You make a sandwich and then you have a thought: The weather is cold outside! Why do I have to eat a cold sandwich too? I wish my sandwich was hot.
Then all of a sudden, you have a fond memory of the George Foreman panini press your mom let you cook with when you were a tween. How absolutely delicious those freaking panini's were in your memory. Melted cheese and ham on Wonder Bread with a dollop of Heinz mustard. Standing in the kitchen with too much eye liner on and your hair in a side part.
You smile at the thought, and you look at your cold sandwich sitting there, so boring, stacked with quality ingredients on locally made sourdough, and you just wish you could smush it. Smush it so good.
So what do you do? You follow your desires of course! You make a last-minute Panini.
Time: 15 minutes?
Heat up your pan with a glob of butter while you arrange your sandwich. You can exchange these ingredients with any sandwich stuffs you already have in your fridge, but this is what I used. (Do I sound like I know what I’m doing?) My panini was heavy on the sour and savory flavors. Maybe try a ciabatta or levain instead of sourdough.
Ingredients:
Pastrami
Sliced havarti (or mozzerella, or any mild cheese to balance out the sour flavors)
Whole grain mustard
Sliced sourdough bread
Kerrygold butter (for the pan)
Optional: kimchi (I love kimchi on sandwiches)
If you're very hungry like me, take two bites out of your sandwich before it becomes a panini.
BUT HOW DO YOU SQUISH IT? You don’t have a freaking George Foreman grill anymore.
Directions:
Put your panini in the pan, then put a ceramic plate onto it, then put a stack of ceramic bowls onto the plate, and BOOM, it squishes and gets all hot like a quartzite deep under the crust of the Earth. (Hold up…is a panini technically a metamorphic rock? Formed by heat and pressure like the best of ‘em.)
Let your panini get crisp and golden brown on each side. If you hear the cheese sizzling in the pan you know you’re doing it right.
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DO NOT BURN YOUR FINGIES ON THE CERAMIC PLATE when you remove it to flip the panini. Use a towel or some kind of heat protection.
Yes I forgot heat can travel, and my little fingies felt the thrill of cooking in the kitchen. The pure DANGER of a stovetop will surely reignite your passions.
Take a bite and hear the crunch and let the cheesy strings dingle dangle you all the way home to childhood.
Enjoy your bad recipe.
Love,
Amani
Love you bad chef ❣️ you’re so multi skilled!
This was v funny I enjoyed it. And am now craving a panini.
I have a George Forman grill story: (to preface for this whole story we were very very very drunk) we have this stupid night out event (it’s inherently silly) in the UK called Bongos Bingo. You play bingo, drunk, and win prizes. It’s chaos. It’s full of music, hosts who are comedian esc and everyone stands on tables. The tables and floors are soaked with beer and alcohol so people fall over constantly. Idk if this is sounding fun or horrible. I promise it’s very fun. It’s a student thing mainly. ANYWAY we won a George Forman grill once. We were ecstatic. A GF grill! As poor students of course we did not have such a luxury. Received the grill, took it back to our table and very *very* drunkly marvelled and admired it. When the event was over, we went to a bar. Took the grill, bought it a spot in the cloak room. The bouncer took soooo much persuading - we had to pay for its place. Anyway - after all that work on the bouncer, they let us take it in. After a few hours we went to a club, so retrieved the grill and walked a few streets to the club. One of my friends was so drunk she threw the grill. THE GEORGE FORMAN GRILL. Threw it. It smashed on the concrete and I was so mad at her, scooped it up off the ground (in pieces). I took the grill in pieces to the club to ask if they’d put it in the cloak room. The bouncer took one look at this broken grill in my arms burst out laughing and was like that’s gone. I said no! I can FIX this!! Please babysit the broken grill! He said no. He threw it away. A tear escaped my eye and it took about 24 hours to speak to my friend again. It was a devastating night.
I love this, Amani!!! Give me moreeee!!!!