Veggie Sandwich

This is my new go-to sandwich: cream cheese, some hard cheese, peppers, red onion, and alfalfa sprouts. Sometimes I add avocado.  I came out of the hospital with a hankering for, of all things, the sprouts.  I have been eating this sandwich fairly faithfully since I got out of hospital.

It's fairly low in sodium (the only value I don't know in this case is the bread, which is a sourdough from Cobs), but I used cream cheese (Island Farms brand, as it was the lowest in sodium) with 50mg/tbsp and I used a smoked cheddar purchased from Costco that, for a serving of 30g, has 8% of my sodium intake for the day in it.  I am pretty much done with deli meat. There are some lower sodium brands of deli meats, but I have decided to stay away from the stuff as much as possible because I know they're full of chemicals etc.

But oh, a pastrami sandwich with a huge dill pickle would go down really, really really well right now...

Amtrak Snack

So, it's been a while. It wasn't my intention to let the blog go for this long again, but stuff happens. I've been unwell, I went away for a few days, blahx3. But I'm back, and I have new content plans for the days to come. I spent 3 days in Seattle with Jodi, which of course meant a lot of great food, so you'll be hearing all about that.

In the meantime, while I get my act together, here are some visuals of what Amtrak has to offer in terms of food on their Cascades trip between Seattle and Vancouver. Last weekend was the third time I've taken this trip, but the first in which I've taken advantage of the dining car. Surprisingly, the menu was quite varied (chicken teriyaki bowl, enchilada bowl, lasagna with meat sauce, mac & cheese) and not outrageously expensive the way airplane food is. However, I kept it simple. I had chowder, a sandwich, and a drink, which came to $13.75.

The chowder was piping hot and very good! For a commercially made chowder, I was quite impressed! Very creamy, lots of clams, decent potato amount, and not overly salty like other commercially made chowders I could mention. The sandwich was a bust though; soggy as hell and not very fresh. The lettuce was toast as was the tomato. I wound up eating mostly the meat and cheese. Next time, I'll order something else to go along with my chowder.

In the end, I learned that the dining car is a good option if I can't pack my own lunch. I had been avoiding it, assuming the prices were outrageous. And while not super cheap, it wasn't like some of the overpriced slop I've been served on airplanes.

Lunch at Big Ridge Brewing Co.

Yesterday I got together with my brother and SIL for an afternoon of shopping and a late lunch. My SIL was craving a burger and my brother and I were fine with that, but we couldn't agree on where to go. We were at Guildford Centre so there was lots to choose from. I was all for White Spot, but they both shot that down. My brother wanted to go to Red Robin but my SIL wasn't into that. I was at a loss, so I called my roommate and asked her what she recommended. Then my SIL remembered a pub she'd eaten at located near the head office of the company she works for.

Located in south Surrey, Big Ridge Brewing Co. was the choice. Though it sported many large screen TVs showing various sporting events, I didn't feel I was in a sports bar because the dining room was very nicely decorated and was actually quite a serene space.

The menu was huge, both physically and content-wise. There was a lot of typical pub fare on there, but there was also a lot of different stuff available, most notably a large Asian section of the menu that looked really tasty. It was a tough choice for sure. Both my brother & SIL went with the burger, accompanied by fries. I wanted something lighter so I went with the grilled prawn clubhouse with a side salad. My SIL ordered onion rings as a starter.

I have to say, I'm not an onion ring connoisseur at all - I like them but I'm not ga-ga for them - but these were quite fabulous and you could tell that they were made with a homemade batter (beer, I believe) that was very light.


My brother and SIL liked the burgers a lot and I liked how they were presented with the fries in a separate cup. It reminded me of the Lunchbox Laboratory.


As for my grilled prawn club, it was good. There was an avocado mixture in it I really liked. I just think it could have used a few more prawns for the price ($13.99). But the salad was interesting, actually. It looked fairly simple, red leaf lettuce, finely diced tomatoes, a tangy vinaigrette, but the salad was studded with little green bits that looked suspiciously like capers. I hate capers. But these had been deep fried, I think, and they were great! They were little tiny bits of crispy saltiness. I loved them and I had never seen anything like that before, so I was kind of impressed with that small detail.


