Crispy Golden Brown Panini! That's right, lunch today. A few years ago Scott bought me a panini press. It's fun to use and makes really great sandwiches. The press and a few great ingredients turn lunch in Cold Spring into a mid day meal in Venice. Today I used Vienna bread, lightly buttered one side and sprinkled Alpine Touch seasoning on the butter, I turned it over and built my sammy! I first spread some whole grain mustard, sprinkled some parmesan cheese, a slice of aged swiss, a few slices of herb roasted turkey, some pickled banana peppers, another slice of swiss and top with the other prepared slice of bread (butter side up) and press! The result is a crispy, buttery, gooey treat and no one is complaining-because they are too busy eating! I love that you can go so many different ways with this meal, change the bread, the cheese, the meat, the seasonings and it is different every time. You don't even need the press, just used a frying pan with a heavy object to weigh down the sammy, I have heard of using a brick wrapped in tin foil. You will have to flip the sammy doing it this way. No matter how you slice it, it's yummy and turns ordinary into extraordinary and that's what the kitchen experience is all about. And for those of you that read the title of this post, and thought the blog was headed in another direction, I got rid of my bikini years ago-nasty.
Oh Gretchen...you are so funny! And you make me hungry! Your meals "sound" so effortless, but I never have that many ingredients at my house! Do you plan your meals for a month at a time? I rarely have aged swiss, pickled banana peppers, Alpine Touch (whatever that is, whole grain mustard on hand, and absolutely NEVER have herb roasted turkey! How far in advance do you plan?
ReplyDeleteI do love your blog! Keep it up!
Thanks! I don't plan much at all, usually I wake up thinking about what to do for supper and figure it out as the day goes on. I have tried planning in advance, but it was too overwhelming for me. Lots of times I will plan the meal around ingredients I already have and need to use up. I always have banana peppers on hand because I use them in lots of dishes (I will be talking more about that soon). I use whole grain mustard in lots of my salad dressings, so I have that on hand too. Alpine Touch is a seasoning from Montana that Scott's Uncle introduced us to. Kinda like a seasoning salt, great on meat, but I use it on lots of things. Truth be told, the herb roasted turkey and aged swiss is from Sam's Club. We make a weekly trip there :) It's fun to "invent" based on what I already have or to just buy something I know nothing about, research a bit and try something new!
Delete