South of the Border Sandwiches

I used to make these all the time - but haven't for a while and when I took the first bite I felt like kicking myself for not making these more! They are so delicious. I got the recipe from the Lion House Entertaining cookbook.

As usual, I had to make some changes bc of the ingredients I had on hand. The recipe calls for French bread and I agree - you should stick with French bread -  it really is worth it. I didn't have it, so I used some mini ciabatta rolls I had on hand. They were delicious, but the tops are a bit rounded, so we had a teeter totter situation with a couple of them:) These were the perfect mini sliders for a group - though, best they are family or good friends bc these sandwiches, while worth every single devily delicious bite - are quite messy.

South of the Border Sandwiches - Lion House Entertaining 

1 loaf French bread, cut into 3/4" thick slices
½ cup olives, chopped*
½ teaspoon chili powder
½ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon salt
1/3 c mayonnaise
1/3 c sour cream
1/3 cup green onions, chopped
1 lb sliced turkey
2 medium tomatoes, thinly sliced
2 ripe avocados, sliced
¾ c cheddar cheese, shredded
¾ c pepper jack or Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, combine olives, chili powder, cumin, and salt; set aside 2 Tablespoons of this mixture. Add the mayonnaise, sour cream, and green onions to the remaining olive mixture. Place bread on an ungreased baking sheet and spread 1 Tablespoon of the mayonnaise mixture on each slice. Top with slices of turkey and tomatoes. Spread with another Tablespoon of mayonnaise mixture. Top with avocados (I usually mash my avocado in sandwiches - sliced avocado tends to slide around on me:) and cheeses. Sprinkle with the reserved 2 Tablespoons of olive mixture. Bake @ 350 for 15 min. Makes 8-10 full sized servings - I had 18 of these little sliders.

*I made this again but on a regular sized ciabatta roll - as a panini - delish! But - I had to eat it with a knife and fork to keep from getting completely messy...

Not Your Mama's Macaroni Salad

Macaroni Salad. Used to make me shutter. My mom never made macaroni salad - but for every BBQ we went to and for every time I saw it in the deli at the grocery store, it always looked the same and smelled horrible - so no thanks for me!

BUT - I came across this recipe HERE and tweaked it a little to suit my family's tastebuds...

Not Your Mama's Macaroni Salad

1 lb pkg. pasta (my kids love to choose different shapes so we went with wheels today)
1 1/2 c mayonnaise
2 T mustard
1/4 c sour cream
2 T apple cider vinegar
2 T sugar
1 c ham steak, cut into small cubes
1 c cheddar cheese, cut into small cubes
1/2 - 1 c frozen peas
3 green onions, diced (some for garnish)
2-4 carrots, shredded
1- 2 T Seasoned Salt
Salt and pepper to taste

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine mayonnaise, mustard, sour cream, apple cider vinegar, sugar and seasoned salt. Set in refrigerator until needed.

Prepare pasta according to package directions. After pasta is cooked, drain and rinse in cold water.  Once macaroni has cooled down, drain well. When I make cold pasta salads, I generally leave the pasta in the colander and set on a towel in the fridge until needed.

Do all your mis en place while the dressing is getting nice and cold and the water is coming up to boil.

Now we're ready to put everything together! In a large bowl toss pasta with ham, cheese, peas, green onion and carrots. Fold in mayonnaise mixture until pasta is well coated.

I let it sit in the fridge for about an hour before we ate - but as everything - it's always better the next day!! I think next time I'll make it, I'll shred some onion into the dressing instead of using green onions, and I'll make it the night before or at least the morning of. Taste and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Original posts suggests: If the salad seems a little dry after setting up overnight, add some milk a little bit at a time until salad becomes nice and creamy again.

Jalapeño Popper Dip

I have to admit that I haven't made this yet! I came across it a couple of weeks ago and copied it into my word docs with every intention of making it - but I haven't yet!! One of those pesky things I need to get off my plate (haha punny). As soon as I do - I'll post a picture and let you know if it really is as fabulous as it sounds.

Jalapeño Popper Dip

6-8 slices of bacon, diced and cooked crispy

2 8-oz packages of cream cheese, soft

1 cup of mayonnaise

4-6 jalapeno's, chopped and deseeded. The seeds will make it fiery hot.

1 cup of cheddar cheese, shredded

1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese, shredded

1/4 cup diced green onion

Topping:

1 cup of crushed crackers ( I used Ritz)

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1/2 stick of butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine all of the ingredients into a medium bowl. Stir well.

Transfer to an oven proof dish. The size of the dish depends on how thick the dip is. The thicker the dip the longer it may need to warm up. I used this stoneware dish that is round and measures 12 inches across. My dip is usually about an inch thick.

Combine the topping ingredients and sprinkle all over the top of the dip.

Bake the dip for 20-30 minutes or until bubbly.

California Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Do you know that it is NATIONAL GRILLED CHEESE MONTH?? Oh yeah baby.

Yesterday, the 12th was National Grilled Cheese Day. So I made these delicious little munchers:

California Grilled Cheese Sandwich
4 slices of your fav bread (my fav is Orowheat Whole Grains Oatnut)
Parmesan cheese (the canned kind - not fresh)
2 T butter
Cheddar cheese, sliced
Swiss cheese, sliced
1 Beef Steak tomatoes, sliced thin
1/2 lb Bacon, fried crispy
1 Avocado, depitted, scooped out and mashed up

Mix the parmesan (to your liking) with 2 T softened butter. Spread the butter on one side of each of the 4 slices.

Layer: cheddar cheese, bacon, tomato, swiss cheese on one side. Season avocado with salt and pepper (you're seasoning for the entire sandwich here) then spread the avocado out on the 2nd half of the bread. Lay the avocado piece on top of everything else. Cook over medium heat for a couple minutes on each side to your desired crispiness.