Would I go back? Sure, the menu was intriguing and the service was excellent.

A Couple of Miscellaneous Vancouver Meals

There is one chain restaurant that without fail pleases me every time I go there: White Spot. Call me crazy, but I love White Spot! And when there is one in my vicinity (none here in the Kootenays) I make a huge effort to go to one for a meal because I just love their food. It's comfort food at it's best. They make great breakfasts, they make great burgers, they make great milkshakes, they make the best coleslaw ever, and they're just a comfortable place to go for a casual, yummy meal.

I ate at White Spot three whole times in the 8 days I was a the coast. Terrible, I know, but also awesome! I didn't take pix of all my meals there, but here is the BC Chicken Burger, which is one of my perennial faves.

Now onto something a bit more refined but just as casual and yummy. I had a visit with a blog friend on the Saturday morning I was at the coast - the day with the best weather on the trip, BTW - and we headed into the city from Maple Ridge to Granville Island. I adore Granville Island! It's a quintessential Vancouver experience and I try to get there every trip. We only had a short time for lunch, but luckily there are lots of quick places to choose from at their food fair. I knew I was going for waffles at Miura shortly with my brother and also that he and I would be having dinner, so I went for something small and light: a bagel with cream cheese & lox. Yum!

And this was our view from outside the market, where we sat in the sun to munch:

Incidentally, I was there during the Stanley Cup playoffs, and one of the fancy bakeries in the market was selling all kinds of these, which looked great:


Very cute, but I didn't buy one. That Saturday was one awesome day of food for sure!

101 Uses for a Roast Chicken #26: Epic Chicken Sandwich!

So, I had a hormonally-induced hankering for a big-assed BBQ chicken sandwich. I also watched the Divers, Drive-ins & Dives marathon on Food Network over the weekend, and it had me salivating. Funny how one thing influences the other. I had a chicken carcass from one of my roast chicken dinners to turn into stock, and a couple of backs a relative gave me after a chicken dinner she made. I got a lot of great meat off these bones when I made up the stock on the weekend, and I wanted to do something different from the usual pot of soup. So, it was actually three events (hormones, Triple D, and stock-making) that induced this particular craving.

It's very simple: get a big giant bun. Grill some veggies (in this case, onions, peppers, and mushrooms), slice some havarti, and dig out your favourite BBQ sauce. After the veggies have done, put them on the bun and top with some havarti. Add some left-over roast chicken to the pan and heat through; add BBQ sauce. When everything is nice & hot, throw it on the bun & top with more havarti.

Sensational!

I served them with some homemade oven fries and this meal totally hit the spot!

Magazine Monday #76: Egg & Shrimp Sandwiches

My AeroGarden containing the herb mixture is doing great, I am happy to report, especially the dill. In fact, I have so much dill I'm not sure what to do with it all. I might start drying it for a rainy day. Tonight I am planning a dilly pasta for dinner, and now I am obsessed with finding recipes with dill... Dill bread? Dill biscuits? Dill cookies??? There is so much dill I don't know what to do!

So, in an effort to use a teeny bit of what I have on hand, I decided to make this sandwich today for my lunch. This is the Open Faced Shrimp & Egg Sandwich, made on a toasted bagel, from the June 2010 issue of Canadian Living Magazine. The recipe is here.

Very easy, very tasty. And it hit the spot. You can't beat fresh dill - unless you have too much of it and it beats you!

Latest Addiction

The season is changing, the clocks are turned back, and my mood disorder is rearing its ugly head. One of the things this means is that I'm craving crazy foods. Most recently, apart from wanting to inhale chocolate, pizza, and ice cream (ironic, given that it's cold out), I have been on a deviled ham & ramen noodle kick.

It's odd.

