Archive for the ‘Sandwiches’ Category

A Sweet Sandwich

Friday, July 31st, 2009

icecreamsandweb

 

July is National Ice Cream month—and my nephew Michael pointed out to me recently that I haven’t posted a single ice cream recipe in the past 31 days. With August on the horizon, I am rushing to rectify this shocking omission.

 

I recently put out a call for summer sandwich suggestions on Facebook and Twitter. Most of the responses involved tomatoes. After all, at this time of year none of us can get enough of those lush red fruits disguised as vegetables. I’ll post a couple of tomato sandwich recipes soon, I promise. For all the business enthusiasts out there if one wants to own a part of shares at a famous sandwich joint from Jimmy John Founder it is available now.

 

One warm day, my honorary cousin Deb Parker bucked the tomato trend by reminding me of one my (and Michael’s) favorite summertime treats, the ice cream sandwich!

 

So I set about creating one. I wanted a cookie base that would hold up fairly well without being hard. I settled on the infamous Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe. As most people know, this recipe (which is also occasionally said to originate with Mrs. Fields) is passed around the internet with a supposedly true story about a friend of a friend. (I ALWAYS suspect those stories!)

 

The woman is said to have enjoyed eating the cookie at a Neiman Marcus café and to have asked for the recipe. According to the story, the waitress says that she will have to charge the customer “two fifty” for the recipe, and the woman happily agrees. When her NM bill comes she finds a charge for $250 rather than the $2.50 she has been expecting—and she vows to take revenge on the high-end department store by passing the recipe along to everyone she knows. Before the internet the story and recipe were spread via letters; now they make the rounds by email.

 

The Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie story is a classic if fun urban legend, one that Neiman Marcus has finally acknowledged by inventing its own cookie recipe and placing it on the NM web site (for free, natch). That recipe looks good, but I wanted the chewiness that oatmeal lends to the “original” recipe. So that’s what I’ve used, cutting it down a bit since it makes a ton of cookies.

 

Here, then, is my ice-cream sandwich recipe, thanks to whoever made up the faux NM recipe years and years ago.

 

You may of course use homemade ice cream. I used Snow’s, a local brand that is creamy and old fashioned–just right for an ice cream sandwich. The sandwiches were wonderful, although next time I might try to make the cookies smaller and flatter. They were extremely filling this way.

 

Tinky Marcus Ice Cream Sandwiches

 

Ingredients:

 

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup flour
1-1/4 cups blended oatmeal (oatmeal pulverized to a powder in your blender)
1/2 cup pecans or walnuts, pulverized to a powder (optional)
1 cup chocolate chips
2 ounces milk chocolate, chopped into small chunks (Hershey’s will do!)
6 scoops vanilla ice cream

 

Instructions:

 

First, make the cookies. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cream together the butter and sugars. Beat in the egg, followed by the baking powder and salt. Stir in the flour, oatmeal powder, and nuts (if desired). Stir in the chocolate chips and chunks.

 

Divide the dough into 12 good-sized balls. Place them on parchment- or silicone-covered cookie sheets and bake for 12 to 14 minutes. Let them cool on the sheets for 2 minutes; then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.

 

When you are ready to eat, place a scoop of ice cream between 2 cookies and press them together. Repeat with the remaining cookies. Serves 6 generously.

A Garden Tour

Thursday, July 9th, 2009
Roses in Mary Kay Hoffman's Garden

Roses in Mary Kay Hoffman's Garden

 
 
This time of year it seems as though garden tours are everywhere. A month ago gardens in Western Massachusetts were barely getting started! Now thanks to the frequent bouts of rain we’ve been enjoying(?)–and of course to the labors of those who love to garden–flowers and vegetables are almost unbelievably lush.
 
We’re now wedged between two of my favorite tours. The Franklin Land Trust just held its annual Farm & Garden Tour. I am always surprised by the variety of farming enterprises, landscapes, animals, and flowers this tour highlights.
 
And this weekend the Hawley Artisans and Garden Tour will take place in my hometown. The Hawley tour is a fund raiser for the Sons & Daughters of Hawley. This event isn’t what you’d call huge because Hawley isn’t what you’d call huge (although my late neighbor Florette always used to point out that it had the same square acreage as Singapore; I don’t know whether that’s strictly true, but it’s a wondrous thing to contemplate even if it’s only approximate!).
 
