Packed and stacked with rows of different kinds of bagels and cookies, the window display of Bagelstein Café in the 11th arrondissement certainly did its job in attracting this hungry customer.
A quick glance at my options on the sandwich-board outside, or bagel-board in this context, and I’d found my lunch spot that Friday afternoon.
I’m always on the lookout for new lunch places to try in Paris and this newly opened café on Rue de la Roquette is one of them. It’s not a big place inside but what it lacks in space, it makes up in fun décor: the walls are plastered with framed magazine covers, newspaper front pages, signed celebrity headshots and small plaques of witty French quotes.
It smells warm and inviting inside and unlike the (albeit) tasty baguette sandwiches that crowd the display cases of nearly every boulangerie, Bagelstein’s creations, on freshly baked bagels, are made to order right in front of you.
I chose the Hypolite – roast chicken, honey mustard, cream cheese, lettuce, tomato and pickles - on a toasted Gratin (cheese) bagel. I chose my seat by a signed photo of Wonder Woman and munched on my tasty bagel lunch. I was at first unsure about the pairing of pickles and chicken (and yes, as a pregnant woman I’m aware of the irony of that!) but when mixed with the flavourful honey mustard and cream cheese, it worked for this sandwich.
The reasonably-priced menu has many options for all your bagel-cravings: smoked salmon, tuna, pastrami, vegetarian and build-your-own on your choice of bagel. There’s even a Bagel-of-the-Month meal, plus a mouth-watering selection of cookies, cheesecake, and muffins so you can eat your bagel and get your fix of French baked goods. And a big bonus - the location on Rue de la Roquette is open 7 days a week for your bagel devouring pleasure.
Paris-area sandwich lovers, on your next jaunt in the city, be check out one of the many locations of Bagelstein for a delicious, low-key lunch. Because even the most devoted baguette fan needs variety once and a while.
For more menu info and other fun facts, check out Bagelstein's unique website:
A Croque Monsieur is an inside-out grilled cheese! I've been chowing down on this famous French sandwich since we moved here and I'm so pumped to share it during Grilled Cheese Month 2015.
Viola Le Croque Monsieur: an inside-out grilled cheese!
Croquer means 'to crunch' and the loud crunch it should make when you bite into it is how it got its name. Like the other great French sandwiches I've enjoyed, it has super simple ingredients: bread, ham, emmental cheese, for the inside, and melted Gruyere cheese on top. The tricky part of making this at home was finding the right bread. The beautiful artisan breads I love are also very holey, which isn't ideal for a grilled sandwich. Luckily, bakers are like pharmacists, since there are as many pharmacies here as there are bakeries, and if you go to one with a question, they can help you get what you need. So I went to the new bakery that just opened behind our house for some expert advice. The result was a very small, square loaf of bread, plucked fresh from the shelf. The slices were no bigger than small ceramic tiles in a bathroom, so I knew it would be a multiple Croque Monsieur meal.
Small bread makes a tasty, crunchy Croque Monsieur.
To create your own Croque Monsieur, you will need: -Non-holey bread -Ham -Emmental cheese -Mustard (optional, but you know how I feel about my spicy mustard!) -Gruyere cheese for the top Prep:
Spread mustard on one slice of bread.
Top with ham and slices of emmental.
Assemble the other piece of bread.
Sprinkle a thick layer of grated Gruyere on top.
Bake in a pre-heated oven or toaster oven for 10 minutes/until the top is nicely melted and golden.
Any kind of grilled cheese, inside and out, is a big favorite of mine but I can't deny that all that melted cheese alone is not super healthy. So I paired my Croque Monsieurs with another crunchy dish, a fresh Broccoli Salad, for a tasty serving of veggies and sweet fruit.
Equally crunchy Broccoli Salad with apples and dried cranberries.
Prep for the Broccoli Salad:
Rinse the broccoli and chop into bite-sized florerets.
Chop up an apple and toss in a big handful of dried cranberries.
Sprinkle with some grated cheese and toss in a cream dressing (to make a quick one, add some milk, white sugar and ground pepper to a big dollop of mayo and mix until thin.)
Mmm..crunch! What a lovely sound! The spicy mustard really made this Croque Monsieur pop!
