Grandpa's Home Cooking

Cream Cheese, Cucumber, & Red Bell Pepper on Pecan Raisin Bread

Goodness, how delicious!

Get inventive. This sandwich idea popped into my head today as I thought about all of the possible sandwich ingredients in our kitchen. I could eat like this all of the time. And I now do, since I put away the habit of eating greasy burgers and picked up on the idea of eating foods that are both healthy and delicious.

Just look in your fridge and bread box and bring together the best ingredients!

Ingredients:

• Raisin & pecan bread (you can find it, but if not, bake your own. It's worth it!)
• Cream cheese
• Cucumber slices 
• Red bell pepper slices

This sandwich is so delicious you do not need a dressing.

Note: Out of Bell pepper? Got some nice fresh peaches? Slice 'em and use them. Try a big slice of a beautiful tomato from your garden.

Instructions:

Just make one of these great sandwiches and enjoy! Spread the cheese thickly on the bread. Add the cucumber slices, and bell pepper slices, and top it off!

 

 

 

 

Toasted Brie, Heirloom Tomato, & Red Bell Pepper Sandwich on Brown Bread

Here is a different and delicious sandwich to serve family and guests.  It is a Toasted Brie, Heirloom Tomato, and Red Bell pepper sandwich served on brown bread. It would be even better to serve it on Brown Irish  Soda Bread. Use whole wheat bread slices until you get around to baking Irish Brown Soda Bread. I'll provide an Irish bread receipe soon.

Ingredients:

• Brown bread slices
• Iceberg lettuce
• Brie cheese, carefully sliced
• Red bell pepper, cut into thin slices
• Mayonnaise

Instructions:

Lay a piece of Iceberg Lettuce on each slice of bread. Place a big slice of Heirloom Tomato on one slice. Then add generous slices of Brie cheese on top of the tomato. Cut thin slivers of Red Bell Pepper and spread them evenly over the top of the Brie Cheese. Put the top piece of bread on top of the sandwich ingredients. Carefully transfer the sandwich to a Teflon skillet. Lightly butter the top of the sandwich. Turn the sandwich over and lightly butter the top piece of bread. Now turn on the gas flame or electric burner and toast the botton half of the sandwich. Use a spatula to peek under the bread to determine when it is toasted. Then use the spatula and your fingers to carefully turn the sandwich over and toast the other side. If you like, pop this sandwich in the microwave for a minute to melt the brie. Oh yeah!

I'd like to serve this sandwich on Irish Brown Soda Bread (with raisins) and I'll do this soon, when my Irish flours arrive from the King Arthur flour company.

Grandpa's Fresh, Delicious Chicken Salad

There are not many foods that are quite as good as fresh chicken salad sandwiches on a hot summer day.  Pick and chop chicken from the chicken not eaten the night before and bring together the goodness of the chicken, chopped hardboiled eggs, chopped fresh celery, sweet pickle relish, and salad dressing. Spread the salad on fresh artisan bread and serve the sandwich with sweet ice tea for a happy and delicious lunch.

There are many taste options. Use rotisserie chicken with the nicely seasoned skin which adds flavor to the salad. Chop fried chicken with the seasoned and fried skin for a different taste experience. Use whatever you have and go ahead and chop the skin into the salad as well. Some people will not use the skin because the skin is rich in fat. I use it because the seasoned skin is also rich in flavor. Fix it the way you want it.

Choose varities of bread to suit your taste. I love chicken salad on slices of fresh Great Harvest round white. Nancy's choice is to make her sandwich on fresh, Great Harvest honey wheat. What a great taste you'll experience when you spread your freshly made chicken salad on slices of Great Harvest or other artisan bread. Try using Jewish rye, crusty Italian, sourdough, French, or whatever kind of bread you like. I wonder though, why anyone would still be buying rack (sponge bread, such as Wonder bread) when there are so many choices of fresh baked artisan breads that are available and reasonable. 

