El Jefe And The Grilled Cheese Sandwich

I recently watched the movie "Chef" on On Demand. It was good and I recommend it highly for a light fun movie watch, BUT I will caution you....DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE HUNGRY. This movie is food porn at its highest degree and after viewing it I found myself absolutely ravenous!

Since watching the movie, I can't stop thinking about the grilled cheese sandwich the chef cooks for his son. I have watched the clip below from YouTube about 6 thousand times and I think I got it down, but I'm literally guessing on the type of cheese he uses. I'm thinking the orange cheese is sliced cheddar mixed with some Gruyere, to make that yummy, cheese pulling goodness. It's just about all I can do to not make it grilled cheese night every night in our house! 

I recommend the movie, but the grilled cheese and Cuban sandwiches are the reason to watch. 

And do yourself a favor and have something with you to eat. Something you really like because your are going to need it.

This is the clip from You/tube. I couldn't get it to embed for some reason. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BTfctEmg5w

I Love Me A Nice, Big SANG-a-wich..

I'm loving the changes I've made my in diet, because it keeps me fit and helps me to stay on track and stay in my jeans. Being sugar-free isn't easy, but I've come to get used to the foods I can and can't eat. I get to eat whatever want (EXCEPT sugar) two meals a week, and I usually end up splurging on dinner foods. One of the things I miss is having a sandwich. I miss the good old, wholesome yumminess of having a big old sandwich.

I was watching Rachel Ray's show yesterday and I learned that April is National Grilled Cheese Month. Really? Who decides this stuff? Anyway, this just served to get my sandwich mojo flowing and I decided that tonight would be National Grilled Cheese Night in The Daily Dandy household.

Rachel had a "Grilled Cheese Sammie Smackdown" and she made 3 types of delectable, yummy, gooey grilled cheese goodness. Today I'm sharing the recipe for the one that lit my taste buds ablaze and made me get all giddy with the anticipation of a Grilled Cheese dinner night!

Grilled Deviled Ham and Cheese

Ingredients

• For the Deviled Ham:
• 1/2 pound prosciutto cotto, coarsely chopped
• 1 small rib celery from heart, coarsely chopped
• 1 Fresno chili pepper, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 small red onion, coarsely chopped
• 2 to 3 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley tops, a small handful
• 1 large clove garlic, grated or pasted
• 3 tablespoons yellow mustard, such as French’s
• 2 round tablespoons pickle relish
• 2 teaspoons hot sauce, such as Frank’s Red Hot
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce, such as Lea and Perrin’s
• Black pepper
• 
  
• Good quality salted butter, melted
• 8 hand-sliced slices good quality white bread, cut 1/2-inch thick
• 8 deli slices Swiss cheese, such as Jarlesberg
• 8 deli slices yellow cheddar cheese

Preparation

For the deviled ham, pulse-process ingredients in food processor into almost-smooth, very finely chopped spread.

Liberally brush 1 side of 8 slices of bread for 4 sandwiches with the melted butter. 

Build sandwiches: bread with the butter side facing down, 2 slices Swiss cheese, some deviled ham, 2 slices cheddar cheese, and another slice of bread with the buttered side out.

Grill sandwiches over medium heat on nonstick griddle pan until cheese is melted and they’re deeply golden.

All 3 of Rachel Ray's Grilled Cheese recipes can be found HERE.  

And I'm just warning you...you may be thinking about you favorite "sang-a -wich" all day long.

Pastrami On Rye

So I spent the entire day in the Empire State yesterday on a buying trip for the store, but this is not a post about New York City. No, no. This is a post about food. Glorious food. Lean Pastrami on pumpernickel bread to be exact, and I had it last night and then I dreamt about it. Good food tends to do that to you.

Myself and a couple of my colleagues drove into NYC for the day and on the way home we stopped at the famous Rein's Deli in Vernon Connecticut. Now just about everyone that does the Boston to New York drive frequently, knows Rein's because not only is it an authentic New York style deli, but it's at the half way mark between the two locales and a great place to stop for a quick bite. As you may have read here before, I gave up eating sugar a while back and in doing so I effectively gave up all kinds of breads, bad carbs, etc. But, twice a week I can splurge a meal and have whatever I want and yesterday was my splurge meal.

I had a lean pastrami Rachel on pumpernickel bread, which for you layman, is a pastrami sandwich with Swiss cheese AND coleslaw on it. I like to douse it with, GET THIS, spicy mustard AND Russian dressing. Oh my, I'm getting happy just writing about it, and if you think that the sandwich I ate last night was not good enough to warrant an entire blog post, think again. I forgot how much I missed eating sandwiches. My culinary dream began with a bowl of kosher dill pickles to prepare the pallete, then some Jewish mother's penicillin, Matzoh ball soup. My sandwich which was then presented to me slightly warm, grilled on either side of the bread. I like the first cut of pastrami, which is diet lean, no fat. This a debatable point, fat or no fat, depending on your taste buds, and I devoured the creation in it's entirety with a bit of an effort. I could not let any of it go to waste.

Pastrami sandwiches are not the norm here in the home of the Patriots and the Red Sox, as the New York deli's seem to have the copyright on the cuisine in this part of the country, so imagine my delight when sinking my teeth into that delectable sammi. It's messy to be sure, but so worth it and Rein's will gladly bring you extra napkins, if the need be. It's so delightful that we left the city at 6pm, after a long day of working with tummies grumbling, and waited until 9:30pm to have our agreed dinner at Rein's, knowing it would not disappoint.

No wonder I had dreams about it all night. Not only do I not eat like that anymore, I don't ever eat that late. But it was so worth it, and I'd do it again in a New York second. It's just that my gastrointestinal system would disagrees with me today.

Was that TMI?

Sorry, my bad.