My stack of Croque Monsieurs was a great opportunity to break in my new sandwich tray! I found it in a fun gift shop on a recent trip to Brussels, Belgium. That shop reminded me of one of my favorite shops in Edmonton that closed last year, The Tin Box. I knew as soon as I saw the tray, it needed to come home with me and fulfill its purpose of serving up delicious sandwich meals.
You’d think that after living in France for over 7 months, I would have learned by now not to go exploring on an empty stomach. Alas, I must be a slow learner! Poor me…#firstworldproblems But with its countless boulangeries, crêperie-carts, and sandwich shops, it’s not hard to find something to eat while out and about in the City of Lights. Plus, being hungry can lead to discovering some pretty fun places that one wouldn’t normally find when already fed and watered.
Micky's Deli, 23 bis Rue des Rosiers, 75004 Paris
Such as Micky’s Deli, a bustling little Kosher deli-restaurant in the Jewish Quarter of Paris in Le Marais, one of my favorite areas in the city because of the amazing, medieval architecture, the windy, uneven cobblestone streets, and its fascinating history. It's home to the incredible Centre de Danse du Marais, the Musée Picasso, and countless boutiques, shops, cafes and restaurants, like our spontaneous find, Micky's Deli. The first time I went there, it was after exploring the nearby Musée Carnavalet, which is “dedicated to the history of Paris and its inhabitants…from the prehistoric times to the present.” It’s a fascinating place and well-worth your time to explore, especially if you’re feeling a bit ‘gallery-ed out’ by all the other amazing museums Paris has to offer. While looking for a place to eat, I was starting to get a bit impatient…okay, hangry…but I’m glad I hung in there while Mike and I wandered down Rue des Rosiers and stumbled upon this fun place to eat.
One sandwich, two plates. Perfect for sharing!
It was already packed with the late-lunch crowd when our server squeezed us in, but a busy place is often the sign of a good restaurant and we didn’t mind the tight fit one bit. The air was warm and thick with delicious smells, animated conversations and laughter in multiple languages and North American pop-music. We perused the menu and decided to split the pastrami sandwich and fries. Good thing we agreed to split it because it’s huge! It’s least 2.5 inches thick of warm, melt-in-your-mouth slices of pastrami, barely contained by two slices of fresh bread. The fries were great too – just the right balance of crispy and greasy – classic diner fries. I alternated plain bites with bites spread with a layer of spicy, sinus-clearing mustard (the best kind!) and enjoyed, what I believe is, the best pastrami sandwich in Paris. But sometimes when you’re ridiculously hungry/hangry, things can taste better than they actually are. That’s when I decided I owed it to myself to go back, test it again, and make sure it really is as good as my satiated appetite decided it was. So I returned a few weeks later with a friend and promised her an excellent sandwich experience.
Salmon Bagel and Fries
Micky’s did not disappoint either of us. She ordered the salmon bagel, which even when cut in half was as big as my head, and I got the pastrami sandwich all to myself. Yup – still huge, still melt-in-your-mouth, bulgingly-thick and super filling. But I should have been hungrier, since then I probably could have finished the whole thing by myself. Alas, I’m a slow learner when it comes to the correct empty-stomach/fed-and-watered balance. I just have to keep trying to get it right!
#firstworldsandwichproblems
The Best Pastrami Sandwich in Paris
For more about pastrami sandwiches, check out one of my earliest posts, The Mighty Pastrami.
Happy Summer Sandwich-Lovers, and I hope your Canada Day
2014 was wonderful!
Canada Day has always marked the beginning of summer with
some sort of party or BBQ. When I was growing up, my family of teachers would
almost always head down to my grandparents’ house in Olds to celebrate the end
of the school year and my cousin’s birthday. Now as a teacher myself, I
appreciate the gloriousness of July 1 even more and the party/BBQ tradition has
continued – I have even hosted! Canada Day is always a great day to get together
with friends and family, wear the red and white and eat/drink all in the name
of summer and patriotism.
Since my husband and I are moving to France next month,
there is a good chance this July 1 marked the last Canada Day we’ll spend in
Canada for a while. This upcoming move is definitely an exciting opportunity for
us both and the support from our family and friends continues to be
amazing. We are definitely looking
forward to the adventure but still, it’s a bit bittersweet.