I'm not limited to a single recipe of chicken salad. The thrust of this posting is for you to use the ingredients you have on hand and/or to use the ingredients that please you. And while your at it, select some additional ingredients that add flavor.

For example, I love to add apple juice infused dried cranberries when I have them. I also use dried cherrys, raisins, walnuts, pecans, etc. You want a real treat. Chop some California dried apricots into your chicken salad. You might want stir in some fresh blueberries. Or for a real bright taste chop in some chilled seedless green grapes. Put a leaf of lettuce on the sandwich one day and use fresh basil leaves on another day. I love sweet pickle relish and I generally use it as an ingredient in the chicken salad to brighten the taste, but one might like to occasionally use dill pickle relish. Whatever ingredients I add, however, it suits me to make sure the flavor of the chicken, eggs, and celery come through clearly.

Ingredients (The ones I used  for today's chicken salad -- Use what you have available.)

• Rotisserie chicken w/seasoned skin, chopped (I used half of a chicken)
• Hard boiled eggs, chopped (I used 6 today, but less or more is okay)
• Fresh celery, chopped (I chopped 4 stalks; I like to use a lot of celery)
• Sweet pickle relish (I used a half of a small bottle and a little extra sweet pickle juice)
• Mayonnaise (Use just enough to hold the salad together)
• Iceberg lettuce (to dress the put on the sandwiches

Use what you have and/or use more or less ingredients than I to suit your taste.

Instructions:

Mix all of the ingredients and stir in only enough mayonnaise for the mixture to hold together. Grab two slices of preash bread. Lay a leaf of fresh Iceberg lettuce, or multiple leaves of gourmet salad greens, or fresh basil leaves or whatever salad green you have available on one slice of the bread. Spoon on and spread a good amount of your best fresh chicken salad on the other slice of bread. Top off the sandwich with the green and top piece of the bread. Plate. Add chips or another side of your choice. Pour a delicious summer drink. Take your food to a cool spot and sit down and enjoy your lunch.

Alternatives:

• Stuff a big red ripe tomato with your chicken salad.
• Put leafs of lettuce on a plate and pile chicken salad on top.
• Add slices of avacado to your sandwich or salad plate.

Fixes:

Oh my. Is your celery a little limp? Fill a big bowl halfway with ice cubes. Add water. Plunge the celery you have in the icy water and let it rehabilitate for an hour or so. Then remove the celery from the ice water and chop it.

It's 11:58 a.m. I'm going to fix a delicious chicken salad sandwich for my lunch!

Avocado, Cream Cheese, & Tomato Sandwich

Here's another healthy, delicious sandwich served with a dish of sweet watermelon for a great lunch. Make the sandwich at home and eat it at home, or make it and pack it for your lunch at work. This sandwich combines wonderful ingredients including artisan bread, cream cheese, lettuce, tomato, and slices of fresh avocado.

Cover two slices of fresh baked artisan bread with cream cheese. On the bottom slice of the sandwich layer fresh lettuce, a big slice of a fresh tomato, and slices of fresh avocado. Top with the other slice of bread that you spread with cream cheese. Serve with chunks of fresh watermelon or canteloupe and a tall glass of sweet iced tea or water and you'll enjoy a perfect lunch.

It is not difficult to prepare the avocodo. Pick one that is slightly soft. It's ripe. Run a sharp knife around the vegetable lengthwise. Hold the avocodo with both hands, with the cut visable between your hands, and twist and pull the ripe fruit open. Remove and discard the large seed. Then use your knife to peel off and discard the skin, leaving the beautiful ripe fruit to slice on your sandwich, in a salad, or to make Guacomole.

