Grilled Cheese & Tomatoes

Please visit our new site at www.CookingMyWay.com

Who doesn't like a nice grilled cheese? Ok I know a few people who don't eat cheese (and I don't trust them)... You can add a lot to a grilled cheese to take it up a notch, but a simple tomato adds wonders if you ask me. For some reason since I started cooking I've been the one to always make the grilled cheese in my family. The best thing about a grilled cheese to me is that they don't have to be fancy to be good - white bread and American cheese is good - so is homemade wheat bread with English cheddar...

Bread
cheese
tomato
butter

Bring a pan to a medium heat. Butter one side of each of your pieces of bread. Place the butter side of one down on the pan, add the cheese, the tomato, and a bit of cheese on top then top with the other piece of bread (butter side up). Cover and let cook checking the bottom every so often so it doesn't burn. Once the bottom is nice and grilled, flip the sammy over and cook again. Once finished let sit for a minute or so so the cheese can set up a bit then Eat & Enjoy!

Happy cooking,

~Nikko

---

Grilled Pastrami & Corned Beef on Rye

I love the sandwich... The possibilities are almost endless. I've been known to go into a deli and just ask for a sandwich and give them free reign on what they make. It usually throws the person into a tailspin when I do - unless they are a true sammy master... Anyhoo, the pastrami and corned beef on rye is one of my favs. I always start with some nice fresh rye and a good quality pastrami, corned beef, and Swiss cheese.

Rye Bread
Pastrami - I like Boars Head the best
Corned Beef
Swiss Cheese
Red Onion, sliced thin
Brown or Dijon Mustard
butter
olive oil

Start by heating a medium saute pan to a mediumish heat (not quite medium but not quite medium/low). Take the pastrami and corned beef and warm it up in the pan for a minute or two then move it to a plate or cutting board. Butter one side of each of the pieces of bread then add the bread butter side down to the pan and let it warm up for a minute or so. Top the brad with the Swiss cheese and you can put on some nice brown or Dijon mustard at this point too. Add the onion and meats on top of the cheese. Put the two slices together and cook until the outside of the bread is browned to your liking and everything inside is nice and warm. Plate, eat & enjoy!

Happy Cooking & Eating...

~Nikko

.:.

The Hummus Wrap

First things first - Start with a good wrap - I've said it before and I'll say it again, until I'm proven wrong the best wraps I've used come from Tumaro's Tortillas. This is one of my favorite wraps to do and it's the very first wrap in my upcoming book 101 Things To Do With A Tortilla!







Tumaro's Spinach wrap
Shredded lettuce
Red Onion
Cucumber, seeded
Tomato
Feta Cheese
Hummus
Salt
Pepper

To build - Lay down your wrap and slather on some hummus. Top that with the lettuce, cucumber, tomato, feta, and salt and pepper (given the feta is salty watch how much salt you use). Fold in the sides of the wrap and start rolling from the back. Eat & Enjoy!

Bon Appetit...

~Nikko

--

The South West Breakfast Wrap

What you are about to read about and see could be deemed healthy...

1 Tumaro's Chipotle Chile Tortilla Wrap
.25 Lb Boars Head Cajun Turkey, cubed
5 Egg whites
2 Tbsp hatch chilies
2 Tbsp non-fat sour cream
.25 Cup tomatoes
2 Tbsp chipotle cheddar cheese

Heat the cubed turkey in a skillet over medium heat. Separate the eggs and put the whites in a bowl. Add the hatch chilies and sour cream to the egg whites and beat well. Add the egg mixture to the turkey and cook until the eggs are done to your liking - just remember if the eggs are done in the pan they will be overdone on the plate... Mix in the tomatoes and cheese. Build your wrap - lay down the wrap - add your egg mixture towards the back of the wrap - roll the wrap over the mixture - tuck in the sides and continue rolling. Cut on the bias, plate, eat & enjoy...

Bon Appetit...

~Nikko
--

Curried Egg Salad Bagel

The first time I had a curried egg salad was 1996. I remember this because I had just bought a house down the street from a good bagel joint. One day I ordered an egg salad bagel and he had put curry in it. I loved it! I've been making curried egg salad ever since. This is an easy sandwich to make and is good anytime of the day...



Start with a dang good bagel. My favorite bagels come from Ray's Bagels. They're made by Just Bagels in Brooklyn. They're fantastic...