I am, and always will be, a proud Canadian and moving away
from the True North Strong and Free won’t change that. We will find new ways to
celebrate - there’s a rumor that the Eiffel Tower is lit up red and white on
July 1 – and we’ll make new traditions. But I am certain there’s one thing that
will never change, regardless of where we are and that’s the tradition of
eating great food with great people.
To mark this special Canada Day, I made a delicious sandwich
of all-Canadian ingredients and my favorite Oh Canada Cookies. Enjoy!
All-Canadian Ingredients for this sandwich!
The Made In Canada
Sandwich needs:
Dempster’s Whole Grain Canadian Bread
Maple Leaf Natural Selections Turkey and Ham
Maple Leaf Bacon
Sobey’s Sensations Canadian Cheddar
French’s Mustard (not actually a Canadian brand but it works
to honour French as one of our official languages)
Mayo
Lettuce and Radishes (from our own garden!)
Prep:
1-Cook the bacon according to your preference for
crispy/soft. Drain on paper towels and set aside. (Remember, don’t pour the
grease down the sink!)
2-Toast the bread.
3-Spread the mustard on one piece of bread, the mayo on the
other.
4-Layer on the turkey, ham, cheddar and bacon.
5-Top with radish slices and lettuce.
6-Slice and serve with some Oh Canada Cookies and your
favorite cold beverage.
The recipe for the Oh
Canada Cookies is a basic sugar cookie recipe from an old issue of
Inspired, the free magazine Sobey’s used to put out a few times a year. I like
this recipe because it’s really simple and easy to adapt to make other kinds of
sugar-cookie type cookies.
All these Maple Leaves need is their red!
You will need:
2 butter sticks, or 1 cup of butter, softened (I leave the
butter out for several hours to get really soft)
1 cup white sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 egg (the original recipe says it should be warmed to room
temperature, but I don’t think it makes a huge difference either way)
2 ½ cups of flour
Electric or stand mixer Cookie Prep:
1-Combine the butter, sugar and vanilla and mix until
smooth.
2-Add the egg and continue mixing*.
*It’s very important
to add the egg BEFORE you mix in the flour. I learned this the hard way and
ended up with very flaky and crumbly dough. It ended up being alright
eventually, but it meant I had to spend more time kneading the dough so it
wouldn’t crumble when I tried to roll it out.
3-Add the flour and mix until a dough forms.
4-Knead the dough in the bowl with flour-covered hands until
smooth.
5-Place dough ball in a covered bowl and chill for at least
20 minutes.
6-Roll dough out to desired thickness. (Some people like to
cover the dough in parchment paper to do this. It’s up to you.)
7-Use a Maple Leaf cookie cutter to cut out the beautiful cookies.
Leave some space between each cookie on your baking sheet
8-Bake at 350F in the middle of the oven for 10-12 minutes.
9-Transfer cookies to a rack to cool completely before
decorating.
Oh Canada Cookies with red maple butter cream icing.
While the cookies bake, make the Red Maple Butter Cream Icing:
1-Mix ½ cup softened butter with 2 cups icing sugar.
2-Add ½ tsp maple syrup (more if you like!) and 2 Tbsp milk
or water.
3-Mix until desired smoothness; add more icing sugar or
liquid if required and 3-4 drops of red food colouring.
To 'set' the icing, I recommend chilling the cookies in the fridge for 15-20 minutes.
The sandwiches and cookies were devoured while we watched the newest music video from Canada’s favorite
astronaut, Col. Chris Hadfield and his brother Dave. If you haven't seen it yet, you're in for a treat!
Then, we went to Telus
Field to watch the Edmonton Prospects baseball game with some friends. Our
seats also gave us prime view of the fireworks and the much anticipated
light-up of the Highlevel Bridge. What a
show!
It was a spectacular summer night celebrating this amazing
country that I will always call my home no matter where I am. Next summer, we will celebrate Canada Day in
Europe. We’ll wear our red and white, we’ll play some Rush or Tragically Hip,
and we’ll be with friends - Canadian and European. I hope they will enjoy this small taste of
Canada.
I hope you enjoy it too. Je t’aime, Canada! Cheers!
Fresh from my inaugural visit to the New York Bagel Café,
I am inspired by bagels and their sandwich-making possibilities!
Toasted, untoasted, with cream
cheese, jelly, butter or bare, open or closed faced - what I love about bagels is how limitless they
are!
