Steak sandwich with gruyere sauce and arugula dressing

Back when Michigan went to bowl games (here's hoping we've learned how to do that again), New Years Day was a great day to spend tucked into good food and football. A few years back we had Alyce, Dave, Jody and Patrick down to celebrate the calendar holiday and to join in the football watching fiesta (Michigan beat Florida that year, so there Tim Tebo!). In honor of the days events I prepared a get it when you want it meal that included soup and what I'm going to go out on a limb here and say were amazing steak sandwiches. Which brings us to the present day, where I'm desperately searching for something interesting to make for dinner that will double as lunch at work the next day. Mental archive search results in this sandwich, which hadn't graced our table since that fateful (for Florida) New Years Day. This dish looks like it has a lot of steps, but don't be intimidated, it's easy and extremely flavorful.

Ingredients

For the Bechamel

1/2 stick unsalted butter
3 heaping tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups whole milk (I substitute 1% with no flavor faults)
2 cups grated Gruyere
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon prepared horseradish

For the Arugula Mayonnaise

1 bunch baby arugula
1/2 lemon, juiced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup mayonnaise

For the Steak Sandwich

2 soft hoagie rolls
Extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 pound New York Strip steak, grilled and finely sliced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat the grill to medium-high.

Make the bechamel cheese sauce. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour and stir constantly to incorporate - you do not want any color. Gradually pour in the milk as you stir, and whisk out any lumps. As the mixture thickens up continue to stir until it reaches a boil - this ensures the flour is cooked completely. Dump in the cheese and stir for another minute until the cheese is completely melted. Stir in the horseradish and season with salt and pepper, then set aside to keep warm.

Creamy bechamel, just as the cheese melts

Make arugula mayonnaise. Put arugula in a food processor with the lemon juice and salt and pepper. Top with mayonnaise and process until well combined. Give it a taste and adjust seasoning if required. NOTE: I know it seems like a lot of arugula, but the mayo has a strong flavor on its own, you need the whole bunch to get the full flavor.

All the ingredients for the mayo, ready to go for a ride

The finished mayo, prettied up with some parsley

Prepare the steak by liberally seasoning it with salt and pepper.  Place the steak on the preheated grill and cook to medium rare.  How long is required to do this will vary based on the thickness of the meat and how hot your individual grill gets.  In general, it should be about 4 minutes per side.  When done, remove the steak from the grill and allow to rest, tented in aluminum foil for about 10 minutes.  At this point, preheat your broiler. Once the steak is thoroughly rested, slice thin and set aside.

Split the hoagie rolls in half, brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Place on a flat baking sheet and toast under the broiler until brown, one to two minutes.

To serve, smear each half of the roll with the arugula mayonaisse. Top the bottom with the steak and cheese and serve.

Beef and Mushroom Sloppy Joes

This is a super easy, filling and good for your recipe courtesy of Cooking Light.  A caveat though - the magazine claims this makes four sandwiches.  Maybe I make wimpy sandwiches, but B and I can get six to eight good size sandwiches out of each batch of this quick, healthy recipe.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
12 ounces ground sirloin
2 (8-ounce) packages presliced cremini mushrooms
1 cup chopped onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup tomato paste
1 tablespoon minced fresh oregano
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon molasses
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon fresh cracked pepper
Hot sauce to taste
4 hamburger buns, toasted in the oven

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil; swirl to coat. Add beef; cook for 4 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. While beef cooks, place mushrooms in a food processor; pulse 10 times or until finely chopped. Add mushrooms, onion, and garlic to pan; cook for 3 minutes or until onion is tender. Add tomato paste and next 5 ingredients (through salt) to pan; cook 5 minutes or until mushrooms are tender and liquid evaporates. Stir in pepper and hot sauce. Spoon about the  beef mixture on bottom half of each bun; top with top halves of buns.

Denver delivers dear friends and deliciousness!

The week of February 1st brought a barrage of travel and more time spent on planes and in airports than I care to recall. But knowing that my job often lends itself to this type of travel craziness, I just buckled in for the long week ahead.  First stop, one night in Indianapolis and three hours of training delivery on Wednesday, lather, rinse, repeat in Dallas on Thursday and finally on to Orange County, CA for double time training delivery with the staff there.  So far so good, right? All my planes were on time, no one asked me a question I couldn't answer and I only had to get snippy with one snotty curmudgeon who thinks because he's a fossil he's allowed to push me around verbally.  Those of you who know me know just how far he got with that line of thought.

