sneaky sloppy joes

These sloppy joes will trick you into eating healthy. I saw the idea on food network some time ago, where you replace some of the red meat in your normal sloppy joe base with equally filling, high protein and fiber-packed beans. Technically, ground beef with beans probably makes it chili though...? Either way, these turned out great. Even A, an avid bean-hater, said the beans just sneaked into the sandwich without him even noticing.

Grocery list: one pound ground sirloin, one can kidney or pinto beans (drained and rinsed well), 1 can tomato sauce, tomato paste, red wine vinegar, worcestershire sauce, tabasco, yellow mustard, 1 red bell pepper, 1 onion, 3-4 cloves garlic, 1/2 cup brown sugar, olive oil.



Chop the onion. Preheat a couple tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat, then add the onion and the beef. Stir to break the meat apart.




Chop the pepper and mince the garlic while the beef cooks. After about 5 minutes, the onions will start to turn translucent and the beef will be about half cooked. Add the pepper and garlic.



While the peppers start to soften, add a generous splash of both worcestershire and red wine vinegar (1-2 tablespoons each). Measure out half a cup of brown sugar and open up the tomato sauce.



After the peppers have cooked about 5 minutes, the beef should be cooked all the way. Now you can add the can of tomato sauce (that's about 2 cups), plus 2 T tomato paste. I also added a generous squirt of french's yellow mustard, since that's how my mom always made it, plus a shake of tabasco to taste. Stir in the brown sugar, then season with salt and pepper. Turn the heat down to a low simmer and cook for about 10 minutes.



If you have the time, you can turn off the finished dish and let it sit there for a while (an hour, whatever) and the flavors keep melding together - just reheat when it's time to serve. Split fresh hamburger rolls, toast them under a broiler, and pile the filling in. Serve with lots of Frank's Red Hot or tabasco. (Do you see these buns? I made them! I'm working on fresh bread now - more on that when I'm confident enough to share...)

not boring turkey again: open-face ham, cheddar & apple butter sandwiches

I have turkey sandwiches so often they've started to depress me. I know the numbers (how many calories and how much protein - so I know I'm getting what I need for an upcoming swim or whatever), but that also means I know exactly how it's going to taste. And after a while, I just dread having one. Every now and then, I'll find a new sandwich to eat for a couple days, just a bit more of a splurge, but that little investment means I can go back to my turkey again for a week or so. A vicious cycle, but at least it led me to this amazing open-face ham & cheese...

Grocery list: rustic or sourdough bread, black forest ham, extra sharp white cheddar, chives, dijon mustard, apple butter.



Drizzle slices of rustic bread with olive oil, and broil for a couple minutes on each side to toast. Spread a little dijon mustard (I prefer Roland Extra Strong), then a generous spoonful of apple butter.



Top with a few slices of black forest ham, some extra sharp white cheddar, and broil until the cheese bubbles. Slice a little pinch of fresh chives over the top, and you've got lunch.

turkey, blue cheese and caramelized onion sandwiches

I found this recipe in the september issue of bon appetit, and decided it would be a lovely way to shake up the weekday turkey sandwich routine. (Havarti with dill and roland extra strong is my "usual" - still lovely no matter how many hundreds I've had by now...) The original recipe calls for arugula mayo - a mix of 1 cup chopped arugula with 3/4 cup mayo - but I skipped it to save time, and just used regular mayo and plenty of fresh arugula in the sandwich.

Grocery list: bread, turkey, a couple of red onions, arugula, mayo, blue cheese crumbles.



Slice the red onions and saute in olive oil over medium-high heat for about 8-10 minutes. Turn off the heat, and stir in 3T red wine vinegar, then season with salt and pepper. Assemble your sandwich: toasted bread, as much mayo as you like, turkey, some onions, blue cheese crumbles, topped off with arugula leaves. So easy, and definitely worth the extra 10 minutes of effort.

burger review: gourmet magazine's aussie burger

I think I recently read about Aussie burgers in several places (other food blogs? - no google blog search can help me find this so far), and then it popped up again right in the July issue of Gourmet magazine. In my quest to eat every possible combination of burger toppings at least once in my life, this went to the top of the list of recipes to try from this issue. I like the grilled pineapple, but think it could be better utilized as a contrast to something spicy - maybe like a jerk sauce for the burger, or spicy jack cheese? We all agreed that the sliced beets are just too weird; they add sogginess and stained fingers without a lot of flavor. The "chile mayo" (just chile paste, mayo and ketchup) was definitely great, and could be used to dip fries and onion rings in if you were making them and didn't feel the fat content was quite high enough... And the fried egg was absolutely fantastic. Next time I'll try that with bacon and cheese (which would actually be a burger called "the coronary bypass", as made famous by the Vortex restaurant here in Atlanta).