And it's not cheap! The ramen is cheap, but canned ham is not. At LOGS, it's $2.99/can. At Safeway, I got a can on sale for $2.49. During my cross border shopping excursion the other week, I found canned ham for about $1.80/can. WTF? That's highway robbery for frickin' ham IMHO!

Anyway, the deviled ham sandwich is such a throwback to church teas and church potlucks, and I was inspired to make a batch of deviled ham after my work put on a tea for the seniors. And I have been hooked ever since.

For those of you not familiar with the bliss that is deviled ham, it's very simple: a can of ham, flaked; some mayo; some sweet pickle relish. That's it. I spread my bread or bun with cream cheese and have a nice dill pickle with my sandwich. It's awesome.

Ramen is ramen. Rarely do I crave this stuff because it's so bad for you, but I seem to be unable to do without it nowadays.

None of this is good for my weight loss goals!

Camping Grub 2010

My SIL and I went camping recently, as has been our tradition for the last three years. It was a totally awesome trip, and if you want to read more about it, you can go here. The full Flickr set is here.

As usual, we ate like queens! Here is a rundown of some of our food.

On day one, we went to soak in Ainsworth Hot Springs, then drove the short distance from there to Kaslo, where we had one freaking awesome lunch at a place called The Rosewood Cafe. Here are our lunches.

I had a fantabulous Monte Christo Sandwich with homemade baked fries.

Shan had a huge turkey burger with all the fixings & a side salad that was served with a homemade rosemary vinaigrette.

More to follow on this restaurant as it was absolutely brilliant!

One morning we had Eggs Benny, which is something we usually have while camping. It's just such decadent camping grub!

Dad joined us on Saturday, and he brought a set of really amazing steaks for dinner. We didn't have the BBQ with us this time and the grate on the fire pit was way too filthy to cook anything on directly, so we opted to pan fry them in cast iron skillets on the camp stove. Shan seasoned them with garlic butter and Montreal Steak Spice, and we served them with garlic bread (which she baked over the fire as it was covered in foil) and some rice. The steaks were like butter - completely awesome!

More from this trip upcoming, as we went to the Hills Garlic Festival in New Denver, too.

Lunch at Jackson's Hole

Yet another shopping trip to Nelson last week meant yet another lunch out with Dad. This time, Dad wanted to go somewhere completely off my radar, though he had eaten there before...Years ago. He had had a great experience at Jackson's Hole with a friend way back in the mists of time (a few years ago, but other than that he couldn't specify how long it had been) and wanted to try it out again. Well, who am I to argue? Though I hadn't heard anything about it myself, I did silently acknowledge that things do change in the restaurant business from time to time, so hopefully the place was still good.

It was crap! Crap, I tell you!

The bar & grill type restaurant, located at 524 Vernon St., is located in a funky old building constructed in 1899 or thereabouts, and the interior is very cool indeed. The menu was decent, consisting of the usual lunch suspects you tend to find in a bar/grill. I had a hard time choosing, actually, but went with the BBQ Club House sandwich with fries, and my dad went with the Cajun Chicken Fajitas.

My sandwich was great - very tasty, nice bread, tangy BBQ sauce, but there was something wrong with the fries. They had a...flavour...It took me a few bites to recognize what I was tasting, only to realize it was staleness with a hint of freezer. I couldn't believe this. This place had to have a high turnover so there shouldn't be any stale fries on hand, but that was definitely what this odd flavour was. Ugh!
My dad's fajitas had several problems from my perspective, though he said the flavour was fine. For one thing, they arrived terribly presented in three different parts: the filling, a small ramekin with uninteresting and punily portioned toppings & little containers of salsa & sour cream, and then a third thingy containing the tortillas. It took up a lot of space and I have seen much more well-organized presentations of fajitas at other places. The ramekin with the toppings, as I mentioned was small and there were two problems with it. For one thing, it contained a whole bunch of olives. Now, this wouldn't ordinarily be a problem for me, but my dad detests olives, so he was trying to pawn them off on me. But when I dug in, the olives were obviously canned AND they were dried out and wrinkly - as if they'd been sitting out uncovered for a long time. They were disgusting. The second issue with the toppings was that there was no lettuce, but rather a spring mix situated underneath all the other toppings. Not practical at all. As for the filling, Dad said it tasted "all right" but it looked not very fresh and very unappealing.

