Category Archives: Uncategorized

Precious Crystals

Chefs love this 600 million-year-old salt, I’m told. So much tastier than bog butter, one supposes.

Just why do they? Found out here.

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Every time I turn around Dickinson’s salt appears. Like fresh snow. Welcome, unexpected, quiet, delicious as it falls on your tongue.

The United States Postal Service, that bringer of all things good, bad and in between brought me a box of Dickinson’s salt. Harold sent it. He told me that he had had it for many years and had not found anything to put it on. Waaa? The man does not eat salt. Were it not for salt, I would not eat.

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With the package came a note.

A little background on the salt post: not swearing to any of this, but it’s the stories I heard growing up. 

No. 1 Can swear to this: the original family farm where the salt wells are is directly across a highway from Buzz Foods home of Teddy’s favorite burger, the Buzz Buttered Steak. 

No. 2  This village is where Booker T. Washington spent his adolescence. He even returned there during the summers when he was a professor at Hampden College to work in the coal mines. 

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No. 3 Cabin Creek Quilts began in the village. Some say that was the beginning of the back to roots crafts movement. They won a Coty Award. Think that’s like an Oscar in fashion. Senator Rockefeller was involved.

Why he would not eat the salt, considering its pedigree, I do not know. What’s a little salt in in the grand scheme of things? So, not to be harsh, WV Slim’s loss, our gain. We are eating it. On sandwiches. Lord have salty mercy it is so good on a tomato slice. Thank you, Harold!

Ice is Nice

There is a reason everyone you know is going to Iceland. Yep, that’s right. Sandwiches. Geysers, hot springs and boiling pools of mud are cool and all, but when all is said and done – come for Mother Nature, stay for the sandwiches. Iceland 3Iceland 2 Our plane landed at 5 am. First stop, Sandholt in Reykjavik. Oh, we might have dropped our bags at the hotel, but my memory fails me while musing on Sandholt’s bread. Iceland 5Sandwich. It’s what’s for breakfast. IcelandIceland 1

Sandwich. It’s what’s for lunch. Later the same day…
Iceland 9Iceland 8 Bergsson‘s got the location location location thing tied up as well. Take a table on the rim of the room and gaze. Reykjavik harbor is beautiful. A harbor minus the giant paved parking lot and devoid of military flotilla. Particularly beautiful. Screen Shot 2016-05-22 at 2.55.23 PM

They do seem to eat well in Iceland. Pure is the word that comes to mind. Mind you, we were there briefly, but did get into a mess of restaurants, corner stores and groceries. While the licorice assortment was breathtaking, the splendor to which Americans are accustomed in the packaged/processed/flavored/extruded/puffed/fluffed/syruped varieties was absent.

And, breathe.

 

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Gah!!!

Just when you thought it was safe to go to your computer.  Holy cheese-oly, another sandwich loaf! Orghhh. Yes, one more reason to shut it down and face life beyond the screen.

Sandwich Loaf

Or. Go to your kitchen. Find some bread. Find some cheese and other stuff. Odds and ends. Anything called “loaf” is a catchall for food that is floating around your kitchen in need of a community.

While you are at it, accessorize.

Oh Mamka!

A direct lift, from Lucky Peach. The zine jumps into the box regularly, but rarely do I turn it’s enticingly sticky pages. Thanks to Ms. Stephenie Fu for the roundabout alert. From her inbox to my FB wall to the internets to me to you.

Not to brag or anything, but decades ago my friend Mary Lynn passed along her friend Al’s recipe for Reuben Loaf. Reuben Babka, mama! Time to bring out that chestnut, fire up the Viking, and bake. I feel a Tuesday lunch special comin’ on.

I could NOT find my recipe in the 3-ring binder so I sent out a note. Both Mary Lynn and Al responded to my Reuben Loaf recipe ask. Mary Lynn’s is below, including her peppy sign off, you betcha!

Here’s the Reuben Loaf recipe—originally from Al Gabor:

I took the liberty of changing Thousand Island Dressing to Russian.

1/4 cups flour
1 TBS sugar
1 tsp salt
1 package yeast
1 cup warm water
1/4 cup Russian dressing
1TBS butter
6 oz sliced corned beef (or pastrami is you prefer it)
1/4 lb sliced swiss cheese
8 oz sauerkraut, rinsed and drained
1 egg white, beaten
caraway seed

Dissolve yeast in 1 cup warm water. Mix in butter, sugar, salt, and enough flour to make a soft dough.  Knead about 4 minutes.

Cover and let rise in a greased bowl over hot water 20 minutes. Punch down. On greased baking sheet, shape dough into 10 x 14 rectangle.  Let rise 20 minutes.

Spread dressing down center third of dough lengthwise.  Top with layers of beef, cheese, and sauerkraut.  Cut 1 inch strips out to dough edges from filling. Fold strips across filling in alternating pattern, weaving them..  Brush with egg white; sprinkle with caraway.