Toast the bagel...

I use Penzeys Spices - They're the best I've found and they're cheaper than what I get in the market... You can use a sweet or hot curry powder...
www.penzeys.com and tell them cookingmyway.com sent you!

Cut up a few hard boiled eggs. I'm not going to go through the process of making boiled eggs here because we'll get to that in another post.

Start with a teaspoon of the curry powder then go from there to get the taste you want.








Mix in a few tablespoons of mayo. You can make your own mayo for this (it would be really good I assure you), but I get mine from Kraft...














Wash and dry some nice lettuce. Put a few pieces on the bottom of the bagel.













Top with the egg salad...

The finished sandwich...
It's quite messy to eat so get a fork and a few napkins... It's well worth it though...

Bon Appetit...

~Nikko

--



--



--

Cliff from Just Bagels

Steak, Mushroom Pate, & Spinach Sandwich

I love me a good Sandwich. There's just so many possibilities...

This all came together while walking through Costco. Had the baguettes in the cart - saw the steak and that sounded good - the spinach was next and I've been thinking of a mushroom pate for a while - they all worked together quite well...

Start With A Nice Baguette

The baguette came from Costco - they have pretty dang good bread products there; if you've never tried them you should...

Add Some Dijon Mustard

Just your average Dijon mustard - could use just about anything here I guess (well maybe not standard yellow mustard)

Pile On Some Fresh Spinach

Washed and uncooked spinach - gave a nice crunch and mix of textures...










A Nice Helping Of A Simple Mushroom Pate

The mushroom pate was very simple - normally I'd go with a pound of mushrooms, 1 small onion, 2 cloves garlic, thyme, splash of cognac, butter, half and half or cream cheese - cook all but the cream or cheese them blitz them all together to the consistency you want...

Lay On The Steak

I used flank steak. It sat in some beer, garlic, salt, pepper, dash of cumin. Grilling it would be best but this was done in a pan on t he stove...

Steak, Mushroom Pate, & Spinach Sandwich

This was one for the keeper pile - it was freaking amazing...

Bon Appetit...

~Nikko

The BTC Wrap

I didn't eat much yesterday and when I was finally hungry all I could think about was a BLT. I looked in the fridge and I had all I needed except I was missing the L... I didn't let that stop me - Let me take a moment to say that when making a recipe if you don't have one particular item it doesn't mean you can't make the dish. Of course if you're making chicken marsala and you don't have any chicken you might be in a pinch - but if you don't have any pepper it's not like it's going to kill the dish to omit it. Anywho, my buddy The Tortilla Guy sent over a heap load of Tumaro's Wraps the other day and for the first time in all the shipments he's sent me the Priemium White Tortillas were in there! There is a difference in the tortillas at the store and let me tell you that Tumaro's Tortillas are the best I've ever had. They taste great and are a far superior product than the others...

Back to the BTC Wrap - I had Bacon, tomatoes, and well there's always a heap load of cheese in my fridge. So, you start with a wonderful Tumaro's Tortillas Wrap, lay down some many if that's your thing, add some cheese (I used the Kraft Deli American), tomatoes, a bit of salt and pepper, and finally your Bacon. Wrap, Eat & Enjoy...

1 Tumaro's Tortillas Wrap of your liking
1 Tomato sliced to your liking
4-5 Strips of cooked Bacon
Lettuce
Cheese if you like that on your BLTs
Mayo
Salt
Pepper

Bon Appetit...

~Nikko

--

The Meatball Sub

The Meatball Sub

For as much as I love meatball subs I almost never eat them. I don't even have one a year - maybe two or three every five years or so... But I love them. I don't get them out often because I'm usually disappointed at what I get. I'll admit in the video I went a bit overboard on the meatballs in the sub, but I was trying to set the point that most places stick 4 meatballs in there and all you're eating is bread. The bread is an important part of the sandwich but I need some meat!

1.5 Lb meatballs
2 large hogie rolls
2-3 cups pasta sauce.
12 slices of mozzarella cheese

Cook the meatballs in the pasta sauce until they are heated through. Slice your hogie roll and open it up but do not cut all the way through. Lay down 4 slices of the cheese then top with meatballs then lay a few more slices of cheese on top. Broil for just a few minutes so the cheese gets nice and melted on top. Eat & Enjoy!

Bon Appetit...

~Nikko

--



Just for fun!