Fabulous Sandwiches On 2 Buns

Hey Joe, don't call 'em Sloppy. Try Fabulous! Put this elegant meat and vegetables with sauce combination between the two halves of a hamburger bun, plate it, and dine on gourmet. This gourmet burger will expose the ahhh ... industry standard fast food sandwich ... to be the awful cardboard burgers they are. You must also know this meat and vegetable with sauce ... provides 2 fabulous sandwich options. For the second option, trying spooning this gourmet burger combination on a hot dog tucked into a delicious bun and WOW ... the kids and adults will go nuts. Plate up either or both sandwiches with chips (the one that you can't eat just one) and an ice cold diet cherry Pepsi and ...  ♫Do da, do da ...shake on over here with another of those super sandwiches♫

But. Wait a minute. Add an optional can of pinto beans to the recipe and kick this dish up at least one notch. You can still serve the combo on sandwich buns or plate some as a meat dish.

An added attraction: Dip into your Seasoning Jar and dust a little seasoning on top of your meat and sauce. (The Seasoning Jar is a canning jar containing a mix of 1 cup of salt, 1/4th cup of coarse black pepper, and 1/4th cup of garlic powder.)

Yes! Your family will love this meal. This meal could become a Friday night special!

Ingredients:

• 1 and 1/2 pound of 80/20 ground chuck (leaner if you like, but a little fats good)
• 1 medium size yellow or white onion, chopped to provide large chunks (see photo above)
• 1 medium size green bell pepper, chopped to provide large chunks (see photo above)
• 1 can pinto beans, drained of juice (optional)
• 1 can (15.5 oz) Hunt's Manwich Sauce (also contains vegetables)
• Hamburger and/or hot dog buns
• Cooked hot dogs (optional to provide 2 sandwich choices)

Instructions:

Brown the beef in a sauté skillet. Drain off the grease. I put a large colander in the sink and pour or spoon the burger into the colander. Momentarily set the cooked meat aside.

Use the same skillet to lightly sauté  the onions and green peppers. (Look at the picture above. You want the vegetables to be large chunks and lookin' good when you return the beef to the skillet.) Return the meat to the skillet and use a spatula to mix the beef and vegetables well.

Season the meat and vegetables with salt, coarse black pepper, and garlic powder (use the combined seasonings from your mixed seasoning jar ... refer to the above). 

Spoon the meat, vegetables, and sauce on sandwich buns. Serve immediately. 

An Easy, Delicious Barbecue & Slaw

When my daughter, Marta, has a hankering for one of Dads pot roasts, I buy the biggest, well-marbled chuck roast the butcher can show me. When I like what I see, I turn to Marta and I say, "What do you think?" When Marta smiles I know this cut is acceptable. She'll let me know if we need to keep looking.     

I always buy a big enough chuck roast to provide enough beef for a family dinner, with enough pot roast leftover to make some delicious barbecue sandwiches for our next lunch. You'll find my pot roast recipe in the beef section of my recipe blog.

To use leftover pot roast or roast beef to make barbecue, just shred the cooked meat and add enough of original Sweet Baby Ray's brand of barbecue sauce to mix up a pan full of delicious beef barbecue. Just put the pan on the range and heat the barbecue before layering it the barbecue onto sandwich rolls. Set out a bowl of potato chips and then add a side of Grandpa's Cole slaw to the table and you'll have a great lunch (my slaw recipe is in the vegetable sides section of this recipe blog).

Ingredients:

• Leftover pot roast or beef roast, shredded
• Sweet baby Ray's barbecue sauce
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Sandwich rolls

Instructions:

Shred the leftover pot roast and stir in enough Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue sauce to make delicious barbecue sandwiches. Spoon the barbecue in a sauce pan and heat the meat. Then spread the barbecue on sandwich rolls.

Rev. Stephanie's Chicken Salad

Grandpa made this very special chicken salad using daughter Rev. Stephanie Curran's recipe and the outstanding butter roasted chicken prepared by daughter Marta Pipes! How can you beat a deal like this? Marta cooked dinner last night and we enjoyed her buttered chicken roasted with pearl onions, potatoes, and carrots. Today I used the leftover chicken to prepare chicken salad.