Bake at 400 degrees 25 minutes. Voila!  Wisconsin Babka!

FEATURE

Three Sandwich-Inspired Babkas to Try Today

Not True Babkas, but delicious nonetheless.

BY SARAH DIGREGORIO MAY 27, 2016

PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY BABKA

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Childhood, in babka form. Recipe here.

CUBANO BABKA

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Pork in a babka might seem sacrilegious but it’s just delicious. Recipe here.

MUFFULETTA BABKA

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A new take on a New Orleans classic. Recipe here.

Execuheaded for Legisplature

Scan

Christie Makes Executive Decision: It’s Taylor Ham, Not Pork Roll

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Oh, this is not good for the appetite. Poor Taylor’s. I feel for them.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Gov. Chris Christie has weighed in on an ongoing beef involving a popular pork sandwich in New Jersey.

Christie said Wednesday on 101.5 FM that sandwich popular in diners across the state should be known as a “Taylor ham, egg and cheese.” Read on here about the executive order and all that.

The Weight

This is the Italian Combo and Broccoli Rabe Pressed Sandwich that I styled for a Food Network spread. Here is the recipe.

Just a flat out good idea. Another thing I think I will do often in my parallel life.

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These photos by me.

You can see the full story, with recipes, here.

And this is what the professional stuff looks like. Renee Comet took these beautiful pictures in her studio.

Our happy, one-ring circus is populated by Renee,  Carolyn Schimley, the best person in the world to me, who does most of the real cooking, Sara Rosenblum, our Food Network person who runs the show, Steve, who probably truly runs the show, and me. When work is this, I love to work.

 

 

 

Identifying As

Salty pork roll vs. Taylor Ham debate may rest in politicians’ hands

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Two competing bills are before the Legislature on whether New Jersey’s official sandwich should be pork roll, egg and cheese or Taylor Ham, egg and cheese. 

TRENTON — Is it pork roll or Taylor Ham? The processed meat product is a staple of breakfast sandwiches in New Jersey, but the question of what to call it has long divided the state. Read on here.

And you may weigh in, as well. Are we defined by what we eat or by what we name what we eat? Lord have merciful pork product, it’s a rivalry – Taylor Ham or Pork Roll! Not being from New Jersey I am free to like both equally. Whew, that’s a load off my identifier.

Rolls of thanks to Joan Lebow, New Jersey sandwich sleuth.

I Can’t Tell You Who to Sock It To

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Sandwiches are a thing, right? I know what you are thinking, “Does she need to ask?” In these times, you’re a thing or a no-thing.

Sandwiches are my thing. I do what I want to do. Haha. I do not. I do what my son/boss/mom/dog want to do. It makes a difference, who I give that thing to. Yes it do.

I thing, therefore I am.

The City Paper gave their love now. It’s makes a difference, the Sandwich Issue.  But it ain’t no big deal, there ain’t no sandwich ISSUE. No issues with that thing.  Cause we all need love now. And a sandwich is love now.

It’s a thing, do what you wanna do, I can’t tell you who to sandwich it to. Just give your love now, to whoever you choose. How can we lose, with the stuff they use now? The stuff they use!!! Lambstrami, lettuces you never heard of, cheeses that have aged since the stone age, doodads, micro-magnesium greenasium, pain domain, artisanal moutarde. It’s a thing. Sandwich to you now!

 

When Is a Hotdog a Notdog?

When it is a hotdog loaf.

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Our local paper, The Washington Post, set the Going Out Guide staff on their way to choose DC’s 10 best hotdogs. Click on the link to see their choices. Best DC Hotdogs

Why ten?

I ain’t gonna weigh in. A hotdog  is always good to me, even when it is bad. Isn’t that why we who love them, love them?

Hokay, I take it back. All ten of these are rockdogs, stars in the sausage galaxie. My heart shines for them, a mere reflection of their glory. These dogs are sunshine and we beam back at them like yellow, nightlightmelting American cheese moondogs.Screen Shot 2016-04-14 at 11.39.34 AMScreen Shot 2016-04-14 at 11.39.10 AM

The Billboard Hot Five

It’s been a long time since I’ve darkened the door of the Lunch Encounter and I apologize for the neglect. Good to see that my favorite stool at the counter is a bit dusty from the wait. Let’s give it a spin and a swipe, lean both elbows in, call out to the grill man and have lunch! It’s on me. What’s your pleasure?

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The Best Sandwich Ever

What are YOUR five favorite sandwiches? Mine, in no particular order: a classic Reuben, the Cubano, egg salad on toasted rye with crunchy lettuce and raw onion, any New Jersey Sloppy Joe, the muffaletta.

Thank you for the alert, Sorry-Birds Ellen. It was time I got back in the sandwich saddle.