OK, OK...so the corn soup was really delicious....but I must say the winner for 'best dinner for the week' goes to last nights meal. A veritable EXPLOSION of flavors for the silliest, easy dinner in the worldJ
And it probably helped that all of the "layers" of the dish had their own unique flavors to bring to the table to make a super simple dinner 'out of this world' deliciousJ
First up was a round up of all of the ingredients for our paninis...
- "extra loaf" of Great Harvest foccacia
- Trader Joe's rosemary ham (SO GOOD....and I'm not a "ham person!")
- TJ's SMOKED cheese blend
- Thinly sliced apple
And the last fabulous ingredient??? A sliced sweet onion cooked in a pan with a drizzle of olive oil and a teaspoon of butter. 20 minutes of occasional flipping and stirring to make them go from this...
...to THIS!
Oooooooh glorious caramelized onions! How I love thee! Why do I neglect you so often? I think you can make any dish go from bland to BAM! hehehehehheehe....sure, 20 minutes is a while to baby-sit onions, but it just oh. so. worth. it!
Once the onions were ready, I loaded up our sandwiches...
...gave em a smoooooosh on ye ole panini press....
...and 5 minutes later: a crazy good sandwich!
If you have a Trader Joe's in your area: PICK UP this flavor combo & try it out!!!!!!!!!! That rosemary ham is just second to none and the smoke from the cheese just permeate the entire sandwich. And let's not forget about those beautiful sweet onions & mild sweetness and crunch from the apple slices. Amazingly simple & delicious.
Anddddd...if you go through the whole effort of seeking out that bag of smoked cheese: Never fear! I have the perfect use for the REST of the bag tooJ I have spied this new fangled way to make potatoes in a few magazines and blogs and FINALLY decided to give it a whirl. I doubt it will be long before we try it againJ First up, you boil or microwave the potatoes until they are fork tender....
Once the potatoes are soft, line em up on a baking sheet and HERE COMES THE FUN PART: smush them with the bottom of a glass!
Like so...
Till you have a gaggle of smashed potatoesJ
Next up, round up the good stuff, in this case: Butter, that smoked cheese and some roasted garlic powder....
Or, OBVIOUSLY, you can use whatever you have on hand...but this combo made me HAPPY!
A pat of butter, a shake of garlic powder and a sprinkle of cheese, salt & pepper and these babies were ready to hit the 350 degree oven...
About 25 minutes later, the edges crisped up while the center melted into a gooey mixed of cheese, garlic & potato. Holy heavens were these good. As a matter of fact, this whole DINNER was so good that I finished it and wished I had a whole other dish...he he he J
Again...not rocket science, but just a few little tricks and tips to REALLY make the entire meal stand out. And again, of course you can use whatever you have on hand to flavor up your sandwiches & potatoes....but this combo was a pretty good 'no fail.' Have fun with it!
And speaking of fun.....loooooooook what I found at Target yesterday!!!!!!!!!
I just couldn't pass these up!
I packed a couple for breakfast this morning and they are so nice, warm & cozy...and REALLY spicy! Much more spice than pumpkin...but I ain't complain! Cinnamon, nutmeg & ginger are the spice of lifeJ hahahahhahhahahha....try em out while they're available for the season!
Uhhhh...and speaking of season: WHERE OH WHERE DID MY BEAUTIFUL FALL GO???????? It is H.U.M.I.D out there! BLEH! (although I scanned through my blog to link to caramelized onions and realized it was in the 90's this time last year!! EEEEEEE!! Perish the thought!) Back to sundresses I go....I already miss you, hoodieL And I have many a Fall activity planned this weekend...sighhhhhh....
Oh well....still can't complain cause it's the WEEKEND! AMEN! Have a good one everyoneJ Hopefully I'll have some fun stuff to show you on Monday...stuff that involves CHESSE & APPLESJ
6 comments:
LOL ok...those onions look exactly what I am going to make later to put on my baked potatoes! Everything looks so yummy.
I love pumpkin spice waffles/pancakes and make them at home so I can really spice them up (or lightly spice them), same goes with gingerbread pancakes/waffles.
Luckily I have a TJ's a mile from where I live! I'm definitely going to be picking up some rosemary ham (even though I'm not a ham person either!) I saw those pumpkin waffles at Target last week too...I was tempted but didn't want to take the chance if they weren't that great. Thanks for the review!
Donna, those paninis are making me hungry!!!! Yum!!!!!!!!!
This post is full of AMAZING.
That bread looks so good. I am a huge carb-aholic. I have been loving Panera's steak panini with onions so I'll just need to make my own homemade version.
I didn't know they made pumpkin waffles!! I'll keep an eye out.
Thanks to this post, I bought the Trader Joe's Rosemary Ham, it is definitely as good as you said it was! Love it! It may be my new addiction!
Thanks everyone! and thanks for letting me know, Skip!!
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