But there is always a travel catch.  This one came in the form of the SNOWIEST winter DC has ever seen.  I was originally scheduled to fly back United Airlines through Denver on Saturday morning. I made it to Denver and that was where I stopped.  But that was fantastic! Because two of Ben's and my most favorite people in the world just moved back to Denver from DC in August - Michelle and Gustavo (hereafter referred to as Muchtavo).

On arriving in Denver, Michelle picked me up in her happy little blue Civic and drove us straight up into the mountains to the cute little town of Idaho Springs for lunch.  Idaho Springs, and Beau Jo's in particular, I'm told, is where skiers and boarders in the know stop to grab some grub before heading to the higher elevations of Breckenridge, Loveland, etc.   We cruised into Beau Jo's, got a table right in front of an old model-T and proceeded to order the BEST, again, the BEST, pizza I've ever had in my life!!!!  Beau Jo's serves "Colorado Style" pizza that you order by pound, rather than small, medium or large.  Michelle and I chose a 2-lb mountain pie with whole milk mozzarella, pepperoni, green and red peppers and Italian seasoning.  According to the Beau Jo's menu, a 2-lb pie is suitable for 2-3 people or a half-dozen mongeese.  We ordered it thinking that we'd have plenty left over for Gustavo.  And then we put away all but two small slices.  Oh, and did I mention the best part of the mountain pie?  They hand roll the crust, so when you're done with the pie you can spread honey on the delicious puffy crust.  AMAZING!

This was only the beginning of a fabulous Denver visit with great friends.  On the way back down to just a mile above sea level, Michelle and I stopped to look around Red Rocks.  While this is an amphitheater and the venue in which many concerts are played in the Denver area, it's the fact that it is an entirely natural formation that provides gorgeous views, beautiful hiking trails and amazing acoustics that really sets it apart.  Sadly, I didn't have my camera with me.  But check out the website for some great pics of the splendor that is this national park and concert venue.

We spent the rest of the afternoon checking into my hotel, chatting, checking out Muchtavo's place and more chatting.  Gustavo met up with us for dinner just in time to visit Torres, their favorite family Mexican establishment in Denver, a restaurant I've been hearing about since Muchtavo's DC dwelling days.  Inexpensive and family friendly, I got to enjoy a chicken and bean burrito smothered with green chili!  Tastiness.

Since I had a hotel downtown, Muchtavo opted to stay with me that night.  That let us hit one of their favorite downtown brunch locations, The Delectable Egg, on Sunday morning.  Potatoes, good.  Eggs, good.  Cheese, good.  The Idaho scrambler was a tasty breakfast selection.  And again we passed an enjoyable meal chatting and catching up.  I love these people and miss them so much, it was so nice to get "stuck" in Denver with them.

By now my flight had been re-scheduled, canceled, re-scheduled again, and then re-scheduled a third time for a better, direct flight on Monday when everyone in the DC area was hopeful the airports would finally be open.  But all the time I spent on the phone with the travel agent aside, we spent the rest of the afternoon in another haze of chatter and laughter, with Muchtavo teaching me all about the neighborhoods and things to do in the Denver area (for when Ben and I come back in the summer!).  By mid-afternoon we somehow decided we were hungry again.  Really, I don't know how, but we were.  So before heading over to Michelle's parents house to watch a great Super Bowl game, we stopped off at the Spicy Pickle for a tasty sandwich selection.  While this is a chain, it's a yummy, healthy one that doesn't exist in my area, so I was happy to try it out!  For the fourth time in two days, Muchtavo didn't steer me wrong.  The Santa Cruz sandwich was great and left me happy and full to meet Michelle's family.

Fast forward a few hours and everyone is cheering for a Saints victory, Michelle's brother's crazy dog keeps making me laugh, Michelle is doing the end-zone victory dance every time the Saints score and I am totally comfortable and enjoying Michelle's great family.  We took off on the early side since it had begun to snow and I had an early flight the next morning, but even with an early departure the night was fantastic and I'm thankful to have been included in it!

Overall, I could not have asked for a better trip to Denver.  With the weather as it was, we didn't get to enjoy all the beautiful scenery Denver offers, but as I told our wonderful friends, I was much more interested in the company and I couldn't have asked for better!

Italian Paninis

This is the tasty sandwich I made to go with the butternut squash soup. I was hoping the saltiness of the prosciutto would balance the sweetness of the soup and viola! it worked quite well.