So, if you're ever in Nelson, BC, give this place a miss. We won't be going back. Luckily, this is the first really bad meal Dad and I have had on our trips to Nelson, so we're doing pretty well, I think!

Finally - A Toasty Torpedo!

Remember this post? Remember this ad and it's utter brilliance? Please, spend the 32 seconds it takes to watch this - it's worth it!



OK. Laughing are we? Good. Because the real Toasty Torpedo is no laughing matter!

Finally, I got to go to a Quizno's the other day. The nearest location is in Castlegar, which is about a half hour's drive from here. I'd spent the afternoon with my brother & SIL, helping them clean out the garage and making a couple of dump runs. We had to go to Castlegar to return the truck we were borrowing, so we decided on a cheap dinner at Quizno's. I of course wanted a Toasty Torpedo, so I ordered the Turkey Club one. This is it:Sigh...So unlike the picture. Well, nothing ever is, though, right? Anyway, this was puny! And not very satisfying! I came away hungry! Luckily, we went to DQ for a Blizzard afterward, so I wasn't totally starving, but still...The Toasty Torpedo was just flat out disappointing! Boo, hiss!

I still love Quizno's though; I just wouldn't order this again.

Lunch at Max & Irma's

Again last week, Dad and I journeyed to Nelson to take advantage of some sales at Save-on Foods, and once again we had lunch. We decided upon a restaurant we'd enjoyed in the past but hadn't been to very recently, Max & Irma's.

They have a great menu featuring sandwiches, wraps, salads, and wood-fired pizzas. The last time I was there I had a great sandwich called the Italian Club: pancetta, lemon & herb chicken, Asiago cheese, lettuce & tomato, and garlic mayo. It was amazing!

After taking a while to decide, on this most recent occasion I fancied something light because I was already thinking ahead to dessert! The list was on the board in front of me and it had so many yummy things on it that I knew I couldn't resist, so I wanted to watch it with my entree. I opted for the Chicken Club Wrap, and Dad went for the Italian Club. Both sandwiches came with house side salad and corn chips. We both enjoyed our choices very much!Now, onto dessert. There was tiramisu, there was blueberry peach cobbler, there were some other things, but the one that caught my eye was the chocolate cherry cheesecake! I looked forward to this all during lunch and it was worth the wait! It was so excellent - full of black cherries and big chunks of actual milk chocolate bar, with a thick chocolate cookie crust. It was to die for! My dad had the flourless chocolate espresso torte and he thought it was amazing.Another winning restaurant in Nelson, BC!

"What To Do With A...": Salmon Melts

I haven't done a post in this series for a while, mainly because I haven't had so many bits & pieces hanging around my fridge, freezer, and pantry lately. But, some time ago, I did purchase a can of sockeye salmon on sale for $2.99 - and it was a larger can, not one of the tuna-sized cans. It was a deal I couldn't refuse, so I went for it. And the can sat there, and sat there...I also had half a brick of cream cheese in the freezer, left over from some long-forgotten baking project. And then I did a column for Bread 'n Molasses featuring my mom's salmon spread, an old family Christmas treat (upcoming in the November issue) ...And inspiration hit! If you can have tuna melts, why not salmon melts? Off I went to get some mozzarella and some English muffins.

Here is what I did:

1 can (large) sockeye salmon
1/2 brick cream cheese
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp dried dill
3 sliced green onions.
a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce
a dash of lemon juice

Mix together. Toast an English muffin about half way. Put salmon filling on muffin. Top with cheese. Broil until cheese is all melting & bubbling.
This was fantastic! If you think cheese on salmon is weird, ask yourself: is cheese on tuna any less weird, when you think about it? This worked and was delicious. I would definitely make this again!

