Elizabeth's Mega Sandwich with Pickled Pepper Sauce

Kids find something awesomely cool about a sandwich made on a whole loaf of bread. What fun it was tonight to investigate the possibilities of mega-turkey-sandwich creation from a ten year old's perspective. Remember, now, that this particular ten year old loves sandwiches that have the sum total of two ingredients for perfection. The two-and-only-two ingredients are a piece of crusty baguette and slices of plainplainplain turkey. We had to modify this duo to include some form of green vegtable. I don't mind that she has not inherited my love for mayonnaise or salt or all things spicy. She may just be on to the deconstructed trend in haute cuisine. I think that the chefs who set up 'deconstructed dishes' may have been among the kids who didn't like anything touching on their dinner plates, just like my favorite ten year old. We can assemble almost any meal and as long as I leave all the ingredients separate and raw (whenever possible) she'll probably eat most of it. Tonight we bought the longest baguette we could find. We sliced it in half horizontally and removed quite a bit of the soft middle. An entire pound of natural sliced turkey breast filled the trench in the loaf. The top was set on the turkey and the "sandwich" cut into four uneven pieces for dinner. Once it was cut apart, each of us decorated our own. We all chose a couple of leaves of romaine. Elizabeth's was on the side of course. The guys had sambal oelek (chili paste), sliced sundried tomatoes, Newman's sun dried tomato vinaigrette and havarti. Travis of course had bacon too. I made up a little sauce with some pickled pepper relish and mayonnaise. This little sauce has one part red spicy pickled pepper relish, one part mayonnaise and a squeeze of fresh lime juice. If I was making this up for a crowd of grown ups I would have layered the turkey, havarti, some pickled pepper sauce, romaine and sun dried tomato pesto. Sun dried tomato pesto can be made easily by putting 1/2 cup of sun dried tomatoes packed in oil into a food processor. Puree until coarsely chopped. Add a handful of fresh basil leaves, a pinch of sea salt, 5 grinds black pepper, 1 Tablespoon room temperature water, a pinch of sugar, a pinch of cayenne pepper, 2 Tablespoons olive oil and a handful of grated asiago cheese. Pulse until the mixture is combined and smooth. This is great on a sandwich of any size or tossed with a plate of pasta.
Hope you like it!
We are off to dance Saturday night in Brunswick. We are trying to learn a new swing dance move every week. The most recent is a kind of travelling footwork. Lead and follow move to the side together- lead/right, follow/left- open position. Weight is on- lead/left foot, follow/right foot. Each partner moves their weighted foot in the direction of the other foot by shifting toe, heel, toe, heel... The foot that is not weight bearing is lightly touching the floor with the tip of the toes. As the weighted foot "walks" across the floor- the non weighted foot moves in a circular motion. This is very much like patting your head and rubbing your tummy, but when performed- it looks great! I'll try to make a little movie to show you what I mean. What are your favorite swing dance moves?

Boiga Belly and Everything Bagels

Who invented Everything Bagels? If it were me, I would have had all the ingredients separated nicely into lovely storage containers- until I spilled a bunch of them when making one type. I couldn't waste all those delicious tidbits, so, since I had spilled them into a clean, bagel-filled tote, I would just say- I meant to do it that way. Which, indeed, is what I often do in the kitchen. When something comes out different than I intended- I just pretend that I meant to do it that way. Culinary accidents don't have to be wrong- they can be considered new flavor combinations just realizing their time has come. We had everything bagel burgers tonight. I had some nice ground beef that practically made itself into patties. While they cooked (in a frying pan because 2 degrees above zero is not the grilling weather I wanted to wander into tonight) I sprinkled them with a generous amount of garlic powder, a pinch of sea salt and several grinds of black pepper. They cooked up nicely to a warm pink-centered medium. I baked up some everything bagels and drizzled the cut halves with garlic oil. The burgers were slid onto the bagel and topped with everyone's choice of condiment. I made a "special sauce" for my burger- not the most heart healthy- but certainly delicious. Take 1 part sweet relish, add 2 parts mayonnaise, 2 parts katsup and 3 parts crumbled feta cheese. A pinch of cayenne spices it up if you want your tongue to tingle and I love it when my tongue tingles! That ought to be a whole episode of my up and coming cooking show- temptations to tingle your tongue.
When we were little my brother, fondly referred to as "bruver" Todd had a Tshirt that he wore until the picture was almost worn off the front. In those days he ate rice, corn, potatoes, peas(under duress), plain chicken, hamburgers, butter and butter sandwiches(bread and butter alone) and steak. Desserts were the exception to the rule of course. It made sense that this shirt, his favorite at the time, depicted a large hamburger with the words Burger Belly underneath. Somehow it morphed into Boiga Belly and stuck. It always brings back fond memories.
There are some things that always evoke the feelings of being young and safe and happy. Many cause an automatic response. I know wherever we are if one of us says, "Ma na Ma na" (remember the little aliens on Sesame Street) the other will echo, "Doodoodoodoodoo" or when asked "Whoooo is it?" the answer will always be, "Its the plumber. I've come to fix the sink!" Now our kids say the same things. Ahh, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Life is good!