Easy fall weeknight meal: Cranberry Cheese Melt

Recipe name: Cranberry Cheese Melt
Source: no idea
Servings: 4
Cookbook date: October 26

2 oz cream cheese
2 oz shredded gouda or swiss
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
8 slices bread
1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup whole berry cranberry sauce
1/2 cup shredded cheddar

Mix cream cheese, gouda and walnuts and spread on half the slices of bread. Top with cranberry sauce, onion, cheddar cheese and remaining bread. Spray large skillet. Heat over medium heat until sandwiches brown on the bottom. Spray tops of sandwiches and turn to heat the other side.

The first time I made this sandwich I didn't care for it, and that is because I do not like raw onion. The second time I made it, I sauteed the onions before putting them in the sandwich, and that move totally saved this recipe, in my opinion. It is easy to throw together, has a taste that is a bit different from standard weeknight fare, and would go very well with a cup of hot soup on a chilly night. Enjoy!

Eewy gooey monte cristo sandwich

Recipe name: Monte Cristo Sandwich
source: Food Network
servings 1 sandwich
Cookbook date: May 21
Date prepared:

3 slices white bread
Mayonnaise, as needed
2 slices Gouda
2 slices turkey
3 large eggs, beaten
1/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Strawberry slices, for garnish
Orange wedges, for garnish

Serving suggestion: Blackberry jam

On a work surface, lay out 2 slices of bread and spread with mayonnaise. Top each slice with the 1 slice of Gouda and 1 slice of turkey each. Put the third slice of bread on top of one stack, and flip the remaining stack on top, cheese-side down, to make a triple-decker sandwich.

Using a knife, cut the crusts off the sandwich (this helps to pinch and seal the ends). Wrap the sandwich tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 6 hours. (Wrapping the sandwich in plastic wrap, compacts it, and prevents the egg batter from seeping in.)

Combine the eggs and milk in a bowl. Heat the oil and butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Unwrap the sandwich and dip it in the egg batter, to coat evenly. Gently place it in the skillet, and fry, turning once, until golden brown and hot, about 5 minutes total.

Cut the Monte Cristo in 1/2, transfer it to a place, and garnish with the strawberry and orange. Spoon some jam over each 1/2 and serve immediately.

Tim here. Well both Tiffany and I didn't much care for this one. Overall we thought it was too greasy of a dish, even with me cutting the amount of oil and butter by half. I didn't have any slices of cheese, just shredded, so it was hard to gauge how much equaled a slice. Being a cheese lover I erred on the side of too much cheese and it was, well, too much. Besides being greasy and heavy there wasn't a lot to the taste of the meal. I don't think we will be trying this one again. If you have a monte cristo recipe you think rocks we would love to hear about it.

value: ****
time: **
taste: *

Chicken Satay Salad Sammies

Recipe name: Chicken Satay Salad Sammies
source: Rachel Ray (Food Network)
servings: 4
Cookbook date: May 19
Date prepared:

1 1/2 pounds thin cut chicken breast meat (cutlets)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Grill seasoning (recommended: Grill Mates Montreal Steak Seasoning by McCormick) or coarse salt and pepper
3 rounded tablespoons chunky peanut butter
3 tablespoons dark soy sauce, eyeball it
1/4 cup apple juice, eyeball it
2 teaspoons hot sauce, eyeball it
1 lime, juiced
1/4 seedless cucumber, thinly sliced lengthwise then cut into sticks
1 cup shredded carrots
2 cups shredded lettuce, iceberg or hearts of romaine
4 crusty rolls, keisers or subs, split

Heat a grill pan or large nonstick skillet to medium high to high heat. Coat chicken in oil and grill seasoning and cook 3 minutes on each side in 2 batches. Pile up meat and shred it with a sharp knife.

Place peanut butter in a medium, microwave safe bowl and soften in the microwave on high for 20 seconds. Whisk soy, apple juice, hot sauce and lime juice into peanut butter. Toss chicken with satay sauce. Combine shredded veggies. Place 1/4 of veggies on sandwich bottoms and top with 1/4 satay chicken mixture. Set the bun tops in place and serve or wrap for travel.

Just a heads up, this is Tim, Tiffany's husband. We will be jointly posting on this blog with the "lead" cook taking the responsibility for posting about the dish. I made a few changes to the dish to make it work for us. Once again I used the George Foreman as it was faster and tastier than pan grilled chicken. In fact we had some left over grilled chicken left over so I didn't even have to grill the recipe.