Ingredients (per panini):

Two slices good, dense bakery bread (I opted for whole foods pan de levain)
2 sprays of canola or olive oil cooking spray
1 Tbsp aged balsamic vinegar
3-4 1/4" think slices of fresh mozzarella
3 basil leaves
1 oz very thinly sliced prosciutto
4 thin slices of tomato

Spray the outside of both slices of bread with cooking spray and flip to build your sandwich. Brush the inside of both slides with the aged balsamic. Be conservative here so your sandwich doesn't get soggy. Lay the mozzarella on one side of the bread. On top of it lay your basil leaves, then the prosciutto, then the tomatoes. Top it off with the other slice of bread. Grill on a panini press or grill pan until the cheese is melty and the bread has toasted and you can see grill lines. NOTE: If you're using a grill pan, you'll need to put something heavy on top of your sandwich to simulate a panini press. I recommend an 8"x8" casserole dish.

One sandwich is probably enough for two people if you're enjoying something else with it like soup or a salad.

Open Faced Meatball Subs

I'm still in my comfort food mode and am toying with all kinds recipes I don't normally go for.  Until this week I'd never, ever had a meatball sub.  But this recipe was so tasty I will definitely be having another.

First off, let me start by saying that while I'm going to give you the recipe to make your own meatballs courtesy of Rachael Ray, I have a corner-cutting suggestion.  Anyone who's eaten at our house knows that I seldom do the store-bought thing, but this is a place where it's both economical and time saving for essentially the same results.  If you don't have time to make your meatballs, Whole Foods has them pre-made at the meat counter for $5.49/lb.  You aren't going to get off much cheaper buying the ingredients and making them yourself.

For the marinara sauce I started with Rachael Ray's 5-minute marinara recipe and then kicked it up a notch, you'll see my notes on the recipe below.  I also totally altered the rest of the ingredients as you'll see below.

Meatballs:

• 1 1/2 pounds ground sirloin
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1 cup (3 handfuls), Italian bread crumbs
• 1 medium onion, chopped fine
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 teaspoons (several drops) Worcestershire sauce,
• 1/4 cup (a couple of handfuls) flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped
• 1/4 cup (a couple of handfuls) grated Parmigiano or Romano
• Coarse salt and black pepper 

5-Minute Marinara:

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, (2 turns around the pan)
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (I doubled this because I like a zestier sauce)
  
• A handful flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped, about 2 tablespoons
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (again, I doubled for more flavor)
  
• 1 (28 ounces) can crushed tomatoes (I used the fire-roasted kind)
  
• 1 (14 ounces) can chunky style crushed tomatoes (I substituted San Marzanos)
  
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

I also added some fresh chopped basil (about a tablespoon) and about the same amount fresh chopped fresh leaf parsley.

Other Ingredients:

• 1 loaf crusty bread (half-size french baguette is fine)
• 1 (10-ounce) bag (2 1/2 cups) shredded mozzarella cheese
• Shredded basil  for garnish

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Place ground sirloin in a large mixing bowl and punch a well into the center of meat. Fill well with the egg, bread crumbs, onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, Worcestershire, parsley, cheese, and a little salt and pepper. Mix up meatball ingredients until well combined, yet not over-mixed. Divide mix into 4 equal parts, roll each part into 4 balls and space equally onto a nonstick baking sheet.

(If you bought your meatballs, start here!) Place meatballs in oven and roast about 12 minutes. Break a meatball open and make sure meat is cooked through before removing from the oven.

Heat a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add oil and garlic. When garlic starts sizzling, add herbs and crushed pepper. Allow oil to infuse for half a minute, then stir in the tomatoes and season sauce with salt and pepper. Bring sauce to a bubble, reduce heat, and simmer until meatballs are removed from oven. (If you have an immersion blender (thanks Boxy!), this is a great time to use it.  When you've finished making your sauce, give it a zap with your blender for a smoother, more consistent sauce.)

Slice the baguette in half lengthwise and then split each side like a sub roll.  This will give you four equal sized pieces of bread to build your open-faced subs on.  Toast the bread under the broiler until its golden brown. Combine meatballs and sauce and about 1/3 of the sauce and pile on top of the bread.  Ladel more sauce over the top (how much is a matter of preference). Top with shredded cheese and place under subs under broiler to melt cheese. Top with shredded basil and enjoy!!