Ingredients:

• Slices of fresh-baked bread
• Cold chicken, with skin removed and cut into bite-sized pieces
• 3/4 cup celery, chopped
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/3 cup dried tart cherries
• Mayonnaise or plain whole-milk yogurt (or half mayonnaise and half yogurt) 

Instructions:

Take the skin off of leftover cold chicken and cut it into bite-size chunks. Put the chicken in a mixing bowl. Add chopped celery, chopped walnuts, and dried tart cherries. Slowly add mayonnaise until the ingredients hold together as chicken salad. Spread a little mayonnaise on slices of fresh bread, and make a sandwich using a healthy layer of the chicken salad. You’ll never taste better chicken salad!

You have pecans instead of walnuts or dried apricots instead of cherries? Use what you have. If you have dried apricots, I hope they are from California. They may not be as big and pretty as Mediterranean dried apricots, but they taste better. Or use fresh tart apples if this is what you have, and they will be good too. Just make sure you try this chicken salad made with dried tart cherries and walnuts. You can buy dried tart cherries at Whole Foods.

Bison Dog and Diamond Ruby

Here's a great combination. A bison hot dog and a great baseball novel that is closely based on a true story. Get in the mood for a great ball park frank while you read this beautifully written book, Diamond Ruby, by Joseph Wallace.

The story brings to life the history of the early 1900s, including the effects of the great influenza plague in New York City, the Coney Island amusement park, prohibition rumrunners, the Klu Klux Klan, the gangster underworld, and the sports legends Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Jack Dempsy. Best of all, you'll get to know the story of Ruby Lee Thomas, a sensational female pitcher on the otherwise all male Brooklyn Typhoons professional baseball team. This woman could throw the baseball as hard or harder than men. The minor league Typhoons played an exposition game against the New York Yankees and Diamond Ruby struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. You can imagine how she suffered in the 1920s at the hands of men who didn't want a woman to be a part of professional baseball. 

Now that you're in the mood, pick up some bison hot dogs from Whole Foods and make yourself what is bound to become the new ball park frank. You can already buy them at Wrigley Field in Chicago and of course, at the Buffalo Bison's ball Park. I like them better than all beef franks.

Ingredients:

• Bison hot dogs 
• Hot dog buns
• Cucumbers, sliced thin
• Vidalia onions, sliced thin
• Tomatoes, sliced
• Banana peppers
• Mustard

Instructions:

Heat bison dogs in hot water as you would beef franks. Use your tongs to pick the hot dog from the pan and tuck it in a hot dog bun. Add your favorite toppings. I like dress to dress my dogs with mustard, cucumbers, onions, and tomatoes. Sit down and enjoy what is sure to become a new American treasure. Bison hot dogs are reported to be much lower in fat than beef hot dogs and not stuffed with additives and fillers. Can you imagine something this good coming from a buffalo?

Yes, I was this close!

© Photo by Ross Lee Pipes 2008, 2009  

Kosher Corned Beef and Frank on Rye

My father, a good Protestant, introduced our family to the pleasures of great Jewish food. For this sandwich, you need kosher franks and slices of kosher corned beef. You can buy the ingredients at a Jewish deli. If you do not have a Jewish deli near you, you can find the ingredients at a quality grocery. 

Ingredients:

• Corned beef, warmed at 285 degrees for 20 or 30 minutes
• Kosher frank, boiled and hot, sliced lengthwise
• Your favorite mustard
• Slices of Jewish bakery rye bread
• Kosher dill pickle spears
• Mustard
• Potato chips
• Ice cold root beer (diet for me, nowadays)

Instructions:

Spread your favorite mustard on a slice of Jewish rye bread. Layer the warm corned beef slices on the bread, and top the meat with a piping hot kosher frank. Spread mustard on the remaining slice of bread, and then top off and plate the sandwich. Add a kosher pickle and chips to your plate. Enjoy your lunch with an ice cold root beer. 

Here is my father, Lloyd, my mother, Charlotte, my older brother, Jerry, and me, Ross Pipes, in 1953 in front of the Benjamin Harrison home in Indianapolis.

