Oct 19 2010

Roast Beef Sandwiches

It’s time to get back to the recipes and food portion of this blog. Campbell’s soup – Dripping Roast Beef Sandwiches with Provolone Cheese was pick #2 of Dan’s dinner choices. The Campbell’s ad was in the most recent Rachael Ray magazine and like the chicken wings, super simple – only 5 ingredients.

Ingredients:
1 Can (10.5 oz.) Campbell’s Condensed French Onion Soup
1 Tablespoon Reduced Sodium Worcestershire Sauce – I used regular, didn’t have low sodium
3/4 lb. thinly sliced deli roast beef – I used a higher quality Angus cut, more expensive – but worth it!
4 Classic Soft Hoagie Rolls with Sesame Seeds
4 Slices Deli Provolone Cheese – cut in half – I used 8 thin slices folded in 1/2

Directions:

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.

Heat soup and Worcestershire in saucepan over medium-high heat to a boil.

Add beef and heat until it appears to be cooked through – stirring occasionally. Mine went from bright pink to the brown color above in 3-4 minutes.

Divide beef among the rolls.

Place rolls onto baking sheet, add roast beef and then top with provolone cheese. Bake for 3-4 minutes, or until sandwiches are toasted and cheese is melted. The recipe suggested spooning the soup mixture right onto the sandwiches, but we chose to have small bowls for dipping. I’m not a fan of super soggy bread.

The recipe also suggested pickled banana pepper rings as a sandwich topper, we passed on those.

I loved that the start to finish time was about 15 minutes – including photography.

I gave my sandwich a good dunk and enjoyed the flavor. Got the thumbs up from Dan, so yay… another simple mid-week creation when time in the kitchen is limited.

Are you a fan of Roast Beef Au Jus? Bobby Flay has a recipe that adds red wine, beef stock, thyme and salt and pepper to the beef drippings. More involved, but I’m sure a great option as well.

Campbell’s definitely simplified the process with a quick trip to the deli, bread and soup sections of your local store.

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Oct 17 2010

Apple Hill

Even though I’ve lived in Sacramento, CA for the past 11 years, I have never been to Apple Hill… until yesterday. I went with a girlfriend who just happens to be a foodie and she mapped out a route and plan for the day. She grew up in the area and has frequented Apple Hill since childhood. It was nice to go with someone that knew the place so well.

We started our day at High Hill Ranch. It was gorgeous weather and lots of people were out and about exploring the ranch. We walked around, tasted some of the good eats and took a lot of  photos. Fall was definitely in the air.

Every parent was out there with their cameras and video cameras in hand – kids were crawling all over the giant pumpkins and posing for photos in the make-shift pumpkin patch. They had an 800 lb. pumpkin/climbing structure.

We grabbed some fresh cider and then headed over to the general store area to get some donuts. We split an apple spice donut and my childhood favorite – sprinkles – they even had Halloween ghosts on them, super tasty!

We sat at an outdoor picnic table and watched the kids fish at the trout pond.

We then took a walk to the Fudge Factory Farm where I got lost in the wonderful world of chocolate.

This resulted in a box filled with 2 pieces of chocolate, 1 peanut butter and chocolate, 1 chocolate and caramel, 1 pumpkin pie and 1 piece of cookies and cream fudge. I sampled the pumpkin pie flavor and it was awesome… haven’t tried the others yet.

We then walked back to the High Hill Ranch store to get some apples and asian pears.

There are plenty of ranches at different Apple Hill stops where you can pick your own apples – we opted for the ease of dropping them right into our bags. I got 4 different varieties of apples and look forward to snacking on them all week.

Tootsie Pop – Wanna Lick?  – Probably not the most appropriate T-shirt, but a little girl did stop to tell me that her very best friend had the same shirt in pink. She was 7 – Hi, I’m 40. 🙂

I did pick up some asian pears – tried one this morning and it was really juicy.

They had apple everything…

Apple butter on a whole wheat toasted pita – pure breakfast delight.

Our next stop was Boa Vista Orchards. They had more of a farmer’s market – I picked up some corn, potatoes and a dutch caramel apple pie. We had a few people over last night for dinner and the pie was our dessert. It wasn’t the best pie I’ve ever had, we all felt like it was a little too dry. On the upside, the house smelled amazing after baking it.

Boa Vista Orchards are also known for their corn dogs – so we waited in line for those.

Donuts, apple cider, fudge, corn dogs – trust me, it gets even better.

Apple Ridge Farms was another stop of the day. Our goal there was to hit the pumpkin patch, check out the hay bail maze, petting zoo and whatever else they had in store for us.

Let’s just say that the vines are a bit of an illusion. Shhh, don’t tell the kids, but I’m pretty sure they just dumped massive amounts of pumpkins right on top of the vines. Ha!  – There were some green ones still attached, so it wasn’t a total scam.

I would have needed to take out a second mortgage on the house for this size pumpkin, but I still had fun pretending.

The farm also had BBQ tri-tip sandwiches, but we were more interested in the baked goods and apple items. My girlfriend picked up an apple turnover to take home and I got sliced granny smith apples with piping hot caramel sauce for us to share.

