Friday, July 22, 2011

Almost Chocolate Town


So, one of our favorite up-north places to eat and drink is Short's Brewery. We visited recently for the first time this summer, and were sad to find out that our favorite sandwich had been taken off the menu. We asked, and they said they just keep the menu offerings rotating on and off -- so we have hope it will be back!

But we were both really craving it, so we decided to try it for ourselves. It wasn't as fabulous as theirs, but we thought it was a good first effort. And we plan to keep trying -- changing ratios of ingredients, the way we layer them on the sandwich, etc.

So, their sandwich is called Chocolate Town, and it features blue cheese, bacon, and barbecue sauce. I know. It's just fa-a-a-bulous.

Here's our attempt:





We started with baguette, which we toasted a bit.
Then, on the bottom half, we sprinkled blue cheese.
Next came the bacon.
Then some black forest ham.

On the top half, we spread barbecue sauce, then more ham.

Toasted it all a bit, then added sliced tomato and lettuce.

Put it all together, served with coleslaw.

Not bad for a first attempt. I think we'll need to try this 20 or 30 more times, though, to get it just right...

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Not planning. Not now, anyway.


So, in the summer, it's much harder for me to make long-term dinner plans, just because I don't really want to... If I have a bit more time and flexibility, I'm happy to go with the flow and decide each day what sounds good, or plan based on what's ripe in the garden.

But we're still making some good stuff, and I like to keep track of recipes that work.

So last night we had lovely gazpacho, along with grilled chicken and salad.

The gazpacho was easy and yummy:
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and diced
6 tomatoes, diced
1 sweet onion, diced
half a red onion, diced
handful of basil leaves, thin sliced
6 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
bit of salt and pepper
dash of sriracha

Mix it all up, put batches of it in the food processor, and blend until it's the consistency you like. I made mine still a little bit chunky. I left about a cup unblended, and just stirred the bigger pieces in with all the rest. Refrigerate.

This is some gazpacho with goat cheese on baguette.


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