Pan Bagnat, also reverently called The Sandwich

This big fat sandwich has the official name of Pan Bagnat. I would occasionally take it to work and plop three heavy Florida stature books on top to crush it. Seeing me appear to destroy my lunch a coworker asked about it, seeing the end result he knew he had to have the sandwich. That’s how it had been referred to after that, in a lowered almost reverential tone.

Oh, you brought the sandwich.....and you could see the envy on his face. Ha!




Once you load it up with ingredients you like, wrap it up so the juices don’t leak out.

Pan Bagnat

Here’s what you need!

1 baguette

1 garlic clove

olive oil

tomato

cucumber

onion

hard boiled eggs

Marinated artichoke hearts

olives

cheese

salt and pepper

sliced turkey (or leave the meat off to make it all vegetarian)

optional: whatever else sounds good.

Slice bread in half lengthwise but not all the way through. Rub pressed garlic on bread or just slices of garlic if you do not have mushy pressed available. Slather generous amounts of olive oil then layer sliced tomato, cucumber, onions, marinated artichokes and olives. Layer on whatever you like then season with salt and pepper.

Once wrapped up with plastic wrap and foil, you’ll want to crush it. This melds all those flavors into the bread, mingling with each other.

Here is a snap from a previous sandwich. It’s packed.

Sharing with Deb at Kahakai Kitchen for the Souper Sunday event.

Roasted chicken dinner and The Night of Bad Luck

Recently we purchased a new television.  We don't have cable feed but we still enjoy watching movies and documentaries checked out of the library. The big TV is set up and Doug hooks up the blue ray/4K DVD player.  I'm hopeless with electronics so that's  his area.  
It's connected and wow what a picture!  We tried a 4K movie right away and it was great. We watched The Matrix.

The night of bad luck: So....days later we are all set to watch Gemini Man which we rented from Redbox. He makes a reservation for pick up and that always works.  Nope, couldn't find his reservation so he had to call Redbox.  Fortunately they had a copy and we rented one and weren't charged twice. 

We go pick up a pizza from a local place that is usually fantastic.  Local joint and we like supporting local businesses.  We get home and the pizza is burnt on the crust.  It's barely edible.  Oh well, we will "suffer through it" as we live pretty far from the restaurant and aren't going to head back out.

Pop in the movie and it wouldn't play, the DVD player wouldn't pop up a menu and clearly we had a bad player.  Arrggh!  It would play a 4K movie but not a DVD or Blueray.  Ok, adapting again we put in a brand new copy of Passengers (in 4K as it's the only thing the player will read).  The movie has gaps in the audio!  Every few words would blank out!  
Bottom line is we watched a different movie and had to send the DVD player and that copy of Passengers back to Amazon.  What a night! For what it's worth the restaurant gave us a $25 gift card for the inconvenience.  Just one of those evenings where everything went wrong.

Enough of that story - Let's take dinner plans!

I have a new addiction. Carole's Panko mushrooms. We had these again as an appetizer and yes, I made more than I thought we'd want. And we ate them :-)



Our main dish was an easy roasted chicken meal with halved cherry tomatoes, onions, olive oil, basil and oregano. 



Next time I am popping some whole garlic cloves in there.  Roasted garlic is fabulous smeared on fresh bread.




The chicken dinner lasted for two nights and as this left two smaller chicken thighs, I decided to make the most of it and create a chicken salad.  Very little mayo but lots of the flavors of the olive oil, roasted tomatoes and onions.  Sliced tomato and lettuce made it a hearty enough lunch.  Highly recommended.

Sharing with

Deb's Kahakai Kitchen Souper Sunday event

Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking

Carnitas sandwiches and Soupy Thai Chicken

Food and Books.  Two things I look forward to very much. I have been getting a bit of reading in while we hang around with Aja, getting her out for short walks to assist her recovery.  From this photo you can barely tell one leg is shaved.





I'm going to have some offerings for Deb's Souper Sunday this week.

Using up the leftover Carnitas I made last week was easy with buns. We had pulled pork sandwiches, Carnitas style. Recipe here. I also prepared homemade mac and cheese. Extra sharp cheese, please.



Also last week we tried a new (to us) Thai restaurant in north side Tallahassee. I can tell you we will be back. It was the best Pad Thai Doug ever had and my Chicken Noodle bowl was soupy and delicious.



The portions are very generous



Hoping we can eat there again soon and I’ll try and duplicate a few of their offerings.

