calzone day

i had a day off on my brother's birthday. i had mentioned making buffalo chicken calzones a week or two ago and he requested that for his birthday dinner. i've made calzones in the past when working as a pizza cook and have been making so much bread dough lately that this seemed like a walk in the park. although nothing i did during this day of cooking was particularly difficult it's was still rough day, i went way overboard.

this is some of the fried chicken, used it pretty much everything because i made a ton of cutlets.


first up was the requested item. i tossed a bunch of cut up chicken cutlet in buffalo sauce, and put homemade blue cheese dressing as a base. i got it right the first time, this was damn good.

the chicken parm calzone sprung a leak in the oven and since i'm using a baking stone i made a mess of it getting the thing out of the oven. it as good but it's a little undercooked.

this one worked

it's fried chicken, chorizo, caramalized onions, and hot sauce. i was full of fried chicken at this point and barely remember eating this.

this last one was chorizo, pepperoni, and bell pepper i believe. i was at food coma stage when i made it.
here's a few odds and ends to better show the extent of the day's feasting.

tub o' chicken cutlets.

calzone dough, made bread when out of the extra doughs when i realized no one could eat any more.

needed red sauce, mixed sauce from the freezer with a small batch i made out of ingredients on the shelf. ended up being meat sauce. it was good but i didnt need that much sauce so i made pasta as well. forgot to take a picture of it but it was something along the lines of bolognese.

homemade coleslaw, nuff said.

my blue cheese dressing, can't go back to bottled.
i also made a pan of dark chocolate brownies but i dont have picture, but i'll provided a likeness

mighta been a little darker but close enough.

not a sandwich, kinda just showing off

this is a raspberry espresso cake with vanilla butter cream.

i dusted it with shaved bitter chocolate and espresso ground coffee

the filling is a coffee raspberry jam, i also soaked a few shots of espresso into the cake.

this is the best cake i've ever made, that's not saying much but it's fucking delicious.

another day off well spent

i tend to pick up beef ribs every time i go to the butcher shop. today i had two racks in my freezer and a day off; i knew what i had to do. i had to slow cook them, make bread, and eat a shredded beef rib sandwich. the only question was what i was going to braise them in. with the ingredients at hand, lots of canned tomatoes, fresh herbs, and good provolone cheese; i chose to make an italian beef sandwich.


i cut the racks in half, seared them, and made a tomato sauce in the pan. i then squeezed the ribs into the pan trying to submerge them as much as possible.

i then dumped a can of tomato sauce over the ribs and sprinkled with oregano. i then covered and put in a 350 degree oven.

this is after an hour or two. the meat is almost ready to come off the bone.

the bread for the day, a couple baguettes for sandwich rolls and some breaded rolls to snack on.

here's the final sandwich meat, tender and delicious.



i split the roll, filled it with the beef mixture and then topped with basil, parsley, and shredded provolone cheese.

looks damn near as good as it tastes.

two kinds of loaf this time

i've known all week that my mom wanted to make meatloaf today. i didn't like the idea of somebody cooking instead of me on my day off; with that and a little random inspiration i was off. i had to have the best meatloaf sandwich ever and i wanted to have fun in the process. i decided to make an onion baguette to use for the bread on my meatloaf sandwich.

instead of looking up an onion bread recipe i chose to take the baguette recipe i use and add a shitload of onion to it, i could've used onion powder instead of a little flour but i wanted to do this right. before i started the dough i caramelized five diced small onions until golden brown. i spread them thin on a sheet pan and set them to cool. they cooled by the time the yeast was ready to use.

the bread turned out great, my first attempt at my own kind of bread.

the bread tastes just how i want it to, i'm considering boil it and making bagels next time.

i made sure to get the meatloaf made myself because i wanted my own kind of cooking, i let my mom cook because i wanted a nap; she cooks the loaf better than i do but i make the meat better.

the bread is nice and soft like a sub roll, taste quite a bit like onion.

i dressed the sandwich with gravy, brown mustard, and cheddar cheese.

i was really looking forward to this, haven't had meatloaf in a long time. this sandwich met my expectations and then some.

an old favorite

i developed a fondness for cajun and creole cooking from watching emeril growing up. i use a lot of the spices and recipe ideas in much of my cooking. today i'm going to pay homage to the food of new orleans by making my take on a shrimp po' boy. in general terms this is a fried shrimp sandwich topped with lettuce and hot sauce.



my dad rambles on about hard rolls all the time so i decided to make a batch for this sandwich, they're chewy with a nice crust, i went with the sesame for my sammich.

i breaded the shrimp in seasoned flour, a mix of egg, hot sauce, and milk, and then plain bread crumbs. i shallow fried the shrimp, i think this gives them the best crust possible; i'm not a fan of batter in general.

here's my condiments of choice, the obvious ones are hot sauce and lettuce. in the bowl is a remoulad, a mayonnaise based sauce. instead of using mayo i made my own. i started with a base of ketchup, lemon juice, hot sauce, relish, and spices. i blended that with eggs then slowly blended in oil. it's like a spicy tartar sauce.

here you have it, a base of the remoulad with fried shrimp, lettuce, and hot sauce. a simple yet incredible sandwich. i haven't made one of these in a couple years, it's been way too long.


here is a spicy red stew i made to with the sandwiches. it's chorizo, steak, shallot, celery, and potatoes braised in lime liqueur, spicy v8, chicken broth and spices. i also simmer shrimp shells and whole cloves wrapped in cheese cloth in the stew to add additional flavor. that sandwich was fucking delicious, but this shit right here; this shit right here. so good.

a quick dinner

just regained my appetite after having a stomach bug. this happened about an hour after my brother ordered food so i gotta make something out of nothing. i got a frozen shell sirloin steak in the freezer, an onion, some salami, cheese, and a stale roll; i'm making a fucking steak bomb, this should be a good test for my ailing stomach.


i thawed the steak in cold water for like 5 minutes, just enough to make it pliable. i then sliced it thin, dice up half an onion, and sliced some salami; in perfect world i'd have some bell pepper as well but this'll do.

i tossed it all in a pan and cooked it til it looked just about done then topped it with american cheese and called it done when the cheese melted. i also toasted the stale bun so it would be edible.

not my best sandwich but a damn good steak bomb none the less.

starting off the new year with a bang

i've been working a lot the past couple of weeks, and from being active i feel as though i've lost some weight. i don't believe a person should come out of the holiday season thinner than he went in so i'm gonna make one of the most glutenous and amazing sandwiches ever, the brazilian sandwich. there are many forms of this sandwich, but generally it's a burger, an egg, corn, and some pork products.


for the occasion i decided to make a Portuguese style roll. http://www.sacramentophcs.com/recipes.htm we buy these all the time for sandwiches so i wanted to try a homemade version. they're perfect sandwich bread.

the main focus of the sandwich is the burger, i made a thinner burger than usual and topped it with american cheese.

next up is the pork products. i always use chorizo so i decided not to this time. i had bacon, mortadella, and hot ham in the fridge.


gotta fry off the deli meats to add some flavor.

the beginning of construction. that's a burger topped with ketchup, bacon, and corn with mayo on the opposite bun; mayo placement is more important than you may think

next i fry an egg, with the yolk broken, and top it with the deli meats.

on top of the meats is a tomato slice, then lettuce, and on top of the lettuce hot sauce. this is where mayo placement comes into play; something about the lettuce, then hot sauce, then mayo combo makes a huge difference in the deliciousity of the sandwich.

here's the final product, a delicious abomination that'll probably get me sent to hell but goddamn is this sandwich worth burning for.