Yum!

and more yum…The sign of good caramel is most definitely sugar coated teeth. Yep, check… This my friends was the perfect way to eat a caramel apple. No stick, no sticky face – it exceeded all expectations.

I was so happy that it was perfect weather (high 70’s) for my first visit to Apple Hill in Placerville, CA. Today was filled with overcast skies and rain – pretty much love that too. I spent the late afternoon thumbing through cookbooks looking for soup recipes and Dan made some wheat berry bread. It was a food filled weekend for sure.

Permanent link to this article: http://foodiddy.com/?p=1909

Oct 15 2010

Arizona part II

The reason behind the Arizona trip was to attend my very good friend Joe’s wedding. We used to work together as designers at an ad agency in the bay area and have kept in touch ever since. I started making travel plans as soon as we got the invite for Joe and Terra’s wedding – 10/10/10 – very nice! I did a bunch of research online and learned that holy smokes, it’s expensive to fly from Sacramento to Phoenix on Southwest without any special deals. We ended up going with U.S. Air because of that. We flew into Phoenix, rented a car and ended up here:

The Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort and Spa – what a beautiful hotel. We spent a little time exploring after our Heart Attack Grill experience.

The backside of the hotel has a man made waterway that runs shuttle boats to Rawhide – a western town and steakhouse. It’s an 1880’s frontier town that includes live action shoot em’ up shows, horse rides, a mini train and period shops. It’s part of the Gila River Indian Community.

This photo was taken by another hotel guest.  Our boat driver was hilarious. We got to listen to the theme from the Love Boat, A Sponge Bob song, the theme from Gilligan’s Island and Will Smith’s Wild Wild West – it was too funny. We walked around the western town for a bit and then got a call from Joe inviting us to his place. He got a miniature schnauzer 4 years ago because he loved Higgins so much. It was my chance to meet Minga Von Schnauzer for the first time and to check out his new house.

She was such a love bug – made me miss Higgy. We hung out with Joe for a while and then Dan and I headed back to the hotel for drinks in the bar.

This is an outside view of the lower level of the hotel – the bar was to the right. We sat in over-sized leather club chairs which was a relaxing end to a rather busy day.

Next on the agenda in the morning was to meet up with my online friend Stephanie. We met online through my old blog. It’s been a good 6-7 years. We are part of an email group and have sent cards, gifts, texts, etc. but we had never met. I am happy to report, she is not scary. Hah! We met for breakfast at the Eggery and had a wonderful time. 2.5 hours of non-stop conversation – so happy to finally meet her and looking forward to her upcoming visit to Sacramento around the holidays.

After breakfast Dan and I decided to hit the hotel pool for a few hours before we needed to get ready for the wedding.

My girlfriend Jess always takes a foot/pool photo on her vacations, so this one is for you Jess!

The hotel has 5 pools and water slides for the kids. Something didn’t feel right about taking photos of strangers in their bathing suits laying out by the pool – so use your imagination, resort wear, fruity drinks, etc. It was pretty cool, our lounge chairs had little flags on the backs, raise the flag and the servers come right over. Haven’t enjoyed something like that since our wedding/honeymoon in Maui.

Next up… Joe and Terra’s wedding at Ocotillo Golf Club in Chandler, Arizona.

Had to get a picture of my dress as we were leaving the hotel, wish I could of gotten a photo of us together, but nobody was around. The sky just seems unreal, such a vibrant blue.

The golf course was beautiful.

The weather was perfect – not too hot with a little breeze.

The groom, Joe – looking dapper in his wedding suit. He’s in Maui right now enjoying his honeymoon – so jealous! I didn’t get a pre-wedding shot of the bride, Terra – too many people in front of us to get a good view during their vows. The ceremony was really sweet – parts made me cry.

The reception was held on an outdoor patio by waterfalls.

I loved the satin paisley fabric for the tables. I’ve never been to a reception that had a patterned table cloth, they looked gorgeous. All of the girls at my table wanted to make PJ’s out of them, LOL.

The table flowers were so simple and elegant.

Same with the cake, I loved it! – I had the chocolate layer – chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling, it was delicious! The table next to us had the vanilla layer.

The first course salad was simple and one of my favorite things of the night. Mixed greens with roasted corn, cherry tomatoes and black beans. I chose the creamy lime dressing and it was amazing. Dan had the Spanish Sherry Vinaigrette. Gotta re-create the creamy lime dressing in my own kitchen.

We basically ate by candlelight, so I don’t have any dinner food photos worth sharing.

But I did capture the swanky nacho bar before dinner – OMG, the corn relish salsa was incredible. They also had passed platters of appetizers. Southwest eggrolls and scallops. We both enjoyed several mango margaritas, yum! I also captured the Intermezzo – Lemon Sorbet garnished with fresh lime.

The perfect palate cleanser… We had a really fun table and lots of laughs were shared with new friends.

We’re so happy for Joe and Terra and glad we got to be part of their wedding celebration. The entire trip was a much needed break from our crazy over-scheduled lives. Every time we go away – even for a mini weekend getaway, it reminds us that we need to do it more often. Our financial planner/tax accountant refers to it as “marriage insurance” – love that!

I’m looking forward to planning our next getaway. Any ideas or suggestions? Where should we go for a long weekend?

Permanent link to this article: http://foodiddy.com/?p=1867