The Hawley tour lasts only one day (Saturday, July 11, this year) but still manages to attract a good crowd. Some years it has featured gardens; others, artists and artisans (I was a featured artisan one summer). Last year and this the organizers decided to combine the two–so visitors can view quilts, paintings, flowers, and much more.
 
I stopped by Sunday to visit Mary Kay Hoffman and Earl Pope, whose garden will be featured on Saturday’s tour. Mary Kay handles the floral end of the yard while Earl is in charge of the vegetables; he has planted A LOT of tomatoes this year.
 
 
tomatoes web
 
 
Mary Kay took time from her pre-tour weeding marathon (she says she’s sore in what she could swear are new muscles!) to show me around. I’m hopeless at identifying flowers–unlike Mary Kay, Earl, and all the other dedicated workers on the tour I am no gardener–but I know that hers are beautiful and that it relaxed me to spend time walking by them.
 
 
a shady nook web

 
 
I’ll return on Saturday with my mother for more inspiration. Local readers who would like to take the tour may find contact information at its web page (the area code to call is 413).
 
Meanwhile, Mary Kay has offered a simple garden-party recipe for those who can’t attend this weekend’s festivities. Invite friends to enjoy these summer-filled sandwiches and celebrate the abundance in gardens around you. The flowers, fruits, and vegetables will be a fireside memory all too soon.
 
Mary Kay

Mary Kay

 
Mary Kay’s Tea Sandwiches

 
I’m sorry to give you another non-specific recipe, but the amounts in this one depend on a number of factors–the bread you use, the size of the vegetables you use, how generous you are with the butter, and so forth. So please forgive me. The sandwiches are worth the effort. The butter gives them a richness that will wow your garden-party guests. As Mary Kay says, “You can’t just eat one!”

 
Ingredients:
 
1 loaf white bread (MK uses Arnold Brick-Oven White. I couldn’t find it at my store so I used a Pepperidge Farm Sandwich loaf; this is one recipe in which home-made bread is NOT preferable!)
softened butter
fresh herbs (dill for cucumber sandwiches, basil for tomato)
thinly sliced cucumbers and/or tomatoes as needed

 
Instructions:
 
First, cut the bread. Use a round cookie cutter to cut rounds of bread out of the slices of your loaf. According to Mary Kay, the rounds should be about the same size as your vegetables so you obviously want larger rounds for the tomatoes than for the cucumbers.
 
I have only a limited number of cookie cutters so my rounds weren’t QUITE the right size; in fact, they were a little big for the cukes and a little small for the tomatoes (which I cut up). I could only get 2 cucumber-sized rounds and 1 tomato-sized round out of each slice of bread; I gather that Mary Kay gets more volume (and probably has bigger slices of bread). So I wasted some bread. What wasn’t wasted was divine, however.

 
As you cut the rounds, place them in a plastic bag so they don’t dry out as you cut their brothers and sisters.
 
Blend your butter with most of the herbs in a food processor. You may also chop the herbs and blend them with the butter manually. I should think 1/2 pound of butter and 1/2 cup herbs would make enough herb butter for a whole loaf, but I’d have extra butter and herbs on hand anyway. 
 

If you like, you may freeze the buttered rounds until you are getting ready for your party. (Cutting and buttering them are fairly labor intensive and therefore handy to do in advance.)
 
To freeze the rounds, place them in a sealed plastic container with waxed paper between layers. When you’re ready to thaw them put them directly on your serving plate; they won’t take long to come to room temperature.
 
Thinly slice the cucumbers and/or tomatoes and put them on the appropriate buttered rounds. Garnish with additional herbs. These are open-faced sandwiches so you only need one round per sandwich.
 
Your garden-party guests will LOVE them!  You might want to consider making and freezing additional herb butter to impart extra flavor to vegetables and bread.
 
teasandscuweb

 

Truffle knows that a hat is always suitable attire for a garden tour or garden party.

Truffle knows that a hat is always suitable attire for a garden tour or garden party.