Recipes
Roasted Red Pepper
Roasted Red Pepper
A milder pepper jack
Ingredients
- 1 red bell pepper
- 4 oz. Monterey jack cheese
- 4 slices sourdough bread
- Butter spread
Instructions
- Wash the pepper and cut it in half.
- Remove stem, seeds, and veins.
- Place on a cookie sheet skin side up.
- Broil low from the highest rack position.
- Keep a close eye on the peppers so they don’t burn thru.
- You want the skin to start to bubble and blacken.
- Remove the peppers from the oven and place in a zip lock bag in the fridge for about 20 minutes.
- After that time to rest, the skins should slide right off.
- Roughly chop the peppers.
- Butter one side of each slice of bread.
- Of the facing side of two of them place half the cheese and top with the chopped, roasted peppers.
- Top with the remaining cheese and the other slices of bread.
- Cook at 325° for four minutes on each side.
- I like using the melting dome with this one.
————————————————————————————————–
Raspberry Fontina
Raspberry Fontina
Of the sandwiches that involve fruit, this is the easiest to prepare. There is no cooking of the berries, as they’re perfect right out of the container. Well, unless you buy a package of moldy raspberries but that wouldn’t be the fault of this recipe.
Ingredients
- ½ cup fresh raspberries washed
- 3 oz. Fontina cheese
- 2 slices Hawaiian sweet bread
- Butter spread
Instructions
- Butter one side of each slice of bread.
- Put half the cheese on the opposite face of one slice of bread and then carefully pile the raspberries on top.
- Add the rest of the cheese and the second piece of bread.
- Cook at 325° for about 4 ½ minutes.
- Yes, cook it a little bit longer to get that Fontina really gooey.
- The taste return for the effort involved makes good business sense with this sandwich.
- Melting dome is recommended.
————————————————————————————————–
Pepperoni Pizza
Pepperoni Pizza
Ingredients
- 2 Roma tomatoes
- 4-5 oz. Mozzarella cheese not the extra fresh watery kind
- 1/8 lb. pepperoni Get it from the deli counter – it tastes better
- ¼ tsp. Dried oregano
- ¼ tsp. Dried basil
- Kosher salt
- Fresh ground black pepper
- Olive oil
- 4 slices GOOD sourdough bread
- Butter spread
Instructions
- Wash the tomatoes and then slice into ¼” thick slices.
- Place on a piece of aluminum foil over a cookie sheet and sprinkle a dash of salt and pepper over the tomatoes.
- Drizzle a little olive oil.
- Pour the oregano and basil into the palm of one hand, and rubbing your hands together, crush the oregano and basil and shake it over the tomatoes.
- Broil from the highest tray position in your oven on low for about 5-10 minutes.
- Keep a close eye so you don’t burn the tomatoes.
- You’re looking for them to darken and cook down quite a bit.
- Not to the point of looking like sundried tomatoes, but you want about half the juice cooked out.
- Butter one side of each slice of bread.
- Use the best sourdough you can find for this.
- There is a local grocery store that sells sourdough that has whole cloves of garlic in it.
- That stuff is amazing for this.
- Place half the cheese on two of these slices.
- Add tomatoes and pepperoni and then the rest of the cheese followed by the bread.
- Cook at 325° for four minutes on each side.
- Be prepared to be amazed!
- Makes two.
————————————————————————————————–
Pepper Jack
Pepper Jack
Ingredients
- 1 red bell pepper
- 4 jalapeño peppers
- 10 oz. Monterey jack cheese
- 8 slices of sourdough bread
- Butter spread
Instructions
- Start by washing and slicing all the peppers in half.
- Remove the stems, seeds and veins.
- Place on a cookie sheet, skin side out and broil on low from the highest rack position.
- Keep a close eye.
- You’re looking for the skin to begin to blacken and bubble.
- Remove the roasted peppers from the oven and place in a zip lock bag and put that in the fridge for about 20 minutes.
- After that the skins should slide right off.
- Rough chop the peppers after removing skins.
- Butter one side of each slice of bread.
- Divide the cheese in half and on the opposite side of half the slices place an equal amount on each slice.
- Top with the chopped peppers.
- Add the rest of the cheese and the other slices of bread.
- Cook at 325° for four minutes on each side.
- Makes four sandwiches.
————————————————————————————————–
The Peppered Pickle
The Peppered Pickle
This is one time when the brand matters. I don’t know of any other cheese makers that make white Cheddar with peppercorns added in. If your local grocers don’t carry Tillamook cheese, well, grab your pitchforks and torches and MAKE them get it!! An alternative is to get sharp white Cheddar cheese and sprinkle fresh ground black pepper over it before you add the pickle slices. Find the Tillamook though; it’s worth the effort. Also, don’t let the name scare you; this is a surprisingly good sandwich.
