Panini

Steak and White Cheddar Panini Sliders

February 23, 2015

Have you ever fallen in love with a dish from a restaurant, to the point where you continue to go to the same restaurant everyday for a week ordering said dish each and every time? Yeah, that hasn’t happened to me either, so I don’t know what you’re talking about. If it did happen to me, I’d probably have to come clean about the fact that I’ve been ordering the same steak and white cheddar panini everyday for lunch over the last week. Okay, last couple of weeks. That’s totally normal. I’ve been getting smarter though, I’ve started ordering the sandwich online now and picking it up in different disguises so that the workers don’t recognize me and think I have a problem. But the truth is I do have a problem. My problem is golden brown toasted ciabatta filled with sliced steak, caramelized red onions, melted white cheddar and a creamy horseradish sauce that makes this sandwich so irresistible.

Just in case you’re wondering what restaurant serves this amazing sandwich, it’s Panera. Sure, it’s not the fanciest of places and yeah okay, they are everywhere, but you’d be surprised just how great their paninis are. It’s far more than a guilty pleasure. It’s awesome and super convenient for me because it’s right down the street, making it easy for me whenever I want a quick lunch. I get the half and half lunch special. Half a panini and half a cup of soup (baked potato soup or broccoli cheddar) with a tiny bag of kettle chips. It doesn’t get much better than that. So recently I’ve been telling anyone who’ll listen just how great this sandwich is. I’ve told my mom, my sisters, Julian, my cat Napoleon, the mailman, the guy next to me at the gas station. Literally everyone. I’m not ashamed to admit that I have a problem. So much so that I wanted to, no, needed to recreate this sandwich at home. I thought transforming it into sliders would be the best decision I’d ever make in my life because I could eat more than one and not feel guilty in the slightest.

I like this recipe a lot because it’s easy to whip up. It’s one of those that doesn’t require a lot of thinking in the kitchen, which is nice and sometimes much needed. I’m around food all day long, cooking, baking, photographing and of course, writing about it. It’s no surprise that sometimes I get to the end of the day and the last thing I want to do is cook. This is the type of recipe that you can turn off your brain and get it going without stressing too much about any complicated steps or ingredients. Those are the best kinds of recipes, if you ask me. Not to mention that sliders are my life and I’m always down for making any kind of slider. I’m Slider King of the World, remember?!

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Grilled Chicken Pesto Panini

December 29, 2014

This year Santa was really good to me, almost too good, but I’m definitely not complaining. I’m no fool. I want to make sure I stay on his good side. So as I was saying, Christmas. The best thing I unwrapped under the tree, aside from the pack of warm socks of course (I really love socks) was a brand spanking new panini press! A panini press, can you believe it? I haven’t been this excited since I was a kid and got a large bucket full of legos that one time. (Santa did good that year too). I’ve been in a daze ever since I ripped away that snowman paper and uncovered the panini grill and all of it’s glory. I may or may not have danced around the living room. Warm crusty bread in my eyes and melted bubbly cheese on my mind. I can’t get enough of it all. I plan on making nothing but panini for the remainder of my life. Every single day. I mean, unless I’m craving some pizza or soup or salad or something. Okay, maybe not every day. That’s not realistic, but definitely every other day. That’s for sure. All the panini we could ever possibly want. Panini for days. I’ll make it rain down panini. I’ll be the next panini king. I’ll let that information just sink it for a bit. You can thank me later.

Christmas is unfortunately over and New Year’s Eve is in a few days. What are we gonna do now?! I know we’re all in vacation mode, looking forward to the New Year, so I wanted to make and post something that would be easy for us to whip up without all of the hassle of an overly complicated dish or dessert. Sometimes it’s nice to just get in the kitchen and not have to think too hard about certain recipes and steps for once. So I decided to take my swanky new panini press out for a test drive and bring you this Grilled Chicken Pesto Panini recipe. It’s nothing fancy or anything, but it happens to be my favorite combination of flavors between two pieces of grilled bread. Did I mention the melted cheese?

If you’re currently on a little holiday vacation from work or school, gather up the ingredients and give this panini a try because if you don’t, you’ll be sorry. That’s not really a threat or anything, you’ll really just be sorry and sad because you missed out on the opportunity to eat the best sandwich you’ll ever eat. I’m not exaggerating. It’s the best. If you need me, I’ll be making panini non-stop and wearing warm socks because that’s what Santa wants me to do. Thank you, Santa. Thank you.

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Caprese Panini and Roasted Tomato Soup

September 30, 2013

I have the craziest soup stories of when I was a child. Nothing out of this world crazy, like all I ever wanted to eat as a kid was soup or anything like that. This is a whole other level of crazy. This kind of weirdness I blame on my mother, and now of course I’m sure my mom is somewhere reading this thinking, “Oh naturally, the mothers are always the first to get blamed.” But the truth of the matter is that this is in fact her fault. Where should I begin? I guess I should start from the beginning and when I get to the end, I’ll stop. You should know that I only like eating soup on the hottest days of the year. No that’s not a typo, you read that right. The hottest days of the year. That’s when I want a steaming bowl of soup the most. Not on cold rainy days, like normal people; no I crave soup when the sun is blazing and when we’re all wearing nothing but shorts and tanks. When it’s so hot outside and you’ll do anything to cool off, that’s when I want soup. In the worst possible way. When you’re drenched in sweat because it’s so freaking hot and when the last thing you’ll want to do is eat soup, that’s when I’ll want nothing but soup.

So where does my mother come into this picture? How is it her fault you ask? Well she would only make soup for us on the hottest days of the year. We’re talking about full-on big pot of soup boiling away on the stove while the sun is baking the world outside. I’d be playing in the backyard while my mother cooked, and I remember staring up and seeing the windows full of condensation and steaming from the heat radiating not only outside but inside as well. I knew she was making soup. We all knew. Her reasoning behind it—and to this day I have the same reasoning now because of her—is that the heat from the soup will cool you off. Heat cancels off heat. I’m not sure if and how that works but somehow it made sense. I didn’t question it, and if there was anything I learned as a kid, it was that mothers are always right. Write that down.

So there I was, little ol’ young me drinking my hot soup on a hot day not knowing that something was off. Thinking that every kid ate soup on scorching sunny days. Totally normal. Of course I ate the soup without hesitation because if I’m being honest, it’s the best soup I’ve ever eaten. My mom makes really great soup and I’m not just saying this because I’m throwing her under the bus here. Now that I’m older I’ve come to the realization that hot summer soups, isn’t a thing. No matter how much my mom wishes it were. So for those of you who love soup during the cold seasons—what an odd thing to crave on cold days really—I decided to make a soup post. Much like everything in life, soup is a lot better with a side of bread. Bread wasn’t enough for me though so I decided to make this soup with a side of a sandwich. An accompaniment of a sandwich wasn’t sufficient enough for me however, so I decided to serve the soup alongside a panini. A boring panini wasn’t going to cut it, so I stuffed this one with lots of fresh mozzarella and tomatoes and a homemade basil spread that is super addicting. Although soup is only tasty when it is served in the summer (thanks mom) I’m willing to overlook that little tidbit because this soup and sandwich combo is up there on the deliciousness scale. Get at it folks.

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