Upscale Chicken Sandwiches

Pre-kid we used to frequent a joint in NYC called Island Burger which has dozens of burgers and chicken sandwiches to choose from.  Post-kid we make our favorites at home.   My favorite is the chicken and Boursin sandwich with caramelized onions and crisp lettuce.  Who knows if it’s still on the menu there as I haven’t been in years.

Grilled Chicken and Boursin Sandwich

First slice up your onions and add them to olive oil in a hot pan on medium heat and caramelize.  I find that adding a bit of honey once they begin to turn color helps them along.

To build your sandwich, start with a toasted bun slathered with Boursin cheese, crispy bacon, a grilled chicken breast, caramelized onions and lettuce.  Sometimes the night calls for Boursin cheese slathered on both sides of the bun which was the case here.

It’s pretty darn tasty and a very good excuse to buy the sweet Vidalia onions that are in stores now.

Chili Cheese Dogs

There is something about this economic downturn that makes me want to eat all my favorite comfort foods.  All the ones I swore off to eat $6 loaves of Ezekiel bread and $12/lb. grass fed beef.  It’s back to basics here at Storkbite’s house.  The annoying part is that I’m still feeding the finicky toddler the expensive stuff, meanwhile her poor parents are eating like they are at a Cubs game.  Nevertheless, our household and the rest of the economy will be back on track someday and we can go back to the way things were.

Chili Cheese Dogs

Get hot dog buns, good quality hot dogs like Hebrew National, chili, and shredded  cheese.

I made my chili a week ago which you can find in a recent post here on Storkbite Stew.  It’s been sitting around for quite some time.  Simply warm up the hot dogs on the stove top, add hot chili and shredded cheese to a toasted hot dog bun and presto — you too will start channeling your inner Harry Caray.

Copious Amonts of Zucchini

It’s a bumper crop for zucchini this year – at least from our CSA.   I’m almost running out of ideas on how to process it.  Storkbite is consuming her fair share, it was her first “real” food after all.  I’m not sick of it yet, but it’s getting real hard to be creative.  There has been an overload of eggplant as well.  I’m doing better with it than last year, the last one is going into a baba ganouge today.  I don’t think we will see the end of it though now tomatos are abundant.  My new breakfast is toast, grilled tomato and a friend egg.  Here are a few highlights from the past few days:

Eggplant Rollatini

This was a really easy dish that was prepped over the course of a few days.  One thing I’m learning is take time to prep when you can get it. Storkbite doesn’t allow me time to actually enjoy what I’m doing in the kitchen now that she slithers.  On the day I got seven eggplants, I sliced them all the long way and grilled them with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper.  When they cooled, I neatly piled them into a plastic container and stashed them in the refrigerator.  A few days later (not sure how many) I pulled out my eggplant and made the rollatini.

Simply use a small container of ricotta cheese, mix in an egg, salt, pepper and chopped parsly. Combine it in a mixing bowl and set aside.  Add a ladle full of some sauce (in this case my very own Basic Sauce) to the bottom of your olive oiled baking dish and begin to roll your eggplant.  It doesn’t have to be pretty and sometimes it’s easier to put two eggplant peices together laid flat.  Add a dollop of cheese and roll.  Once you have all your rollatini in the dish, cover it them with sauce and shredded mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes until the cheese is golden brown.  This was a Papa pleaser – he loves cheesy baked goodness and it’s a great way to use up your eggplants.

Salmon Loaf

I have no idea what to call this except “Salmon Loaf” which sounds horrible because it was so delicious!  I realized that I had nice grilled salmon left over from the onigiri which was just sitting in the refrigerator calling my name.  Storkbite’s Papa was so taken with this that he wants it worked into our regular menu.  It was very easy so that is fine with me.  The filling consists of chopped grilled salmon, chopped scallions, chives, black sesame seeds and a dash of sesame oil to combine it.  Then I wrapped the filling in sheets of puffed pastry dough available in the freezer section of any super market.  Once it was nicely rolled up I put slits on the top to let the steam out, brushed them with a little oil and sprinkled with black sesame seeds.  I baked these at 425 (as indicated on the dough package) for 30 minutes until golden brown and puffy.  I served by slicing these through the pre-sliced slits which helps to keep the pretty puff pastry in tact.  With a simple salad these were a huge hit, and made great room-temp leftovers for lunch.

Mini Burgers

One of my favorite things is a mini burger. It satisfies my itch for a burger and doesn’t weigh me down after eating 1 lb. of beef.  I like to buy mini dinner rolls at the bakery and make them at home.  In this case I used ground turkey, doctered it up with an egg, salt, pepper, chopped scallions and diced green peppers which I combined in a mixing bowl.  I grilled zucchini chips for toppings and cut up tomatos.  Once I formed my mini burgers into balls, I grilled them on my trusty grill pan.

These got assembled on a toasted bun with olive oil mayo, grilled zuccs, cheddar cheese and fresh tomatos.  They knocked my socks off and were probably on the healthier side of things too.