Check out any bagel shelf of any bakery and chances are
you won’t see just one kind of bagel
- there’s whole wheat, sesame,
cinnamon-raisin, pumpernickel, poppy-seed, onion...full-sized or mini...assorted. It’s so hard to choose just one
kind!
Exquisite Hendrickson Bagels!
Thankfully, the Everything bagel takes care of that.
With a crispy topping of poppy-seeds, chunks of garlic
and onions, it really does have a bit of everything, just like the name
suggests. It’s great with plain butter or cream cheese alone, or piled high
with meat, cheese, veggies or all of the above. It is definitely my go-to bagel
but for this bagel-sandwich to be truly blog-worthy, it couldn’t be just any
Everything bagel…
I love the Farmer’s Market bagels! You may have to fight
your way through the packed Saturday-morning crowds to get their stall, but
once you do, they are so worth it! They are fresh from Sherwood Park, contain
no artificial additives and no nuts! So
stock up on these beauties, my fellow nut-allergy people! Eat them with total peace of mind!
The Hendrickson version of the Everything Bagel is simply
titled ‘Onion, Garlic, Sesame, Poppy’ and they have big hunks of all these
great things on their golden tops. They smell so good and are soft and chewy,
even when toasted. Eat them within three days of buying, or pre-slice and freeze
them to extend their shelf life. And
don’t forget to grab an exciting flavor of fresh cream cheese while you’re
there!
From the six bagels I bought, two had the honour of
becoming beautiful sandwiches of different varieties: two open-faced, one
closed. All three are delicious bagel options
I am proud to recommend to you!
2 Bagels, 3 Different Bagel-Sandwiches needs:
-2 Bagels
-Mustard
-Mayo
-Spicy pastrami
-Smoked prosciutto
-Provolone
-Strong Cheddar
-Hot Banana Peppers
-Cream cheese: spinach and feta from Hendrickson’s and the
plain Philadelphia kind
-Carrots, shredded
-Red Pepper, sliced
-Red Pepper and Garlic Jelly (mine was homemade by my
mother-in-law! Check out the jams and jellies at Anneliese’s Crafts at the
Farmer’s Market for something similar.)
-Fresh-ground Pepper and Sea Salt
Toasted bagel, two meats and two cheeses goodness!
#1 -Toasted Pastrami, Prosciutto, Cheddar and Provolone
1-Slice a bagel and spread one half with mustard and mayo
2-Pile on the spicy pastrami, provolone, prosciutto and
cheddar
3-Toast both halves in the toaster oven on medium, until
cheese is melted and the other bagel half is golden brown
4-Add some hot banana peppers, combine the bagel halves,
cut and enjoy!
This is a very nice combination of spicy, smokey and salty
meat with the sharp provolone and strong cheddar. The peppers add some heat to
a pleasantly warm and gooey blend of meat and cheese.
#2 and #3 - Open-Faced Veggie and Meat Bagels:
Veggie:
1-Toast the bagel
2-Spread one half with a thick layer of spinach and feta
cream cheese
3-Top with shredded carrot and slices of red pepper
4-Sprinkle some fresh ground pepper and sea salt on top
Meat:
1-Spread one half with plain cream cheese
2-Top with red pepper and garlic jelly
3-Fold a piece of prosciutto and place on the cream
cheese and jelly spread
4-Enjoy!
The cream cheese has big pieces of spinach, which adds a
different texture to this bagel. The spinach
and feta is a bold flavor combo that’s balanced out by the crisp veggies. The
pepper and salt on top add a nice tang to the vegetables as well. A thick slice of beefsteak tomato would also
do nicely instead of, or in addition to, the red pepper.
Can't go wrong with half veggie, half meat!
On the meat half, the jelly is both sweet and spicy and works
well with the smoky prosciutto. The cream cheese and jelly melt well together on
the toasted bagel half, so it’s a bit of a gooey, and chewy but tasty mess.
So for your next sandwich, bypass the standard bread and
go for something a bit different instead. These three bagel sandwiches show that
with some creativity in mixing and combining your ingredients, you can have
your bagel and eat it too!
