A dinner of leftovers tonight. I can hardly cook when the doorbell keeps ringing!

First, I had some leftover Sort of Mexican Chicken Soup.  I added a large spoonful of this avocado pico del gallo and some crushed tortilla chips. Mmm!

I also used the last of the cooked chicken to make a chicken salad sandwich.  I am totally guessing at the measurements just to give any new cooks a starting place. You must taste and adjust!

• 1 cup diced cooked chicken
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 1-2 Tbs sweet pickle relish
• 2-3 Tbs mayonnaise
• 1-2 tsp Dijon mustard
• a dash of sweet curry powder
• a dash of salt

I toasted up some sliced sourdough for the sandwich part. Had I wanted a salad without the bread I might have added some diced apples and/or diced grapes.  I kept the curry powder very light. I just wanted a hint of it.  Really quite nice!\

Oh, and I don’t mean to imply this only made one sandwich!  There is more chicken salad for tomorrow!

Meatball sandwich

In truth, there’s hardly a recipe for a meatball sandwich. At its simplest, you take a French or hoagie roll, put a few meatballs on it, ladle some spaghetti sauce on it and eat.

If you want to get a bit fancier, you’d use your own homemade meatballs. My favorite recipe uses ground pork and ground beef, plus cheese.  But if ground pork is hard to find or too expensive, just use all ground beef. These days I prefer to bake them rather than fry them. I make a lot, then flash freeze what i don’t need so I have a handy stash in the freezer.

The other night we had company and I went all out and made Sunday Gravy a la the Soprano’s. I made double the meatballs though and froze the extra sauce and meatballs, plus sent some sauce and sausage and meat home with a guest plus sent some over to the neighbor with a broken leg. The recipe makes a lot!

My youngest has been loving having spaghetti and meatballs for lunch every day this week, although she took a break today. Then she came home and asked if we could have meatball sandwiches for dinner! Ha!  Sure…

I put some meatballs and sauce on the stove to heat up, then took the French rolls and opened them up, spread with some butter, sprinkled with some garlic powder and broiled until crispy.   By then the meatballs and sauce were warmed through. I put 3 meatballs on each French roll, ladled some sauce on top, then put some grated Mozzarella over it and put the sandwiches back under the broiler for a bit.

Mmmm.  We broke with tradition and ate dinner while watching Glee on TV.  Served the sandwiches with a green salad and it was a lovely dinner.  What a great way to use up leftovers.

I made some macaroni and cheese tonight for dinner but felt like we needed a bit more as well, plus I was bringing dinner over to my broken-leg neighbor. I decided on a small panini and brought him some vegetable soup from last night as well.  I had some ham and cheddar cheese as the base for the Panini and added some apple slices, arugula and a dab of maple syrup as well. I made them on English muffins as I just wanted something small.

Each sandwich consisted of:

• one English muffin
• 1 slice of ham, folded over
• a few very thin slices of apple
• thin slices of Cheddar cheese
• a small puddle of maple syrup
• a few leaves of arugula

Layer all this in the English muffin while you’re preheating the grill. Butter the outsides of the English muffin and cook in the Panini grill until warmed through and the cheese is melted.

It came out quite nice! I really liked the crunch of the apple and the arugula kept it from being overly sweet somehow.

I really made too many chicken cutlets the other night. However, they are good simply reheated.  Last night I used some up in a Chicken Divan casserole.  For lunch today, my daughter took a simple salad with some chopped romaine lettuce mixed with Ranch dressing and a chopped chicken cutlet. She loved it.

Today for dinner, I felt like experimenting with a Panini sandwich of some kind using one of the last cutlets, with a simple salad on the side.  This came out really good!  I had a small jar of roasted red peppers in the pantry and used a few of those. I also used up the last of a small jar of mango chutney.  (The raisins are the dark spots you see in the picture.)   I also added a slice of provolone cheese.  The bread wasn’t even very good, a bit stale, but somehow using it for a panini I didn’t even notice!  So for one sandwich:

• 1 French roll or two slices of ciabatta or other hearty bread
• 1 slice of provolone cheese
• 1 leftover  chicken cutlet
• a spread of mayonnaise and mustard
• a spoonful of mango chutney
• a few roasted red pepper slices

Spread the mayonnaise and mustard and chutney on the bread. Lay the chicken cutlet down, then top with the red pepper slices and then the cheese. Spread a bit of butter on the outside of the sandwich and grill until heated through and the cheese is melted.

