it to smoked salmon to really enhance the sense of ‘freshness’ one wants from fish. The mascarpone-pesto was really a way to ‘water down’ the pesto to not overwhelm the rest of the sandwich, yet provide more depth to the taste experience. We like ‘depth’ in our food, as well as ‘height’ (We are making sandwiches after all).

Mascarpone Pesto With Smoked Salmon Sandwich Topped With Honeydew Melon
Mascarpone Pesto With Smoked Salmon Sandwich Topped With Honeydew Melon

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Baking, Breads, Cheeses, Food, Goat cheese, Meats, Parmesan, Pizza, Pizza dough, Pizza Sauce, Prosciutto, Sandwich Styles, Tomato, Vegetables

“The Square Foot Of Goodness Pizza” Recipe: Goat Cheese, Prosciutto and Heirloom Tomatoes

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I don’t know how it’s possible to cut prosciutto as thin as they do, but it’s truly amazing that any knife can do it. My theory is they cut it frozen, but I’m not sure. I wish I could buy prosciutto in thicker pieces as I think that would work wonders on pizzas and sandwiches. But, alas, one can only dream on and work with what one is given. So, this pizza is made from wafer-thin prosciutto slices (vaguely reminiscent of wafer-thin mints). This is essentially a very basic pizza with just a few key ingredients, and it works like a charm. Goat cheese is fantastic on pizzas, and doesn’t overpower the prosciutto at all.

Pizza Recipe: Goat Cheese, Prosciutto, Heirloom Tomatoes
"The Square Foot Of Goodness Pizza" Recipe: Goat Cheese, Prosciutto and Heirloom Tomatoes

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Blueberries, Breads, Cheeses, Food, Fruits, Garlic, Goat cheese, Guacamole, Ham, Lemon, Meats, Open Faced Sandwiches, Prosciutto, Roasted garlic, Rosemary-Garlic bread, Salsa, Sandwich Styles, Sandwiches

Ham And Prosciutto Sandwich With Goat Cheese, Roasted Garlic And Blueberry Guacamole

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“A Winter’s Sandwich”. Granted, in San Diego, winter is when the temperature drops to 50 degrees, and a storm is when we get 2 inches of rain and traffic slows down to 63 mph. We have it easy. This is a sandwich we made mostly from leftovers, some ham, some prosciutto, and half an avocado. We have pretty good leftovers I guess. It was an excellent afternoon in the low winter sun, with a warm sandwich and a glass of red wine in the swing. Life’s good.

Ham And Prosciutto Sandwich With Goat Cheese, Roasted Garlic And Blueberry Guacamole
Ham And Prosciutto Sandwich With Goat Cheese, Roasted Garlic And Blueberry Guacamole

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Baking, Bell Pepper, Breads, Cheeses, Chicken, Cumin powder, Fennel, Food, Garlic, Herbs, Honey, Meats, Olive Oil, Olives, Onion, Paprika, Parmesan, Pecorino romano, Pizza, Pizza dough, Pizza Sauce, Salt, Smoked paprika, Spices, Tomato, Vegetables

Pizza Recipe: Green peppers, Tomatoes, Olives, Parmesan/Pecorino Romano Cheese, Grilled Chicken

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One of the pizzas from Wendie’s surprise birthday party, this one has some grilled chicken (with a very nice spice blend including smoked paprika), two cheeses, olives, tomatoes, green peppers and onions. The dough is a pizza dough with honey I sort-of invented (based loosely on our Lavash crackers recipe), and the tomato sauce has a wide range of spices, most noticeably a hint of fennel.  We had 13 guests and I made a total of 9 pizzas and I was stunned that there were almost no leftovers. I really had expects to fill the freezer too, but at least everyone had a great time. Next time I’ll make more!

Pizza: Green peppers, Tomatoes, Olives, Parmasan/Pecorino Romano Cheese, Grilled Chicken
Pizza: Green peppers, Tomatoes, Olives, Parmesan/Pecorino Romano Cheese, Grilled Chicken

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Breads, Cheeses, Ciabatta, Food, Goat cheese, Ham, Meats, Open Faced Sandwiches, Parmesan, Roquefort, Rosemary-Garlic bread, Sandwich Styles, Sandwiches, Sourdough

Black Forest Ham Sandwich With Goat/Roquefort Melt And Parmesan

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Saturday: Wake up. Shower. Get Dressed. Breakfast now, NO, kitchen remodel. Drink milk, drive to Escondido. Get mulch and rosebushes, look at avocado tree. Back, unload, Costco. Gas, Bank, Home. Hungry, NO, kitchen remodel! What to do? This. Simple, good, easy, fast, out the door again…

Black Forest Ham Sandwich With Goat/Roquefort Melt And Parmesan
Black Forest Ham Sandwich With Goat/Roquefort Melt And Parmesan

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Baking, Basil, Breads, Butter, Cheeses, Cooking styles, Food, Garlic, Herbs, Ingredients, Jarlsberg, Mushrooms, Pizza, Pizza dough, Pizza Sauce, Sandwich Styles, Smears, Smoked paprika, Spices, Tomato, Vegetables

Recipe: Smoked Salmon Pizza With Sautéed Garlic Mushrooms, Tomato Sauce, Jarlsberg Cheese, Fresh Basil And Avocado

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Recently we discovered the joy of smoked salmon on pizzas, and decided to try another one. This is our second pizza from Wendie’s surprise birthday party (of nine total), and also a very popular one amongst our friends. It’s simple in its ingredients, with very subtle tastes. The Sautéed mushroom worked great on the pizza (We used it a few times that night), and on this the avocado brings a coolness to the hot pizza that almost melts with the salmon.

Smoked Salmon Pizza With Sautéed Garlic Mushrooms, Tomato Sauce, Avocado, Jarlsberg Cheese And Fresh Basil
Smoked Salmon Pizza With Sautéed Garlic Mushrooms, Tomato Sauce, Avocado, Jarlsberg Cheese And Fresh Basil

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Avocado, BBQ, Burger, Cabbage, Cayenne pepper, Corned Beef, Food, Ground beef, Hamburger Bun, Horseradish mayonnaise, Horseradish root, Mayonnaise, Meats, Olive Oil, Onion, Pepper, Salt, Sandwich Styles, Sandwiches, Spices, Spinach, Swiss, Vegetables, Vinaigrette, Vinegar

Corned Beef Burger with Mayo-less Coleslaw

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Just for fun, we thought we would ask if Costco would publish one of our sandwiches. That was in November 2009.  Imagine our excitement when they said yes! So, due to their long production time, we were scheduled for the March issue of the Costco Connection magazine. The editor asked us if perhaps we could make a St. Patrick’s day inspired sandwich, with corned beef. Of course we could, and with a deadline of mid-january, our Christmas consisted of making several corned-beef adventures since none of us have ever really used it (turns out corned beef is quite tasty). Of our many corned beef sandwiches (some of which we have published already here), we had two favorites:

The winner was this one, a delicious burger with a side of mayo-less coleslaw. Costco unfortunately ran out of space, so the coleslaw couldn’t make it in the magazine. This is, however, the entire recipe. Let us know what you think.

Corned Beef Burger with Mayo-less Coleslaw
Corned Beef Burger with Mayo-less Coleslaw

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