Some extra Bagel facts to snack on:
-The bagel’s holey design
suggests a desire to make this kind of food easily transportable as “it's
possible to thread such a roll on a stick or a string” and take it to-go. (A Short History of The Bagel, www.slate.com)
-Bagels are boiled and then baked, a process which helps
them to last longer because their exteriors become harder than other breads. (A Short History of The Bagel, www.slate.com)
-Bagels are delicious but slicing them can also cause
severe injuries if you’re not careful!
Apparently, “1,979 people [went to emergency rooms] with BRI (bagel
related injuries)…in 2008”! (Newman,
Barry. To Keep the Finger Out of Finger Food, Inventors Seek a Better Bagel Cutter, The Wall Street
Journal, December 2009)
-If you enjoy kitchen gadgets, you may want to invest in
a bagel slicer to minimize your risk of BRI. But if slicing a bagel
without one really makes you feel alive, at least be smart about it and don’t
hold it in your hand while you cut! Place
it on a flat surface, hold it down with one hand and carefully slice through
the bagel horizontally. (http://homecooking.about.com/)
The first
thing I saw after I crossed Gateway Boulevard and stepped into the New York
Bagel Café was the centre-piece of mustards, hot sauces, jams and honeys
grouped together on each table and I fell for NYBC.
Great centerpieces and menu!
How could I
not?! There were three kinds of mustard
on my table and I hadn’t even seen the menu yet!
It was my
first time venturing into the little bistro on Gateway and 84 Ave and I was excited to take myself out
for lunch for a different kind of sandwich experience and finally
discover its appeal. I caught it at a quiet moment in the afternoon, which is a
rare thing since I've heard that comfortable space is bursting with people
during a post-Farmer’s Market run on the weekend. I was grateful for the quiet, as it gave me time to take in the friendly vibe - and to study the
incredible menu.
The range of
choices is definitely impressive for a place that size. NYBC has an extensive
breakfast menu with over 20 different Eggs Benedict combinations, plus a solid selection of meat-free bennies and fresh perogies every day. But seeing as it’s
the New York Bagel Café, there was really only one option I was willing to
consider.
Not the average sandwich menu...
Or so I
thought…
After reading
through and visualizing/taste-alizing (like visualizing, only with taste) the remarkably
long list of bagel platters, I went with a classic: Lox and Cream Cheese. On white, whole wheat, cheddar or
pumpernickel?Or rye bread? While I was tempted by the different options, I chose the whole wheat bagel. What better way to be ease into this new
eatery than with a tried-and-true selection?
It’s always
exciting to wait for your food the first time you visit a new restaurant and I
enjoyed my wait. The eclectic music of lively Latin beats, bohemian guitar and the
gravely vocals of Leonard Cohen added to the laid-back, slightly
off-beat atmosphere. There was even a stack of Far Side comic books to peruse
through while I anticipated my lunch's arrival.
Lox and Cream Cheese: an NYBC classic.
New York
Bagel Café gets full marks for food presentation! My chosen bagel platter was a
beautiful sight to behold: an artfully arranged, colourful spread of brown
bagel, rusty-coloured lox, khaki capers and crisp white cream cheese and onions
- plus a sour dill pickle on the side.
Since I am
that person who takes photos of their food in public, I quickly snapped a few images
on my phone and started in on my bagel masterpiece.
Taking full advantage of the DIY factor involved,
I laid the cream cheese on thick, then piled on the lox, capers and yes, the
onions because apparently, I like them now!, and I savored that beautiful first
bite.
Don't hold the onions - they're great on this bagel!
Really lovely
flavours and textured emerged as I ate up my bagel: the smoky, oily salmon, the
sharp crunch of onions and the peppery capers. Alternating crunchy bites of
bagel with sips from the frothy blend of espresso and chocolate and warmth that
was my moca, I thoroughly appreciated the experience of NYBC.
It’s a good
food restaurant, not a fast food one, as a small sign on the bar indicates, so
go when you have time to sit, relax and be intrigued by different bagel
combinations, intense coffee selections and the varied collection of condiments
on your table. Don’t rush your New York
Bagel Café experience; take your time to delight in its charms.
The only unfortunate
part of the afternoon - I didn’t get to try all the mustards on my table. But I’m
looking forward to going back so I can see which bagel platter pairs well with
my beloved whole gain Dijon…
It may take
more than one trip back to find it, but I’m up for the challenge!
