Category Archives: Vegetables

The Big Bad Wolf Burger

Sometimes a man needs to be a man, and that’s when he makes “The Big Bad Wolf Burger“. Oh yeah, 1/2 pound of patty with basil, cilantro, oven roasted garlic and blue cheese chunks. What a great 4th of July celebration that was. Inspired by the moment, I topped it off with crispy hash browns and a jackfruit/avocado rough guacamole. I can’t even begin to tell you how good this burger is, but this is so far the best burger I’ve had in my life. The jackfruit guacamole sweetness perfectly blends with the spicy mayo, the juicy patty, and the crunchy hash browns. These are the times when I think back to all the missed opportunities of my childhood to celebrate with awesome burgers, the food of men 😉

aThe Big Bad Wolf Burger
The Big Bad Wolf Burger

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Grilled Eggplant Crostini Appetizer

Inspired by Jamie Oliver’s book “Jamie’s Italy” this is one of our favorite appetizers so far this year. It also looks beautiful. The crunchy toasted pane siciliano bread and the smoothness of the eggplant (or Aubergine as we call it in Denmark), goes very well together and fills your mouth with flavor and adventure. Eggplant seems to be largely a forgotten vegetable in the US, at least in SoCal (Southern California), and really it’s a wonderful ingredient in many dishes. People, wake up and smell the eggplant!

Grilled Eggplant Appetizer
Grilled Eggplant Appetizer

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Caprese Panini Sandwich

We love caprese salads so much we had Phil’s BBQ change their menu and serve it at our wedding (They did a great job too). So, it should come as no surprise that we had to try and turn the art of the caprese into a sandwich. A panini sandwich to be exact. It has all the classic ingredients: Mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. For the bread we went with our own homemade pesto-sourdough bread, but any regular sourdough will do just fine.

Caprese Panini Sandwich
Caprese Panini Sandwich
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Sandwich With Carne Asada, Cucumber, Feta, Cherry Vinegar And Radishes

Living close to Mexico means there is a constant influx of great Mexican cuisine. Carne Asada is one of those things that are very popular in San Diego, and it is essentially a long slice of skirt of flank steak, usually marinated or rubbed, and then grilled. It is fantastic when done right. Wendie got us a couple of these steaks, and of course I had to go make a sandwich out of them. I opted to add some ‘green stuff’ from the local farmers market on the bread. We call it ‘green stuff’ because we don’t really know what it is, but the guy that sells it swears by it. It tastes a bit like spicy tabbouleh without the couscous. In any case, substitute with pesto and all shall be well. The greens on top are called “micro greens’ and are also from the farmers market. These taste very lemony, and I wish we had more precise name for them, but alas, ‘micro greens’ it is.

Sandwich With Carne Asada, Cucumber, Feta, Cherry Vinegar, And Radishes
Sandwich With Carne Asada, Cucumber, Feta, Cherry Vinegar, And Radishes

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Pizza: Roma Tomatoes, Chicken, Smoked Paprika, Onion, Jarlsberg/Parmesan Cheese And Tomato Sauce

The last of the nine pizzas we made for Wendie’s birthday. That was quite an evening. This pizza was another one with an odd shape, but we have learned to ignore the shape, and just enjoy the taste. The smoked paprika is fantastic on pizza where it really shines through after the baking.

Pizza: Roma Tomatoes, Chicken, Smoked Paprika, Onion, Jarlsberg/Parmesan cheese, tomato sauce
Pizza: Roma Tomatoes, Chicken, Smoked Paprika, Onion, Jarlsberg/Parmesan Cheese And Tomato Sauce

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Rhapsody In Green: Grilled Zucchini Sandwich

Many of the sandwiches on this blog are the result of a specific plan and shopping trip to realize an idea that one or both of us have. I’ll be sitting at work and have an idea that just must be pursued. More often than not, this means I have to make a trip to the grocery store to purchase one of more of the critical component for the dreamed-up sandwich. Other times, a sandwich just sort of emerges from the ingredients on hand- it’s a case of just opening the refrigerator and pantry doors and letting our creativity run wild. In Jamaica, we have a saying for that: “tun yuh han’ an mek fashion”. I won’t bother providing the literal translation, since, as with all languages, much gets lost in that endeavor. I suppose the nearest English equivalent I can find is: ‘necessity is the mother of invention’. Hmm.. even that attempt seems to dilute the essence of this colloquialism.