Healthy Sandwiches Inspired by the English

You don't have to be a vegetarian to enjoy a meatless lunch. In fact, you might actually enjoy a fresh vegetarian offering. You might find Grandpa's Cotswolds sandwiches to be a refreshing change. 

You can make your sandwiches using my ingredients or you can invent your own. Let's start with a classic English Cotswolds sandwich.

English Cotswolds sandwich

Ingredients:

• Slices of freshly baked bread
• Frissee, arugula, lettuces, or alfalfa sprouts
• Hard boiled eggs, sliced thin (use an egg slicer)
• Cucumbers, sliced thin
• Salt and pepper to taste
• A yogurt spread like Brummel & Brown or your favorite dressing

You might want to bake some English muffin bread for your sandwiches using the recipe from the bread section of my cooking blog. "Oh, chip-chip and all that sort o' rot. Tis very good mate!"  

Instructions

Construct your sandwich by layering the ingredients on fresh bread. Add salt and pepper to taste. Spread your favorite dressing, soft butter, or a healthier butter-like yogurt on your bread. I like Brummel & Brown spread. You might like this product if your physician has suggested that you quit using butter and margarine. It tastes good!

If you like, add one of my special sides to your plate. Then sit in your lovely garden or a park to eat your sandwich; or, lacking a scenic place, imagine that you are out in the country walking, or that you're sitting on the grass next to grazing sheep, or on one of the stone walls that separate property in the English countryside. Eat your sandwich in peace!

 Bah!

We ate lunch in the Cotswolds, near the village of Broadway, at the edge of this pasture.

Muesli bread, cheese, and vegetable sandwich

Ingredients:

• Slices of fresh whole-grain muesli bread
• Lettuces
• Provolone cheese rounds
• Heirloom tomato slices
• Rings of thinly sliced green bell pepper
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Your favorite dressing, soft butter, or yogurt spread

Instructions:

Make your sandwich and graze with the sheep! Bring a bottle of ale, water, or wine to sip while you enjoy your sandwich. "Oh pip-pip!"

Cucumber, radish, watercress, and goat cheese sandwich

Ingredients

• Soft fresh goat cheese
• Watercress strips
• Radishes, thinly sliced
• Sea salt and pepper
• A drizzle of earthly truffle oil

Instructions:

Make a sandwich of goat cheese, watercress, and radishes. Sprinkle the ingredients with a bit of truffle oil, sea salt, and ground pepper. Put your sandwich, a cherry tart, and a split of white wine in your shoulder bag and you're good to go! Sit on a step at Monument Circle in Indianapolis, in Lincoln Park in Chicago, on the grass near Big Ben in London, or in a park near you, and eat in peace!

Invent your own!:

Just think of the possibilities for inventing your own healthy sandwich as you peruse the selection of produce at a Whole Foods Store, a Fresh Market, or at a local farmer's market. Then too, I love thinly sliced hard boiled eggs on my sandwich, or a side of deviled eggs to add a bit of protein to my lunch. Suit yourself, though, it's your invention!

We enjoy setting the table with a platter of beautiful ingredients and let everyone invent their own by selecting the ingredients that appeal to them. Some might like to use fresh-baked whole grain bread from a local bakery. My wife, Nancy, loves these sandwiches on my homemade English muffin bread. I'm about to give you the recipe, for I think you'll agree that sandwiches made with this bread are fabulous!

 English Cotswolds Buffet! 

You'll find an amazing array of possible ingredients at your supermarket. Ours offers local goat cheese in rolls, as well as containers of Provencal goat cheese, brie, and a variety of other soft cheeses which are ideal for English Cotswolds sandwiches. You may also like to use sundried tomatoes packed in olive oil and found in jars at your market. Look around the produce, grocery, and cheese departments and you'll discover a wonderful selection of food to make healthy and delicious sandwiches.

The recipe for English Muffin Bread will be found in the bread section of my cookbook.

© 2010