The California Griller

You guys.  

Men and women have some sharp differences.  Sometimes I forget this, but the other day I was reminded again when my darling hubby took our 4 year old grandson and our 7 year old niece who was visiting from Missouri to visit his 85 year old mother.

That part went well.  She gave the kids ten dollars to spend at the dollar store, so my husband took them by there on the way home.

And laaaaawd have mercy on the Dollar General in Waynesboro. 

I was waiting for them to get home, and I waited and waited and waited.  I was starting to get worried when I finally received an S.O.S., I mean a text from him that said something like "Help me, I'm still in the Dollar store!!!!!"  I asked what in the world he was still doing in there and he typed back that the kids were trying to decide what toys they wanted.   Apparently, this was a lot more complicated than he had anticipated.

When they finally, and I mean finally got home, my niece came running in first thing and practically screamed that they needed napkins and a lot of them and QUICK!  I threw some paper towels her way and she went running outside.  When they all walked in, Brayden was covered in orange sticky stuff and my husband (who looked like he was *absolutely* going to drop) was mumbling something about it being a "really bad idea" to let him alone in the backseat with a push-up.

Ya think?

I asked him what on earth took them so long and he started deliriously telling me all about it while he collapsed on the couch.  "Well, they wanted to look at every toy in every aisle..."

"Thank God you didn't go to Wal-Mart!"  I interjected with a smirk.

"Yeah.  Anyway, when one of them would pick up something, the other one would pick up something else, then the first one would put theirs back, and pick up what the second one had, then that one would put it down because she didn't want to have the same thing as him, and I was trying to make sure everyone had the same amount of items and I was spending the same amount on each one, and when we finally got it all worked out, I saw that Brayden's toy needed two 9-volt batteries, so that meant that Zoe needed to pick out two more things to keep the number of items the same so there wouldn't be a meltdown, and...."

"Batteries don't count as toy credits,"  I explained to him.  "You didn't know that?  Plus, you have to put a time limit on these sort of things.  You should have told them they had ten....."

"WELL, I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE RULES ARE!"

Yikes.  I backed off, but I was seriously laughing inside.

"I just didn't want any fussing, so it was back to the drawing board because by then Brayden had changed his mind for the 47th time, and then, of course, they wanted a snack, so that took a while.  And by the way, I spent $29.97.  Here's the ticket."

"I thought your mom gave them money to spend????"

"She did, but we went a little over, so I just kept the cash and used the debit card.  It was just easier."  He gave me the "don't challenge me" look.

Then he took a nap while I installed batteries in cheap walkie talkies.

Bless him.

And now for the recipe.  I have not been this excited about a sandwich in a long, long time, people.  When we were out in California in June, I ate something very similar in a diner.  I love, I mean LOVE avocados.  They just make this sandwich to me.  Along with the bacon.

Here are my notes:

--The sandwich will grill best when the ingredients are at room temperature.  Or, this is what I did.  I made the sandwich straight out of the fridge, then I microwaved it for about 30-35 seconds, to get the inside ingredients slightly warm so it would melt quicker.

--The mayonnaise.  Look at the recipe.  See what I did there?  I spread the outside of the sandwich with a little mayo instead of butter for a crispy, golden crust.  Try it.

--I did put a small cast iron skillet on top of the sandwich while I was cooking it, to weight it down and help it to get golden brown and crispy.

--Grill it over medium to low heat so that the outside won't get too dark before the inside is melted.

--All ingredients are approximate.  Just put on as much or as little stuff as you want and according to your bread size.

The California Griller

Printable Recipe

2 slices sour dough bread

4 slices Colby jack cheese

2-4 slices cooked bacon

6-8 thinly sliced cracked black pepper deli turkey meat

Thinly sliced red onion

Sliced tomatoes

Sliced Avocado

Kosher Salt and coarsely ground black pepper

Mayonnaise for spreading on the outside of sandwich

For best results, let all sandwich ingredients come to room temperature except the mayo.  Place a slice of sour dough bread on a cutting board.  Layer 2 slices cheese, the bacon, turkey, onion, tomatoes, and avocado on top of the bread.  Season the avocados with salt and pepper.  Place the remaining cheese slices on top, then place the remaining slice of bread on that.  Spread each side of the outside of the sandwich with some mayonnaise, then grill on a cast iron grill that has been preheated to medium-low, until golden brown and crispy, turning once.

Ombre Brownies

 This is my girl:

And I love her lots.  She's in cosmetology school and she is learning how to make people pretty, which reminds me I need to get her to wax my eyebrows soon.  Anyway, one of the current hottest trends in hair color, she tells me, is a technique called "ombre."  Ombre is dark at the roots, or the top of the head, then it gets lighter at the ends, or the bottom of the hair.  So do these brownies.

At the top is a dark chocolate ganache layer of frosting.  Then there is a milk chocolate brownie layer.  And the bottom is a blondie base.   Three layers of sweet goodness.  Dark to light.

Here are my notes:

-I cut part of my batch into very tiny squares, just enough for a bite.  I thought they were kind of elegant like that.

-I put nuts in the blondie layer of my first batch.  Not sure why I didn't write it in the recipe, but just stir in about 3/4 of a cup of chopped ones if you'd like.

-Don't overbake them.  Bake just until wet crumbs attach to a toothpick, then let them cool completely before frosting.

The photobomber showed up again.