Mediterranean Chicken Salad Pitas

In the mood for a more casual dinner? This is the recipe for you. My personal recommendation is to tag this recipe up with another chicken recipe the night before so you can cook the chicken ahead of time and give the flavors more time to marry. That was my plan, roasted chicken with butternut squash last night, chicken salad pitas tonight. The flavors in this dish are fantastic! A couple words to the wise, use good olives, not the kind from the jar, it makes a big difference in the flavor and feel free to be a little liberal with the cilantro, it adds such an intense freshness to the chicken salad, it's worth a little extra chopping.



1 cup plain whole-milk Greek yogurt (such as Fage Total Classic)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
3 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 cup chopped red bell pepper (about 1 large)
1/2 cup chopped pitted green olives (about 20 small)
1/2 cup diced red onion
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 (15-ounce) can no-salt-added chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained
6 (6-inch) whole wheat pitas, cut in half
12 Bibb lettuce leaves
6 (1/8-inch-thick) slices tomato, cut in half

1. Combine first 4 ingredients in a small bowl; set aside. Combine chicken and next 5 ingredients (through chickpeas) in a large bowl. Add yogurt mixture to chicken mixture; toss gently to coat. Line each pita half with 1 lettuce leaf and 1 tomato piece; add 1/2 cup chicken mixture to each pita half.

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 2 stuffed pita halves)

CALORIES 404 (23% from fat); FAT 10.2g (sat 3.8g,mono 4g,poly 1.5g); IRON 3.4mg; CHOLESTEROL 66mg; CALCIUM 110mg; CARBOHYDRATE 46.4g; SODIUM 575mg; PROTEIN 33.6g; FIBER 6g

Grilled Lamb Burgers in Pita

We've been looking for recipes that fall into the "quick and easy" category since we're both working and busy. This recipe is the perfect blend of quick and delicious. And the best part? It's a Weight Watchers Recipe! B was surprised to learn this was courtesy of WW, since he can usually tell by his tastebuds when we're eating these lower fat options. (And it's a stock photo, I don't get credit for the beautiful presentation!)

3/4 pound lean ground lamb loin
2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint (if you don't have mint you can use fresh basil or a third the amount of dried basil)
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1 and 1/3 cup chopped romaine lettuce
1 small bell pepper, seeded and cut into thin strips
1/3 cup plain fat-free greek yogurt
4 (6-in) whole wheat pitas, warmed

Gently mix the lamb, onion, mint (or basil) coriander, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Shape mixture into 4 patties, each about a 1/2 inch thick.

Spray the grill rack with nonstick spray; preheat the grill to medium-high or prepare a medium-hot fire. Place the patties on the rack and grill, turning once, until and instant-read thermometer inserted into the side of each patty registers 145 degrees for medium, about 10 minutes.
Divide the lettuce, bell pepper, lamb patties, and yogurt among the pita breads and serve at once.
Serves: 4
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cooking and Assembly time: 15 mins
WW Points: 6

Veggie Caponata Toasted Sandwiches

Spring is here and that means even more fresh fruits and veggies. In honor of the season, I made Veggie Caponata Toasted Sandwiches for dinner tonight. This is a recipe I adapted from one of my fav Food Network Chef's, Giada di Laurentiis, only my version is a little lighter and healthier.

2 Tbsps olive oil
1 medium onion, rough chopped
2 red, yellow or orange bell peppers, rough chopped
2 zucchini, rough chopped
1 stalk celery, rough chopped
2 tsps salt, divided
1 14 oz. can of crushed, fire roasted tomatoes
2 tsps red wine vinegar
1/4 cup aged balsamic vinegar
5 oz. fresh, whole milk mozzarella
1 baguette, cut into four pieces and split to create sandwich rolls

Heat olive oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium and add onion, peppers, zucchini, celery and one tsp salt to skillet. Cook for five minutes, stirring occassionally. Preheat your broiler for use. Add canned tomatoes, remaining salt and red wine vinegar to vegetable mixture. Cook, stirring occassionally, for 15-20 minutes until vegetable mixture has reduced by half and all veggies are cooked through but not mushy. In the last five minutes of the vegetable cooking, brush balsamic vinegar on the inside of the split baguettes, both top and bottom, and slice mozzarella. Spread the bottom half of the sandwich roll thick with vegetable mixture. Place on broiler safe pan and top with one fourth of the fresh mozzarella. Repeat for remaining three sandwiches. Place opposite half of sandwich rolls on broiler pan as well. Broil for one minute or until mozzarella is melted and top half of sandwich roll is brown. Remove from broiler, assemble and enjoy!

Serves: 4
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 25 mins
WW Points: 8