Cuban Sandwiches

You know that line in 27 Dresses when Katherine Heigl says "I feel like I just found out my favorite love song was written about a sandwich?"

I believe I have found that sandwich.

It deserves a love song. Justin made pulled pork that roasted for 15 hours, we pickled our own cucumbers, and toasted it all on crispy Italian bread.

I'm typically not a meat-on-meat sandwich kind of girl, but this has changed my tune.

It seems like everyone has their own pulled pork recipe, so I'm not going to go into too many details here. We cooked a pork shoulder (~3 lbs) low and slow at 225 degrees for 15 hours. Yep. Overnight.

One big tip I'd give for pulled pork is this spice rub: Soulard Grill's Spice rub from Soulard Market.

Soooooo good.

We also made our own pickles, which is surprisingly easy. Slice the pickling cucumber thin, and let it marinate for an hour in a combination of vinegar, sugar, peppercorns, and salt. We got the recipe from Tyler Florence. But we added jalapenos, because we're daring like that.

All assembled, these sandwiches were the best I've ever had.

Nope, no real recipe here. But be sure to get Italian bread, Virginia ham, Swiss cheese, make your own pickles, and use Dijon mustard. Holy moly.

We had avocado-tomato quinoa on the side with lemon/olive oil

Make sure you make this one this summer, readers. Promise me you will.

-Katie

Meatball Stuffed Eggplant

Now that I'm done with school forever and ever, it's time to start thinking about getting a job. I'm experiencing some sort of weird mix between excitement and terror, especially with the somewhat grim outlook everyone seems to have on the economy.

My goal is to be employed by the end of the summer (fingers crossed), and so until then, between applying for positions, I'm going to enjoy my time cooking as much as possible.

This is one of those recipes that just sort of happened randomly as I was thinking about what to do with my time now that there's no more grad school lurking over my shoulder. And anyway, Justin needs a little extra TLC now that he's hunkering down to take his Step 1 boards (a major test in 2nd year med school to basically determine if you're going to move on).

{Printable Recipe}
Ingredients
1 eggplant, cut lengthwise
3/4 lb ground turkey
2 cups brown rice, cooked (or you can use quinoa)
1 egg
2 tbsp fresh basil + parsley, chopped
1/2 cup Pecorino Romano cheese
2 cups tomato sauce (I used the leftover sauce from chicken cacciatore)
2 cups shredded Italian cheese

Preparation

I made this healthy and used brown rice and ground turkey, but if you like you can go ahead and go whole hog! 

Cut the eggplant lengthwise. Scoop out the inside, leaving enough so that the eggplant doesn't just flop apart when you stuff it. Oil them down and salt them. They WILL turn brown, but that's ok.

Meanwhile, cook the ground turkey in some olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste.

Mix the cooked rice, turkey, Pecorino Romano, and a couple tablespoons of olive oil to moisten.

Add the egg in when it's cooled down a bit. Stuff the eggplant as much as you can (I had a bit left over)

Spoon the tomato sauce over the eggplant and top with cheese.

 Bake at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until it's bubbly and the eggplant is soft.

-Katie

Olive & Blood Orange Quinoa

Spring in Saint Louis can be a tumultuous time. Actually, when it comes to weather, any time in Saint Louis is bizarre. But it's mid-March now at 80 degrees, at least for the moment, and I was craving something light and spring-ish. I've always wanted to try blood oranges, and their garnet-colored flesh contrasted beautifully with the earth-toned olives.

I've also been wanting to try quinoa (keen-wah) for a long time now, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity. We paired it with roasted lamb, another springtime must.

What have you been wanting to try?
{Printable Recipe}
Ingredients for Quinoa
1 cup quinoa
1.25 cups vegetable broth
1 sprig rosemary
1 blood orange, chopped
1/4 cup Kalamata & Greek olives, chopped
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper

Preparation (adapted from Cooking Quinoa)

Soak the quinoa in water for 15 minutes. Drain and rinse well.

Combine rosemary sprig, vegetable broth and quinoa in a pot. Bring it up to a simmer and let it go, covered, for 30 minutes. Take off the heat and let it sit for an additional 5 minutes.

Toss in the olive oil, blood orange and olives. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Healthy and delicious.

-Katie