There's no real recipe here, so the typical "grocery list" I usually include is basically all the ingredients you'd use to assemble the burgers. I like to make my burgers with ground sirloin, about 1/3 pound meat for each patty. Other ingredients: pineapple (sliced, then grilled), sliced beets, lettuce, tomato, one fried egg per burger, and plenty of chile mayo slathered on both sides of a toasted bun.



Side note: chile mayo is simply equal parts mayo and ketchup (1/4 cup each made enough for 4 burgers), plus a teaspoon of chile paste.

one more thing to love about weekends: ABLT egg sandwiches

Bacon, egg whites, lettuce, heirloom tomato slices, mayo, extra sharp cheddar, all on a toasted bun. How could you NOT have the best Sunday ever?

sopressata paninis with roasted red pepper tapenade

I used to be very weirded out by any sandwich meat outside of turkey, but in the last couple of years have started to see that I've been missing a lot of deliciousness. Sopressata is one of those meats that I wish I had known about a long time ago. It's an italian cured pork sausage, made with black peppercorns, and just a slice or two can make a basic grilled cheese turn into an amazing experience. For this sandwich, I broil it with fresh mozzarella, some slices of black forest ham, and this red pepper and olive spread that is quickly made in the food processor.

Grocery list: sliced sourdough or italian bread, 2 slices of sopressata + 2 slices black forest ham (per sandwich), fresh ovaline mozzarella. For the tapenade: kalamata olives, fresh basil leaves, 2-3 roasted red peppers, olive oil, garlic, thyme, red wine vinegar.



Start by making the tapenade. Make sure you pit the olives first, and then put about 15 of them in the processor. Follow with the red peppers, 2-3 garlic cloves, a handful of basil leaves, a sprig of thyme leaves (remove the stems), and pulse for a few seconds until the olives and peppers are coursely chopped.



[Edit - forgot originally to include the rest of the directions for the tapenade here. After initially pulsing the olive mixture for a couple seconds, remove the lid and add a splash of red wine vinegar and stir to get the bigger chunks of olives down from the sides of the processor bowl. Return the lid; while pulsing the food processor, pour in about 1/4 cup of olive oil. You want the tapenade to have a thick consistency - spreadable, but not runny.

Next, turn on the broiler. Toast both sides of the sliced bread. Then, smear both sides of bread with the tapenade, and on one side of each sandwich place a few slices of fresh mozzarella. On the other side, put 2 slices of ham and 2 slices of sopressata. Return to the broiler until the cheese is bubbling and the top of the salami starts to crisp.

tilapia po boys

I tried a recipe tonight from the Moosewood Restaurant cookbook (a great recommendation from my friend Lydia -- even though it's a vegetarian cookbook, it's not at all limited to veggies). It was super easy, just shake a few fillets of fish in a ziploc bag with 1/4 c cornmeal and 3 T Old Bay. This made for almost-spicy fish, so if you don't like spicy, cut back on the OB. I used tilapia because it's about 1/4th the cost of other mild white fish. The tartar sauce, also a recipe from MW, was just 1/2 c mayo + 1/4 c dill relish + juice of 1 lemon.

On the side -- sweet potato fries. Except they were out of sweet potatoes so I had to use yams. Thanks to the produce guy, I now know that the more red the skin of the yam, the sweeter (and thus more like sweet potatoes) they are.

Anyway, to make these, you just slice a couple of potatoes in french fry shape, put them in a big bowl, drizzle with olive oil, then a generous dose of salt, pepper & garlic powder. Toss all this in the bowl till everything is evenly coated, then spread into a big roasting pan (I line the pan with foil for a lot easier clean-up). 20-25 minutes at 450 degrees, flipping the fries every 10 minutes. I think they get crispier and cook better when you cook them on the bottom rack.