Anyway, this sandwich was one result of us making fashion by sleight of hand. The ingredients – pugiliese bread, blue cheese and salsa verde left over from the much-mentioned recent wedding @ and zucchini left unused from recent stir fry.

Rhapsody in green
Rhapsody in green

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Swiss Chard Roll With Salmon

I fell in love with Swiss chard at first sight.  I first spied this vegetable at the local farmers market while I lived in Illinois. And there is a specificity to my infatuation – they must be of the rainbow variety. Large shiny radiant green leaves  pillared by a red stalk and multiple veins throughout. What’s not to love?  Two years ago, I took my infatuation to the next level and started a garden flirtation with this nutrient-dense veggie. I dedicated a 4 by 1 ft section of our tomato garden to their cultivation. Unfortunately, I waited too long to harvest and by then they had an earthy flavor that was most disappointing. Still, I just loved the way they looked in the garden and so allowed them to grow to near Jurassic proportions.  Last year, in my second attempt, our nutrient depleted soil resulted in a single plant which I was loathe to cut. Enter this year and Anders’ threat that if we are giving up much-prized tomato real estate for this vegetable, then we had better have something to taste for it.  Thus warned, I embarked on a mission of soil amendment research and implementation that an agronomist would approve of.

Swiss Chard Roll
Swiss Chard Roll

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Pizza: Prosciutto, Sauteed Garlic Mushrooms, Mascarpone/Pesto Cheese, Roasted Garlic, Goat Cheese

A great tasting pizza for every occasion. This is fairly simple to make except for the dough, but places like Trader Joe’s now sell pizza dough which should make this super easy. We made this pizza as part of a giant birthday party involving 8 other pizzas which you can find elsewhere on amazing sandwiches.

Pizza: Prosciutto, Sauteed Garlic Mushrooms, Rembrandt Gouda Cheese, Mascarpone/Pesto Cheese, Roasted Garlic, Goat Cheese
Pizza: Prosciutto, Sauteed Garlic Mushrooms, Rembrandt Gouda Cheese, Mascarpone/Pesto Cheese, Roasted Garlic, Goat Cheese

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Review: Cavallino Bresaola Pizza Sandwich

When I grew up in Denmark, being a student, one of my favorite meals was take-out pizzas. Each block seemed to have a pizzeria back then, each making essentially the exact same pizzas. They were delivered in cardboard boxes, and inevitably took on the taste of the box. Thus, they were named among students “cardboard-box pizzas,” for their taste, not for their delivery method. On my last trip home, I got a craving for a cardboard pizza. I’ve had the craving before, got the pizza, and regretted it. I guess my taste buds have evolved. This time, I decided to go for a pizza-sandwich from a local shop on Frederiksberg in Copenhagen; Cavallino.

Review: Cavallino Bresaola Pizza Sandwich
Review: Cavallino Bresaola Pizza Sandwich

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Caramelized Onion Pizza with Roquefort and Roasted Garlic and Pesto-Mascarpone Sauce

Caramelized onions are such a treat but requires good quality sweet and savory onions to really bring out the best taste of the food. They go extremely well with mild blue cheese, such as the Roquefort we used here. The first time we really discovered the joy of caramelized onions was at a visit to the farmers market in Temecula, Ca. The ‘strawberry lady’ had brought some gigantic onions that she was raving about. She told us to go home and slow-cook them (caramelize), and basically just eat onion for dinner. We did almost that, but added a steak too (man must eat). However, since then we regularly enjoy this often overlooked treat in our cooking. Most people probably don’t realize how easy it is to make amazing food with something as cheap and simple as onions, so hopefully this can server as inspiration.

Caramelized Onion Pizza with Roquefort and Roasted Garlic and Pesto-Mascarpone Sauce
Caramelized Onion Pizza with Roquefort and Roasted Garlic and Pesto-Mascarpone Sauce

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