There are occasions when my enthusiasm goes a bit overboard… This is one such occasion, where dinner turned into a monster sandwich. By the way, nerd moment; the top photo reminds me of the “alien” in the movie of the same name. Anyone see the resemblance?
The Belen Artisan Bakery is owned by José. It is located in Escondido a bit of the beaten path. They specialize in European artisan breads, and so naturally we went there only to find they made sandwiches. We had a roast beef sandwich on ciabatta bread, with avocado, tomato and olives. The bread was perfect; just a bit crunchy on the outside, thick, and fresh and spongy on the inside, and you could clearly taste the freshness that so many sandwiches lack. Service was speedy, and sitting outside on their little patio a delight, despite the odd location and nearby road.
Continue reading Review: Belen Artisan Bakers Ciabatta Roastbeef Sandwich
Leftover fajitas can be a wonderful thing ! 🙂
Continue reading Upside Down Fajita Steak Blue Cheese Avocado 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 😉
Well our kitchen remodel is under way now, and today our old kitchen was reduced to rubble, and placed in a giant container outside the house. We are very excited to get the new one in about 4-6 weeks, and before the demilition began we had the sanity to make a few sandwiches and pizzas to keep things interesting while we await perfection. This weekend we shall attempt some sandwiches made entirely on our BBQ, and look forward to being creating. Until then, this is a little gem we made last week, falafel (great for sandwiches), with a nice homemade yogurt dressing. We hope you enjoy it.
Beets are, at least here in SoCal (Southern California) a much ignored root. I’ve heard countless locals sneer at the very mention of it, claiming it taste like soil, and wondering what in the world such a thing could be good for. Well, dear neighbors, here is a sandwich that the beet is perfect for. Make your own chicken salad, and cut a slice of pickled beet root on top, and it’s just fantastic. It add lots of color to an otherwise drab sandwich. By the way, we highly recommend not buying the pre-made cardboard chicken salads in the grocery store, when it’s so easy and cheap to make. It also tastes a lot better by the way. Interestingly, I have no recollection of my mother ever making any such thing, and the first time I even remember having a ‘chicken salad’ is buying one in a grocery store after moving to a dorm in college. I wonder what my mom did with all those chicken leftovers, come to think of it?
Roasted duck is a great treat, although the price for a duck in Poway is ridiculous. This is a sandwich we forgot to post dating all the way back to Christmas 2009. The cranberry relish was homemade, and just went perfect with the Spanish Valdeon cheese and the duck. For all you kids out there, it is very likely this was in fact Donald Duck. We’re sorry, we really are, we just couldn’t help ourselves (he was delicious).
Continue reading Roasted Duck Sandwich with Valdeon Cheese, Cranberry Relish And Green Pepper
After making our Costco Sandwiches (of which one is part of the March 2010 Costco Connection magazine), we still had some leftover corned beef coleslaw… And as the saying goes, “Naked Women Learn To Make Sandwiches and Trade for Clothes,” so we whipped up this little beaut. We love potato sandwiches, and we find that adding the cheese below the tomato changes the way the flavors hit the mouth when you bite into the sandwich. You are not immediately overwhelmed with cheese, but rather you have a chance to taste the potato before the coleslaw and cheese takes over. The pumpkin seeds in the coleslaw are fantastic by the way, and we’ve started to add pumpkin seeds to several of our sandwiches and pizzas with great success.
Combining something sweet with something spicy is an old tradition that has come back into fashion. It is no longer uncommon to see chili-infused chocolate in grocery stores, and the reason is of course that it works. We bought some amazing honey in Jamaica, which brings the best out in this great cheese, the Rembrandt extra aged Gouda. The smoked paprika takes it up a notch. The simple life.
Continue reading Ciabatta with Rembrandt Extra Aged Gouda, Jamaican Logwood Honey And Smoked Paprika
There are so many ways one can use falafel to make sandwiches besides the traditional pita bread. Here we have combined it with Italian ciabatta bread because we love that, hot chili sauce because it’s traditional for at least the European Pita style, roasted garlic because it complements the falafel well and Italian Salsa Verde because it brings any food a little closer to food-nirvana (No seriously, add some to your next pizza, sandwich, paste, rice or potatoes and see for yourself). The salsa verde is very close to pesto, bu is a lot more lemony which adds a great flavor.