Coming up I’d like to post some photos of our camping trip at St George Island state park. We had a good time and good food despite the electricity shutting the park down our first night and a campstove breaking. The weather was mostly good there were a few clear nights where the stars were absolutely gorgeous.

Sharing with

Deb's Kahakai Kitchen Souper Sunday event

Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking

Cleaning out the fridge with leftovers makes for a good Chicken and Rice soup

It's been eventful around here with my retirement, Aja's  ligament tear and subsequent surgery, my abscessed tooth finally getting pulled (alas, no root canal) and cancelled camping trips.  Even the champagne we bought to celebrate had to wait until this week (more on that later.)

It's all quiet on this front now though and we are ready for some camping trips.  Hence cleaning out the fridge so can make use of leftovers and not return to anything suspect.




I had a container of brothy short grain rice, a lonely few carrots and mushrooms, fresh corn and leftover roasted chicken.  Do we really need a recipe for this?  Nope!  Add seasoning and spices per taste.  I used salt, pepper, garlic powder and oregano. 

Here's a bowl with cheddar cheese as a topping.



Here is a bowl without.  Let me say we also used onions and fresh garlic.  It was quite good for two large lunches.




Coming up I will shared that roasted chicken dinner which included roasted balsamic onions and some of my bookish goals for next year.  Here's a parting shot at the library loot I grabbed at the library yesterday.  It's also posted on Instagram.

The Fiona Barton novel is quite good so far and it will ride along to St George Island with us.



Sharing with Deb at Kahakai Kitchen for Souper Sunday.  
Check out her Seafood Stew Here.

Panko Mushrooms

I know some of my blogging friends are not fans of the mushroom but we love ‘em. Hence I finally got around to making a recipe from Carole's Chatter, check out her version HERE. As soon as I saw these breaded mushrooms I knew one day I needed to try them.



Success! As an appetizer they were excellent and we scarfed down the entire batch. Wish I’d made more. Next time I am taking Carole’s suggestion and adding a bit of cayenne pepper for a boost.

Here is a photo where I dipped it in blue cheese dressing as a dip. Honestly, if you like mushrooms you will love these bad boys. Thank you, Carole!

Simply place Panko in a bowl, beat an egg with sour cream, salt and pepper in another bowl. Add any spice to boost it if you please.

Destalk white button mushrooms and rinse to clean. Pat dry. Dip in egg mixture then roll in Panko. Fry them up!

Make twice as many as you think you’d like to eat. Trust me.

Sharing with:

Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking Series

The first 2020 edition of In My Kitchen

I haven't participated in the In Your Kitchen event for a few months.  So maybe this new year will get me motivated to do so more often.

My husband makes the best French toast!



Our son Tristan gave me a beautiful cutting board for Christmas. It's already gotten a workout.



This is a slow cooker recipe I have been wanting to try. Stay tuned for that one in January



Potato soup with sausage. This isn't the best photo but you can see it simmering.



Sharing with Sherry's In Your Kitchen event & Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking.

Happy New Year! Let’s start with Jambalaya !

Happy New Year to all. We have certainly had a hectic end to 2019. There has been some good and bad. Actually the bad is more of an unfortunate circumstance because we will all recover from Aja’s torn cruciate ligament. Wallet included! Her surgery went well and her recovery is great for a 17 year old dog.

I haven’t made any resolutions this year, enjoying being newly retired and feeling like a bum with income. Doug heard that phrase recently from another retired guy....it fits the bill :-).

I have some reading goals, maybe try the family history research again and hoping we can travel more.

This year I’d like to hook up with more online cooking events so I’ll start by sharing a Jambalaya for I Heart Cooking Club. I saw a Jamie Oliver recipe for it and just adapted it to our tastes.

This is a variation of a Jamie Oliver recipe I found online HERE.

My version is to cook sausage and  then set aside. Add chicken thighs and cook about 5 minutes each side, then remove. Now sauté onion, garlic, bell pepper until softened. Tip in a cup and a half of long grain rice and stir through. Add a little more than 3 cups of chicken broth and stir. Add a can of chopped tomatoes with the juice. Nestle the sausage and chicken into the rice mixture.

Cover your Dutch oven and simmer on a low heat, stirring occasionally so the rice doesn’t stick. After 15 minutes toss some cut okra in the pot. Oh, I also used oregano, 2 bay leaves, smoked paprika & Old Bay.

Sharing with I Heart Cooking Club And Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking event.