Ingredients
- 1 Vlasic pickle sliced thick lengthwise
- 3 oz. Tillamook®
- Smoked Black Pepper
- White Cheddar Cheese
- 2 slices sourdough bread
- Butter spread
Instructions
- Spread butter to one side of each slice of bread.
- Place half the cheese on the other side.
- Top the cheese with the pickle slices and the rest of the cheese.
- Add the other piece of bread.
- Cook at 325° for four minutes on each side.
- Makes one sandwich.
- One crunchy, slightly tart, amazing sandwich.
————————————————————————————————–
Peach ‘n Brie
Peach ‘n Brie
This is best prepared when you can buy farm-fresh peaches from a roadside stand.
Instructions
- Blanch the peach in boiling water for a few seconds and rinse in cold water.
- Remove skin and pit.
- Slice the peach into about 8-12 slices.
- My wife prefers to skip this step, but I lightly sauté the peach slices with the ½ tbsp.
- butter in a skillet over medium heat for about 5 minutes to soften up the peaches.
- She prefers the peaches raw.
- Butter one side of all the slices of bread.
- On two of the slices, stack the sliced brie (or spread it if it’s warm enough) followed by even amounts of peach slices.
- Top with the remaining cheese and the other slice of bread.
- Cook at 325° for four minutes on each side.
- Makes two.
- Thank goodness for fall peaches!
————————————————————————————————–
Olive Tapenade
Olive Tapenade
Ingredients
- 1 cup pitted Castelvetrano olives you can substitute regular green olives, but it won’t be as good
- 1 cup pitted black olives
- 1 tbsp. roasted garlic
- 2 fresh basil leaves or ½ tsp. dried basil
- 1 tsp. capers
- 1 pinch fresh ground black pepper
- 1 tsp. lemon juice
- 1 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp. roasted red bell pepper
- 8 slices sour dough bread
- 1/4 lb. mozzarella cheese sliced
- Butter spread
Instructions
- I’ve never found a bottle of Castelvetrano olives already pitted so get a good pitter or a paring knife to separate the flesh from the stone.
- Rinse the olives and add them to a food processor along with the other ingredients.
- If you don’t want to roast your own garlic and peppers, the olive bar at your health food grocery store will have them.
- Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse several times for a few seconds each time.
- Scrape the walls of the processor after a few pulses to make sure everything gets chopped.
- You’re not looking for a puree, just an even chop.
- Butter one side of each slice and add cheese to the opposite side of each piece.
- Spread a generous amount of the tapenade on every other slice.
- Pair a slice with tapenade with a slice without.
- Cook 4 minutes on each side at 325°.
- Makes 4 sandwiches.
————————————————————————————————–
Nutella Banana
Nutella Banana
Ingredients
- 1 ripe banana
- 4 oz. Brie
- Nutella
- 4 slices Hawaiian sweet bread
- Butter spread
Instructions
- Cut the banana into ¼ medallions.
- Butter one side of each slice of bread.
- Spread brie onto the opposite faces of each slice of bread.
- Spread Nutella® over the brie on each slice.
- Place even amounts of banana slices on half the slices of bread.
- Top with the opposing slices of bread.
- Cook at 325° for four minutes per side.
- Makes two.
- Be ready for a chocolaty, gooey mess of awesomeness!
- This sandwich is spectacular.
- Don’t eat too many of them though or you’ll need to buy bigger pants!
————————————————————————————————–
Nachos
Nachos
Not ‘cho gas station nachos!
Ingredients
- ½ a Jalapeño pepper seeded and finely chopped
- Nacho chips
- 1 tbsp. picante style salsa
- 4 tbsp. cream cheese
- 6 slices sourdough bread
- ½ cup Monterey Jack cheese shredded
- Butter spread
- ½ cup medium Cheddar cheese shredded
Instructions
- In a bowl combine room temperature cream cheese, shredded cheeses, diced jalapeño and salsa.
- Mixed until thoroughly combined.
- On all of the slices of bread, butter one side.
- On the opposite side, spread equal amounts of the cheese mixture on all the slices of bread.
- Crumble 5 or 6 nacho chips on the cheese mixture on three slices of bread.
- Top these with the remaining slices of bread.
- Cook at 325° for four minutes on each side.
- Makes three sandwiches that would make a great appetizer at any fiesta!