the mean, lean, sandwich machine

Since the majority of my students are seniors, and their finals were Wednesday and Thursday, I've found myself with a lot of time on my hands. I have one class that meets in the afternoon, so my days are spent packing my classroom and some general internet surfing. I've become addicted to the following sites: this one, this one, this one, and this one.

But I digress ... in addition to having more websurfing time, I've also had time to think. Think about life, about stuff, and I've got this great annoying habit of living out situations in my head before they happen, or re-living situations that have already occurred. It's like an on-going play in my head 24/7 -- yippee! Again, I digress.

Sometime last week I began dreaming up the ideal sandwich. I've recalled some different sandwiches I've encountered in my life and dreamed up my favorite -- and I put it into practice!

Behold, the sandwich (as made this morning and photo taken with camera phone in the dark). The cast of characters include: bread, cheese, turkey, veggies.

I can hear you all know saying, what's so great about it?! but just wait! (this reminds me of the time that Sara A took me to this restaurant in the Strongsville area because they had the best chicken sandwich. When we get there, I realize that she orders the grilled chicken sandwich and has them take everything but the chicken off of the bun -- she was eating slightly seasoned grilled chicken on a kaiser bun (I still laugh about it to this day, in my own head of course).

So I've found my ideal bread. It's hearty and moist all at the same time. Thank you Sara Lee for making Hearty & Delicious 100% Whole Wheat with Honey (really, go out and buy some). Then I use Muenster cheese -- it's creamy and delicious with a mild flavor, perfection. Turkey from the deli counter -- any kind will do, but pepper turkey is delicioso. I've been in love with sometime with red leaf lettuce, so I throw a few leaves of that on top, followed by some cucumber slices (yum -- are you getting hungry yet?!). Then, what really makes this sandwich spectacular is the whole green chilies. It took me 45 minutes to find the right can in the Hispanic food aisle at SuperTarget, but I did it! I only use one per sandwich, but if you're feeling brave, throw more on. I top it all off with alfalfa sprouts and either mayo or mustard (the mayo wasn't adding enough flavor for me, so I switched to stone ground mustard today. I'm thinking that the mustard won't quite go with the green chilies, and perhaps an herbed cream cheese, or a jalapeño cream cheese might... oh the possibilities!)

This is the kind of sandwich that gets me giddy for lunch. I start thinking about this sandwich at 9:30am. I WANT IT NOW!

It also makes me think of this hamburger I had in Sedona when my dad was here. It was called the Roswell burger and its was a 1/4 lb. burger with pepper jack cheese, jalapeños and whole green chilies. My dad and I often reminisce about the burger, and I know we will re-create it when I get home. I'm trying to find more things to put green chillies on --- oh the possibilities!

Aren't you hungry!?!