Lunch at The Rush

Yesterday my brother and I got together for lunch, and this time he wanted to go somewhere else for a change, as we usually go to the Sunshine Cafe. He suggested The Rush.

The Rush is a coffee shop located in the Prestige Hotel, and it serves sandwiches and a small selection of very good baking in addition to its coffee menu. It's owned by the guy who runs Adrenaline Adventures, a local tour & transportation company. I'd been there for lunch once and it was very good, I just can't remember what I had; I just remember the chocolate peanut butter bar - outstanding. The last time was when my friend J was here and she treated me to a chocolate peanut butter bar for my birthday. These bars are TO DIE FOR. They are unbaked and gloriously awesome. They are also $3.25.

After considerable deliberation on my part, I opted for the Chunkanini Panini: chunks of chicken, bacon, Monterey Jack cheese, caramelized onions, and roasted garlic aoli. DIVINE! It was huge, delicious - almost sinfully so - and totally hit the spot. It goes for $7.95 and was totally worth it.

My brother had the Chicken Caesar Wrap, which was also huge and filling and he loved it.

I think The Rush officially has the best sandwiches in town.

Brisket Sammie

Have you seen this Quizno's ad for their Toasty Torpedo sandwich? If not, I highly encourage you to take 30 seconds out of your life to do so! It's one of the most brilliant pieces of food advertising I think I've ever seen.



I have yet to make it to a Quizno's to have a Toasty Torpedo: the nearest one is in Castlegar and a half-hour drive away, and if you're going to go all the way out there, you might as well just go to Chopsticks.

Anyway, who says you can't have a homemade version of the Toasty Torpedo? I used some of my brisket leftover from the other night and made myself a pretty fancy sammie last night, with sauteed onions & mushrooms, and mozzarella cheese. I had plenty of the pomegranate sauce left over, so I dipped the sandwich in that. I toasted it all up under the broiler, and voila!
Pretty nice, eh? Thank God for toaster ovens that don't heat up the kitchen like...an oven.

Apparently the heat is supposed to break on Wednesday. I hope I survive until then!

BAC Sandwich

I have lately become quite the avocado addict. I wasn't too picky about them before, only really liking them in guacamole, but lately I have been putting them in sandwiches and in salads and trying to find other things to do with them. They aren't cheap: they're $1.29 a piece at the local overpriced grocery store, and once in a while go on sale for 99cents. So, I've had to really moderate my avocado intake. I did get one the other day for a salad meal I was making, and I had half left over. Earlier this month, Coleen of Coleen's Recipes had a killer idea: bacon & guacamole sandwiches! I bookmarked it immediately.

I didn't exactly make guacamole, rather just chopped up my leftover avocado and mixed in some lime juice and some homemade salsa. I put my sandwich on one of my homemade hamburger buns and added some cheddar cheese. I call it the BAC: Bacon, Avocado, & Cheddar.

You can't beat anything made with bacon, can you? This was one awesome sandwich! Thank you, Coleen!

Panini Heaven

So, this is what I made with my herbed focaccia from the previous post:
OH. MY. GOD.

If I ever open my own cafe, this is a sandwich I will definitely be serving!

Coyote's Ultimate Panini!

Focaccia bread
lemon & garlic mayo
mozzarella cheese
bacon
arugula
caramelized onions
Assemble. Grill.Inhale.

Yeah, this ain't no pedestrian ham & cheese, lemme tell ya! Let's take another look, shall we?Totally fracking orgasmically out-of-this world amazing!

Magazine Monday #33: Monte Cubano

Who doesn't love a humungous freakin' sandwich every now again (or more often than every now and again)? I certainly do! And I love Monte Cristo sandwiches a lot, which is why this Monte Cubano from Gourmet's March 2009 issue caught my eye. The garlicy mayonnaise really made this outstanding, and it smelled wonderful as it cooked!

The recipe is here.

Definitely a winner recipe I'd make again!