Ombre Brownies

Printable Recipe

1 cup butter, divided
1 3/4 cup light brown sugar, divided
3 large eggs, divided
2 teaspoons vanilla , divided

1/2 teaspoon salt, divided

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided

1 cup milk chocolate chips

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup dark chocolate chips

1/4 cup heavy cream

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F.  Spray a 9-inch square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Place 1/2 cup butter in a medium heavy saucepan and heat over low heat until melted.  Remove from heat.  Stir in 1 cup brown sugar until mixed.  Stir in 1 egg, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon vanilla until mixed.  Stir in 1 cup flour.  Spread evenly into prepared pan.  

In another medium heavy saucepan, place the remaining 1/2 cup butter and the milk chocolate chips over low heat until melted, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat.   Stir in remaining brown sugar, vanilla, and salt.  Stir remaining two eggs in 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, until mixture is glossy and smooth.

Whisk the baking powder and remaining flour together, then stir into chocolate mixture. Carefully spread batter over the blondie layer in the pan, then bake until a wooden pick or skewer comes out with a few moist crumbs adhering, 25 to 30 minutes.  Let cool completely on wire rack.

Place the dark chocolate chips in a small heavy saucepan along with the heavy cream and heat over low heat.  Whisk until melted and smooth.  Beat in 1/2 cup of powdered sugar until smooth and fluffy.  Frost brownies with ganache, then cut into squares.

PS.  I don't know why the font is uneven and two different colors.  It's probably something to do with my new computer, but  I do see it.  One day I will work out all the kinks.  *Sigh*

Mid-Summer Recap While I Get My Laundry Caught Up

I've been completely gone for a while, so I thought I'd do a quick little mid-summer recap, you know, since I haven't cooked in like, weeks.  My summer travels started with a trip to compete in the Dole Cook-Off at the end of June.  I had an amazing time  and met some amazing people.  I didn't win, but it was truly a wonderful experience.  (I feel like I am sounding cheesy, but I am sincere.)  The Dole people were fantastic to work with and put on quite an event.  We cooked in the middle of a huge mall, with passersby watching our every move and begging for a taste of our entries.  The Dole staff even provided me with a "sous chef" to help me during the cook-off.  Her name is is Sara but some people call her Betty.  Check out her blog for the reason why.

Go there.  She does cooking videos.  Funny ones.  Which are the the best kind.

Here is where you can find my Dole recipe.

These two gorgeous women pictured with me were my fellow competitors and I am proud to now call them friends.  Ally on the right won the competition with her beautiful, creative veal dish.  She is also a dedicated blogger, and actually posts a lot, unlike me.  If you like bloggers who post a lot, you will want to visit her blog.

Do it.  She is all Bohemian and stuff.   You will love her.  You can find her winning Dole recipe here.

There were also several other talented bloggers there and I really want you to check them out.   Susan from Doughmesstic has an amazing baking blog.  (I guess I am going to run the word amazing into the ground in this post?  In my defense, I haven't had a lot of sleep in the last few days and synonyms for "amazing" and "wonderful"are not exactly flooding my brain.)  I want to eat the screen when I click over there.

I think I am most excited, though, about Priscilla's blog at www.shescookin.com and Liz's blog at www.thelemonbox.com because they both specialize in healthy recipes, and let me be honest here--I'm thinking I reeeeeally need to spend a lot of time on their sites because in case you haven't noticed, Mississippi Kitchen is not exactly low fat.

Neither am I these days.

Go on.  Take a bite out of their blogs.  But make sure to come back and visit me from time to time.  I will have the high fat stuff.

The whole event was hosted by celebrity chef Ben Ford, who was completely down to earth and just an all around nice guy.  (It's so nice to meet celebrities who are not full of themselves.)  And his food.  Gosh.  I wish we would have had time to eat at his restaurant, Ford's Filling Station, but it's at the top of the list to visit when I make it back to LA.

Just two days after we got home from Dole, hubby and I set out to drive across the country to Las Vegas to visit my dad.  Then we went home the long way through Utah and over some REALLY SCARY cliffs through Zion National park, and then we went over some other MAJOR SCARY FRIGHTENING cliffs in Mesa Verde National Park that made the first cliffs look like tiny newborn baby cliffs.  (Neither of us like heights which makes perfect sense that we would subject ourselves to extremely high cliff driving.)  All of that trauma that was so we could see where the Pueblo Indian cliff dwellers lived in 1200 AD or something, and by we I mean my husband who loves all things historical.  I had nothing to do with planning this part of the vacay, because looking at the ancient ruins of some cliff dwellers has always been a very low priority on my bucket list.

*YAWN*

However, I will say that while we were on a tour of one of the excavation sites, our guide enlightened us to what the ancient people's diet consisted of and I had a lightbulb moment about a couple of new recipe ideas.  However, I felt like all eyes were on me as I was typing "ahhh-MAIZing corn salad" into my iPhone note app while she continued on with an explanation of their foraging techniques.   I sensed people though I was being a tad disrespectful, so I put my phone away immediately and gave my full attention to the tour guide.

But it's not like I was texting, people!  I was taking notes!  Geesh.

Did I mention that we stood on four states at one time?  And it was only a ten mile drive out of the way and six bucks.  To stand on a gold plate for 5 seconds.  That's practically a bargain.

But the piece de resistance was driving through Monument Valley.   You know,  Monument Valley where they made a lot of the old western movies?  What?  You didn't know that?!  Well, neither did I but can assure you I do now.  I know it very well in fact, because the entire drive through took about three hours.

Yes, that was my husband's idea too.

All in all it really has been a great summer, and it's not over yet.  I may even cook something when I get our laundry caught up.  Look for me soon.