This came out great! I think the key to good Panini is a) the bread and b) having some little treat tucked into your pantry or frig, like the roasted red peppers and chutney.  I think this would pack up well in a lunchbox and be good at room temperature.

I read Rachel’s Italian Deli Panini recipe and my mouth was watering.  I don’t really know any good Italian deli’s around here and don’t often buy good cold cuts but I went to our Safeway  and picked up some ham, capocolla and salami, plus a jar of artichoke hearts. I had some provolone cheese at home already.

I also picked up a nice loaf of ciabatta, a really good chewy bread.

The artichoke hearts really added a nice tangy touch and the mix of meats was a treat, certainly not one I’d eat every day but awfully dang good!  Now I feel the need to scout out a good Italian deli.

What are your favorite Panini recipes?  My kids like ham and cheese, or quesadillas made in the panini. This Cuban pork sandwich recipe was our first, and perhaps still our favorite.

French Dip Sandwiches

Here’s my normal French Dip Sandwich recipe, but it requires hours of time, a crock pot and perhaps more beef than you might like (although it does freeze well, especially if you freeze it in the jus/juice).   Driving home from school today, youngest and I talked about dinner and settled on French dip sandwiches.  We swung by the grocery store and picked up some sliced roast beef from the deli and I made a good dipping sauce using some Minors Beef Base, which I buy at Costco. Much cheaper than those little packets of  Au Jus sauce that sell for at least $1 each.  And tastier if I remember correctly.  You could of course just use some warm beef broth to dip the sandwiches in if you’d like, but I think this tastes better.

• 2 Tbs butter
• 1 Tbs flour
• 1 splash of dry sherry (optional, but good!)
• 2 cups beef broth (yours, or Minors or canned)
• 1 French roll per person, split and buttered
• about 2 ounces of sliced roast beef per serving

Melt the butter in a saucepan, then stir in the flour and cook a minute or two.  Add the sherry and cook another minute, then stir in the beef broth. Simmer at least a few minutes , then turn to low while you prepare everything else. At some point, add the slices of roast beef to warm.

Spread the rolls with some butter, then broil a few minutes until lightly toasted.

Lay the slices of roast beef on them and slice each roll in half.  Pour the beef broth mixture into small bowls or ramekins so you can dip your sandwich in them.

I served these with a simple green salad.  It was an easy and delicious meal.

I’ve seen recipes on line that call for cheese and/or grilled onions, but to me a French Dip is nothing but bread and beef and broth. Very simple. The other stuff sounds good but it’s not what I think of when I hear French Dip!

NOTE: For packed lunches, pack the juice and the slices of beef in a thermos. Pack a bun separately.  Lay the slices of roast beef on the bread, then pour the juices into the cup of the thermos and dip!

If  you end up with lots of broth leftover, freeze it to use in soups or for making gravy or pot pies or hash.

Since neither of us were starving tonight but we still needed to eat dinner, I opted for a sandwich. One of us had had a chicken taco salad for lunch so I didn’t want to do another “salad with meat” thing.  I had these fantastic breaded chicken cutlets from the other night so went for those and pulled some hamburger buns out of the freezer.

I heated the cutlets in the oven at 350 and put the hamburger buns by the vent outlet (where the hot air comes out) to defrost. Not sure all ovens have those but my gas one sure does and it comes in handy for keeping things warm or defrosting.

I sliced up some mozzarella cheese and melted it on top of the leftover chicken cutlets after they were warm. Then I sliced a tomato and some lettuce.  I made the hot sauce recipe from here but was frankly less than impressed. So next time I’ll just skip it or dump some hot sauce on the chicken directly. I mixed up a bit of blue cheese dressing from here, but again was less than impressed.  I had mine with the both the hot sauce and the blue cheese dressing, plus the lettuce and tomato and cheese.  The sandwich was good but I think it would have been just as good without either the hot sauce or the blue cheese dressing.  My daughter ate hers with just ketchup and had some carrot sticks on the side.

Sometimes the simplest dinners are so good!  I had barbecued some chicken leg quarters the other night, after marinating them in the best chicken marinade.  We had one leg quarter left over.  Last night for dinner I turned it into chicken salad for some great sandwiches.