I noticed that the recipe suggested to "eyeball" the measurements so I did. Anybody who knows anything about how I cook knows how out of character this is for me. I like to do everything by the book, at least for the first time I do the recipe. I may have been tired or lazy, probably both, so I just put in approximations of the amounts. The only thing I cut out was the cucumber, yuck.

My overall impressions of this dish is that it was very fast and easy and didn't create a lot of dishes to be cleaned. The sauce wasn't that flavorful, although that may have been my fault not the recipe's That being said I liked the fact I could still taste the grilled chicken, bun and veggies instead of just the sauce. Tiffany on the other hand didn't really care for the sauce or the dish in general. I'm not sure if we will cook it again since only one of us liked the dish but take my advice and try it out.

expense: ***
time: ****
taste: **

Trying my hand at homemade chicken bbq

Recipe name: Smoky Orange Barbecue Chicken Sandwiches
source: Rachel Ray (Food Network)
servings: 4
Cookbook date: May 14
Date prepared: May 17 (lunch)

1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup orange juice concentrate
1 orange, zested and cut into wedges, for garnish
1 cup chicken broth
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
vegetable oil, for drizzling
grill seasoning
romaine lettuce
sliced red onions
4 crusty rolls, split, toasted and buttered
(note: RR's recipe includes instructions on making cole slaw, which I did not attempt)

Preheat a grill pan or griddle pan over medium-high heat. Heat a small saucepan over moderate heat. Add oil and onion. Saute onion in oil for 3-5 minutes or until onions are soft. Combine chipotle peppers in adobo, ketchup, orange juice, orange zest and chicken broth in a blender. blend on high until sauce is smoother. Pour sauce into saucepan with onion and heat to a bubble. Reduce heat to simmer. Coat chicken lightly with a drizzle of oil and season breasts with grill seasoning blend. Grill 5-6 minutes on the first side, turn. remove 1/2 of the barbecue sauce to a small bowl and baste chicken liberally with it. turn chicken after 4 minutes, coat with sauce again and cook another 2-3 minutes. To serve sandwiches, slice grilled chicken on an angle and fan out 1 breast on each bun bottom. Spoon remaining sauce from saucepan over the sliced chicken. serve open faced with the lettuce and red onions setting on bun tops to the side.

Well, this was certainly an adventure. First, I should tell you about my substitutions in light of what was hanging out in my fridge today. First, I had 5 chipotle peppers in adobo, not 3, and I didn't want to save 2 for later. So I used them all. This resulted in my mouth dying a thousand deaths, but we'll get to that in a minutes. Second, I used yellow onions instead of red, and I didn't have any romaine lettuce, but I did have spinach. Greens are greens, right? Furthermore, the recipe called for ketchup, but I actually had some half-used barbecue sauce in the fridge, so I added that instead.

While I was making this, everything was going along rather smoothly untilI reached the point where I had to blend all of the ingredients together. I realized then that I had not followed the instructions correctly. I added the peppers, bbq sauce, oj, zest and broth to the onions and they were already rather hot. "No big deal," I thought. I transferred everything to the blender, turned it on, and witnessed the mass destruction of everything within a 4 foot radius of the blender.

So evidently the steam from the sauce created pressure in the blender that could not be contained. Oops. After throwing out several choice words to the universe and quickly wiping up the mess, I proceeded with the recipe. I used the George Foreman to grill the chicken, which saved a bit of time.

The first picture is what my dish looked like when all was said and done. I observed that the sauce was of a most unfortunate consistency....very runny, and not reminiscent at all of a condiment that you would top any sort of burger with. But I have had many more winners than losers with Rachel Ray's recipes, so I thought I might as well dig in.

And that, my friends, is when I proceeded to take a handful of years off of my life. How can I describe the heat in this sauce? Words fail me here, so just try to imagine me chugging down my whole glass of water, then chomping as fast as I could on extra spinach leaves like a cow with indigestion. Finding no relief with these methods, I then went for the milk (oh yes, right out of the jug). And in a last ditch effort, I literally ran around the house hoping to sweat it out with exercise. I've been working on this post for about 10 minutes, and I'm just now starting to get the feeling back in my mouth. Perhaps I have a more British palette than your average Joe, and you may find this recipe to be quite satisfying. I will be taking a pass on this one. And now I have to go flush my eyes out because I just touched my eye, and now it is on fire. Smoky Orange Chicken BBQ sandwich, I officially hate you.

expense: ***
time: ***
taste: *