Classic Dr. Seuss: try something new and you may like it!
Do you like Green Eggs and Ham?
Let’s go make some, Blog-I-Am!
March 2,
2014, marked the late, great Dr. Seuss’ 110th Birthday! He was born Theodor Seuss Geisel and is still
beloved by children and adults alike around the world for his quirky,
imaginative and surprisingly profound children’s books.
When I think
back on some of my ‘learning to read’ memories, Dr. Seuss is there, right along
with Robert Munsch, Shel Silversteinand Beatrix Potter. Green Eggs and Ham was a classic (probably because I was such a
picky eater) and we always watched How
the Grinch Stole Christmas during the holidays. The speech of the valedictorian
of my high school graduating class was even interspersed with excerpts from Oh, The Places You’ll Go. There was not
a dry-eye in the house...
Dr. Seuss has been part of my journey through childhood, young-adulthood, auntie-hood and teacher-hood.As an auntie
to two amazing little boys, we’ve spent hours reading aloud together and nothing is more
fun than stumbling through the tongue-twister masterpiece Fox in Socks while a little four year-old giggles uncontrollably!
Even the older kids in my life love to get ‘Seussified’, like the Junior High
students I directed in The Seussification
of Romeo and Juliet, the Drama 7 class that brought The Lorax to life, and the English 10 class who enjoyed listening
to Green Eggs and Ham. Those almost-too-cool
high school students didn't even notice they’d transformed back into kids while
I read to them. Plus, it helped them understand
the tricky concept of theme.
To honor the birthday of the man whose books hold a special place
in my heart, as they do in the hearts of so many others (Beatrix Potter herself
included!), I was inspired to recreate the most famous, oddly-colourful food in
sandwich form: Green Eggs and Ham!
You do not like them. So you say.
Try them! Try them! And you may.
Green Eggs and Ham ingredients!
For this Special Literary Lunch, you will need:
Eggs (for two
sandwiches, I used four eggs)
Ham
Sandwich Bread,
toasted
Chopped Green
Pepper
Fresh Dill,
finely chopped
Green Food-Colouring
(a few drops)
Mustard
Mayo
Ground Pepper
Swiss cheese
(for the Mouse, while you enjoy it in
your House)
How to make them here or there, how to
make them anywhere:
1 – Crack the
eggs in a skillet over medium-heat.
2 – Keep them
moving by constantly stirring them in the skillet to avoid burning/sticking and
add the green pepper and dill.
3 – Squeeze a
few drops of the green food colouring onto the eggs while they’re still runny and
keep stirring them to set the colour.
4 – Divide
the eggs into sandwich portions and remove from heat. Bread should be toasted
now to avoid drying out.
5 – Spread some
mayo and mustard on the toasted bread and place the eggs and cheese on one
slice.
6 – Arrange the
ham (the damn ham, as Scout Finch
from To Kill a Mockingbird might say)
on the other slice and sprinkle with dill. (Or if you want to dye your ham
green too, go for it!)
7 – Assemble
the sandwich and slice for easy eating.
Seuss-tacular!
Ready for lunch! Munch, munch, munch!
The crisp, faintly bitter flavor of the green pepper contrasts nicely with the
sweet, slightly tangy taste of the dill – much like the up-beat, optimistic
Sam-I-Am and his bitter counterpart. The melted cheese and the sharp tinge of
mustard combine with the other ingredients at just the right moments; just as the
profound themes of Dr. Seuss’ stories don’t overpower the plot, they are
subtle, yet truthful.
Plus it’s just
so much fun to eat a Green Eggs and Ham sandwich! My inner four year-old was
giggling along with my adult-self.
You can eat them in a box, with a fox,
in a house, with a mouse.
You can eat them here or there, you
can eat them anywhere!
If you try Green Eggs and Ham, you may
like them, Blog-I-Am!
I do so like Green Eggs and Ham!
Some fun,
little-known facts about Dr. Seuss:
*He wrote Green Eggs and Ham on a bet with his
publisher that he could write a book using only 50 different words. He won when it was published in 1960 and it remains one of his best-selling books.
*If I Ran the Zoo, published in 1950,
introduces the word nerd. Thanks,
Doc!
*Many of Dr.
