Idea of the Week...California Girl Club

 So I'm thinking I need quick, yummy lunches to take to work in the coming weeks. Maybe I'll add soup or a small salad and a half sammy. Either way, I have all these ideas running through my head and here's one...   Grilled whole wheat bread Bacon Tomato Sliced chicken breast Arugala Avocado Mayo Any Questions?  

 

California Girl's Chip Buttie

This one is for my New Zealand friend Natalie.  The chip buttie. A french fry sandwich? Well, that's what it amounts to. I sprinkled my fries with lemon pepper and baked them, so I could slather on the calories that I saved by baking them : ). Moot point. This was my very first chip buttie ever and I must say I love it! Not a low cal option, but a delicious splurge. I went out on a limb and toasted the bread. To be honest, I was almost out of sliced bread and what I had left was a bit iffy in the freshness department. So instead of going out for more I opted to oven toast it and it was amazing. A bit of mayo and a side of ketchup  and I was totally on board with this new found yummily.  So, thanks Natalie. Hope you enjoy my version. 

Makes 1 Chip Buttie
Ingredients:
8 to 10 thick frozen steak fries or 1 large potato cut lengthwise into 1/4 by 1/2 inch fries
lemon pepper to taste
2 slices of white or wheat bread, toasted or not (lightly buttered or not : ) Okay, I did!
mayonnaise
ketchup

Directions:
Spread fries on a baking sheet and sprinkle with lemon pepper. Bake at 400 until golden brown.
Remove from oven and turn oven to broil. Lightly butter toast or not. Place under broiler and STAND THERE!!! Watch it carefully...wait for it...wait for it...and grab it out.  It only takes a few seconds.  Remove bread from oven and assemble sandwich.  Spread mayonnaise (optional) on one slice of bread. Place the potatoes on and top it. I served the ketchup at the side.  This will be your meal for the day : ). No, I don't know how many calories. I don't want to know.

Muffaletta

OLIVE SALAD

1 cup black olives
½ cup stuffed green olives (with pimento)
3 to 4 pepperocini peppers
2 anchovy fillets (optional)
½ cup roasted sweet red peppers
3 T minced garlic
2 to 3 T balsamic vinegar
½ cup olive oil
squeeze lemon juice
3 T fresh parsley
3 t oregano
3 t basil
pinch red pepper flakes

Process all of the above in a food processor until uniformly minced, set aside in a bowl.

First let me explain that the bread is large and therefore more filling is needed. For the Sandwich you will need four slices each of the meats and two slices of each of the cheeses. I like my meats and cheeses cut on #1 or 2 at the deli. It's all a matter of taste and preference. Have yours cut at whatever thickness you like. So, how many pounds you need depends on how many sandwiches you need or how many people you are feeding. Simply multiply and let the butcher know approx. how many slices you are going to need of each of these:

Genoa salami
Mortadella or (good bologna will do)
Prosciutto, Black forest or honey ham
Provolone cheese
Swiss cheese
Mozzarella cheese

Muffaletta Bread or Good Hard Crusty Italian Bread

Slice bread and add 4 pieces salami, top with 2 Provolone cheese. Add four pieces Mortadella or bologna and top with 2 pieces of Swiss cheese. Add four pieces ham or Proscutto and top with Mozzarella cheese. Last but not least add 1 to 2 tablespoons of olive salad and put the top on. Place sandwich in skillet or griddle top on medium high and weigh down with another smaller iron skillet or a clean brick covered in foil. If you need to lightly spray the surface with olive oil.
Cook until cheese is melted slightly and bread is light browned.

Enjoy!

Shrimp & Bacon Club with Pommes Frites

This recipe is for 2 sandwiches. That said, these are huge and can easily feed 4 when cut in two. Absolute-a-ly de-licious! We love this sandwich. It is very much like one of the sandwiches we served at our tea room. I gave it a little twist, but other than that this is our shrimp and bacon. Funny, but true story...a lot of the Doctors from the local hospital ate in our establishment on a fairly regular basis. One Doctor in particular loved this sandwich. He ordered it quite often and picked it up to go when he had to. One day he came in to pick up his order and said to me, "I gotta tell you, I couldn't wait to get though with my last patient. All I could think about was getting to my shrimp and bacon sandwich". He said, he just kept looking at the clock and thinking it's almost lunch time! He was an OB GYN! Now you know what they're thinking!

*First prepare garlic mayo sauce and refrigerate to let flavors meld.

Garlic Mayo Sauce:
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup good mayonnaise
2 teaspoons garlic powder
Several drops hot sauce, to taste

In a bowl, stir all ingredients well and refrigerate.

Belgian Fries or Pommes Frites
4 cups vegetable or peanut oil
2 to 2 1/2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cut into uniform strips.
salt

Frites Directions:
Pommes frites are fried twice. So this is a two step process. Fill a large heavy bottom pot or deep fryer 2/3 full of oil and heat for deep frying. A thermometer should read 325 to 350 degrees. Dry potatoes well so that they don't splatter when they are lowered into the hot oil. Lower potatoes in using a large spoon and fry for appoximately 5 minutes. Don't over crowd the fries. Fry in as many batches as you need to for your size pot. Keep in mind that you are not frying them completely. Just to a lightly golden color. When fries are the desired color, remove them and drain on paper towels in a colainder. This is the first fry. Let fries rest for as long as possible and then return them to the hot oil to cook to a golden brown color. This should only take 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from oil again and drain. Using a large kitchen bowl (a salad bowl works well), place fries with salt and toss well. Serve hot with sauce, if desired. We used the garlic mayo sauce as a dip for the frites.

Shrimp & Bacon Club with Avocado and Garlic Mayo Sauce

(Ingredients make 2 sandwiches, 1/2 for each)

6 medium thick slices bread (I used French bread here)
8 slices bacon, fried and drained well
2 leaves Bibb lettuce or small handful of spring mix, washed if need be
4 slices tomato, washed and sliced
4 slices Swiss cheese
10 medium frozen shrimp, defrosted in warm water, tails removed
Hot sauce

1 avocado, seeded and sliced
8 extra long frilly sandwich toothpicks (4 for each clubstyle sandwich)

Directions:
Add frozen shrimp to a bowl of warm water to defrost. Let sit while you fry the bacon. On a griddle or flat grill, fry bacon until crispy. Remove from grill, drain well and sit aside. Drain shrimp and pat dry with a paper towel. Lay shrimp on one side of the grill and add 2 to 3 drops of hot sauce to each. Fry on each side for 1 or 2 minutes. Set aside. Toast bread on the other side of the grill.

Assemble Sandwich:
Spread one side of each slice of bread with garlic mayo sauce.
Add 1 slice of cheese to a slice of bread and top with shrimp
Top shrimp with avocado slices
Top avocado slices with another slice of bread, mayo side down
Add mayo to the other side of the bread and add another slice of cheese
Add bacon to the cheese and top bacon with tomato slices
Top Tomato slices with lettuce and add slice of bread to top.

Here's where the tricky part starts. Stick a toothpick in each of the four sides of the bread in a cross type pattern, midway between the edge of the bread and the center. Using a bread knife, cut bread diagonally crisscrossing the sandwich in an X pattern. It's a little tricky holding it all together and cutting at the same time but you can rearrainge anything that falls out. Once sandwich is cut into four pieces, join two quarters together, end to end using toothpicks in top and bottom to secure together. Do this for each sandwich.