Pull the skin off the chicken and pull the meat away from the bones, watching for gristle or fat.  Dice it up finely. You should get about a cup of chicken. Add enough mayonnaise to moisten, then stir in some diced dill pickles. (Or sweet pickle relish if you’d like.)  If it was just me, I’d add some diced celery as well but the kids gripe about that so I left it out. Depending on the chicken, you may or may not need to add some salt and/or pepper.

• 1 cup diced cooked chicken
• 1/4 cup or so of mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup or so of diced dill pickle
• salt and pepper to taste

I toasted some whole wheat bread and spread this out for 3 healthy sandwiches.

Served with a simple green salad of:

• 2  cups chopped red leaf lettuce
• 1/2 an avocado, chopped
• 1 tomato, chopped
• oil and vinegar dressing to taste

Now if it had been just me, I would have added some garbanzo beans and sliced red onion and maybe some sunflower seeds or dried cranberries to the salad.  But I kept it simple, for one night at least.

These were inspired by Rachel Ray’s recipe in Classic 30-Minute Meals: The All-Occasion Cookbook
but I modified based on the fact that I was only serving 2 people and used up what I had on hand rather than her specifics. As I often do, I followed the spirit of the recipe rather than the letter.

1 boneless skinless chicken breast
McCormick steak seasoning
1 clove garlic, chopped
a sprinkle of crushed red pepper flakes
a small handful of sliced white mushrooms
a handful of frozen red, green, and yellow pepper strips
some leftover carmelized onions (or just add raw onion slices of course)
salt and pepper to taste
a splash of white wine
a small handful of cherry tomatoes, chopped
a spoonful of dried parsley
2 slices white American cheese
2 French rolls

If your chicken breast is still in the freezer, as mine was when I started, thaw it in the microwave. Then spread or spray of bit of olive oil on it and sprinkle the steak seasoning. I liked it heavy but my daughter complained it was a bit spicy, so if you’re cooking for kids adjust as needed. Heat a skillet over medium heat, then cook the chicken breast, about 6-7 minutes per side. Remove to a plate.

Add another spoonful of olive oil to the pan, then add the garlic, pepper flakes, mushrooms, bell peppers, and onions. (Oh she said to add some oregano as well but I forgot.) Cook until tender, 5-7 minutes, stirring now and then. Add the wine (she said red. I used white because I had some open. Her alternatives were chicken or beef broth. Water would work as well). Scrape up the browned bits with a wooden spoon.

Add the tomatoes and parley. (She’d called for 4 chicken breasts and a 14 oz can of crushed tomatoes so adjust if you have canned tomatoes and no fresh.) Stir and cook a few minutes. Slice the chicken breasts at an angle and return to the pan to heat through.

Turn on your broiler and broil the rolls a bit until lightly browned. Place the rolls on a cookie sheet, then pile on the chicken and vegetable mixture on one side and top with a slice of cheese or two. Broil until the cheese melts, then serve.

My youngest asked for patty melts for dinner tonight. I had, as a matter of fact, a few hamburger patties in the freezer, mixed up and formed the last time I made a bunch of burgers. So I pulled two out to defrost as I started to saute some sliced onions in butter.  I didn’t have rye bread or Swiss cheese. I did have white bread and Jack cheese.  They came out fantastic, if slightly non-traditional.

1/4 cup butter, plus more for grilling the sandwiches
2 onions, thinly sliced
2 1/4 pound hamburger patties
salt and pepper to taste
4 slices bread
2 slices Jack cheese

Melt the butter over medium low  heat and add the onion slices. Stir and saute until golden and soft. The slower the better but if you’re in a hurry, turn the heat up a bit.

Cook the hamburger patties in another skillet, adding salt and pepper to taste.

When the onions are done, remove them to a bowl.

Spread some butter on two slices of bread and put them butter side down in the skillet. Slide the bread around a bit to coat it evenly with melted butter. Put a hamburger patty on top of each piece of bread. Spoon the onion on top of the patties, then add the cheese. Top with another piece of buttered bread, butter side up. Cook a few minutes until the bread is lightly browned. Flip over carefully, move the sandwiches around to spread the melting butter, and cook over medium low heat until the cheese is melted.

Cut in half and serve. With ketchup for dipping if you’ve a ketchup kind of person. Which we are.

Mmmmmmm.