Seuss’ books have a political bent: Yertle
the Turtle, 1958, opposes tyrannical dictators, The Sneetches and Other Stories, 1961, decries racism and Antisemitism and The Lorax, 1971,
warns of the dangers of exploiting the environment.
*Due to its
political themes, The Lorax has been on the
American Library Association’s Annual List of Banned Books. Who knew?
*Dr. Seuss
was awarded in the Pultizer Prize in 1984.
Planning a
party is usually one of two potential things: it’s really fun or it’s really
stressful. There’s a lot to do and never enough time and dealing with the food
aspect is usually the biggest source of stress. I wasn’t sure what to do for my
recent 30th birthday, but when it became an Epic Sandwich Party, all
stress went right out the window - right along with my 20's!
Epic Sandwich of stacked proportions!
The rules of
the Epic Sandwich Party are just like those that govern general sandwich
creation: there are no rules! Any kind of sandwich can be created with a few
key ingredients and this creative freedom brings out the fun – and sometimes
weird – tastes of your guests. Plus having
your guests make their own sandwich masterpieces takes all the cooking pressure
off you, the host, so you can spend more time mingling and partying with your
people!
Three
Major Reasons Why Epic Sandwich Parties Rock:
1-You can’t
please everyone, but everyone can please themselves:
The dollop of grainy mustard makes this sandwich epic!
Let’s face it
– if you try to plan your party’s menu so everyone is consistently happy, you’re
in for a disappointing evening. People’s tastes are too different and with so
many different eating styles (vegetarian, vegan) and/or food restrictions
(gluten-free, allergies, etc.), coming up with something that everyone can eat
is pretty near impossible. But an Epic Sandwich Party empowers everyone to
please themselves. If you provide variety in meat, bread, veggie and side
options (I’ll get to the Shopping List in a moment), you are appealing to broad
tastes and letting your guests get more specific for themselves. You might not
think that toasted rye bread with raspberry jam and sharp cheddar tastes good
(it really does, just so you know!), but you don’t have to because your guests
will think up their own food and everyone’s happy because they take care of
themselves.
It's enormous! Or is it...?
2-Epic
Sandwich Parties are Very Kid-Friendly:
There are
lots of kids in our circle of friends and family and I wanted them to feel welcome.
An Epic Sandwich Party is a fun and super easy way to include the little ones
in the festivities. Kids love
sandwiches! And getting to make their
own can appeal to even the pickiest of eaters. My six-year old nephew made the
first sandwich of the party and he was so excited to have that honor. I pointed
out the different choices he had and he considered each one thoughtfully before
putting together a Roast Beast (beef), Cheese and Ketchup Sandwich. It was just
what he wanted! All the kids at our party seemed to have fun building their own
sandwiches, which made their parents happy and able to have fun too!
3-The prep is
so minimal, it’s hardly prep!
Just stock up
on sandwich essentials, add some general party junk food, chill the drinks and
you’re good to go! Have some napkins, plates and cups standing by and let everyone
be inspired to create their own sandwich greatness.
You can’t go
wrong with this basic Shopping List for your Epic Sandwich Party:
So many tasty ingredients!
Bread: 3-4 different kinds, such as:
Basic
Sourdough
Rye (dark and
light)
Multi-grain
Buns (my Dad
brought his special homemade buns and they did not last long!)
Meat: Variety is key!
Turkey
breast, like Lilydale’s seasoned and roasted turkey breast slices
Roast Beef
Montreal
Smoked Brisket
Spicy Capocolo
Smoked
Prosciutto
Bacon
Turkey, sliced applies and sharp cheddar!
Veggies/Fruits:
Lettuce
(spinach and mixed greens)
Tomatoes
Peppers
Onions
Mushrooms
Granny Smith
Apples, thinly sliced
Sprouts
Avocados
Cheese:
Sharp Cheddar
Mozza
Jalapeno
Havarti
Goat Cheese
Grilled roast beef, mushrooms, and 3 kinds of cheese!
Skillet/Grill
for those who want a grilled sandwich experience
This party wouldn't have been complete
without an Epic Sandwich Birthday Cake!
Dessert:
Cupcakes
Ice Cream
...and Epic Sandwich Birthday Cake!
Convinced
now? I hope so! Our guests had fun building their own epic sandwiches and we
did too! For your next gathering, forget the planning stress and throw an Epic
Sandwich Party instead!
