Pip's Plate

This breakfast sandwich is tangy, silky and salty. It’s served best on a fresh ciabatta roll, so if you can find take and bake rolls I suggest that. Quality bacon is key to this recipe – uncured, local bacon is my preference. I happen to love

Poached Egg & Bacon Sandwich
Serves: 2

Ingredients

Directions

Had a really delicious lunch at Common Roots in uptown today. Split a couple of sandwiches with a friend.

Fried green tomato sandwich with pickled onions (left) and Whitefish salad sandwich (right). Both were excellent!

This recipe was a part of the baby shower I recently threw with 2 friends. It was a huge hit! Really quite delicious: savory, crunchy, smooth – the textures in this sandwich were out of this world.

If you’re worried about the blue cheese overpowering the flavor in this sandwich, I wouldn’t worry. Mixing it with the mayo mellows the flavor. You can also choose a milder blue cheese such as gorgonzola. Even blue cheese haters at the table loved this sandwich! This would also be a great turkey sandwich with leftover turkey from Thanksgiving.

We served these with Lemony Grilled Asparagus with Goat Cheese.

I realize that damn green tray shows up in a lot of my pictures – as pointed out by the owner, Maxine. Apparently because it sits on top of her microwave, it tends to be the first thing I reach for. Oh well.

The sandwiches before hitting the grill

Grilled Turkey, Bacon and Blue Cheese Sandwiches

makes: 12 sandwiches

this can easily be cut in half to make only 6 sandwiches

18 slices bacon (not thick cut)

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese

1 1/2 pounds of thinly sliced turkey

1 small head of radicchio

12 large slices good bread (ciabatta works well)

1 stick of butter at room temperature

Directions

1. Cook bacon until crispy. I like to bake it in the oven at 400 for about 12-15 minutes. Drain on a paper towel.

2. Mix mayo and blue cheese together.

3. Create an assembly line to put the sandwiches together in this order:

• First, butter one side of all bread slices.
• Second, spread blue cheese mixture on the other side of all bread slices.
• Third, divide turkey slices evenly among 6 slices of bread.
• Fourth, add 2-3 pieces of radicchio on top of the turkey.
• Fifth, add 3 pieces of bacon on top of the radicchio.
• Lastly, top each sandwich with the other side of bread.

4. Heat your grill to medium (about 350 degrees). When it’s ready, put the sandwiches on the grill. Grill each side for about 5-6 minutes or until bread is nicely toasted.

5. Cut each sandwich in half and serve.

recipe from epicurious

With spring finally turning into summer, what better way to be outside than to grill up some spicy turkey burgers?

These turkey burgers are “green” because they have lots of delicious green ingredients added to them for extra flavor.

Garlicky Green Turkey Burgers

Makes 4

Time: under 30 minutes

Ingredients

1 pound hormone-free ground turkey breast

4 green onions, thinly sliced

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 jalapeño, minced with seeds

2 T chopped cilantro

1 t salt

1/2 t fresh ground pepper

4 hamburger buns

1 T butter, softened to room temp

4 pieces romaine

1/2 avocado, sliced lengthwise

1. In a large bowl, combine the turkey, onion, garlic, jalapeño, cilantro, salt and pepper. Form into 4 patties.

2. Heat grill to medium high heat. Put the burgers on the hot grill and close cover. Cook about 5 minutes on each side.

3. While the burgers cook, spread each half of the buns with butter. After turning the burgers, place the buns on the top shelf of the grill to slightly toast them.

4. When the burgers are done, place them on the toasted buns with a slice of romaine and some avocado.

For a complete quick and easy grilled meal, serve these turkey burgers with Chili Lime Grilled Corn on the Cob and Strawberry Citrus Salad.

Mmmmm….nothing like savory french toast to round out a breakfast-for-dinner meal. Talk about a twist on a traditional Croque Monsieur sandwich. It’s total comfort food.

This french toast recipe comes from chow.com. It’s quite simple to make but there are a few steps involved. The best part is after you fry it, you stick it in the oven to melt the cheese. My mouth is watering just thinking about this!

Savory French Toast (Ham and Gruyere French Toast)

serves 4

8 slices white bread

4 slices ham

4 slices Gruyere cheese

2 t dijon mustard

4 eggs

3/4 cup milk

salt

pepper

1 T olive oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Spread dijon on 4 slices of bread (too much dijon mustard and it’s all you’ll taste, so use sparingly). Place one slice of ham and one slice of Gruyere on each of the 4 slices of bread with mustard. Top each sandwich with the remaining 4 slices of bread. Place theses sandwiches in a shallow baking dish.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, salt and pepper. Pour over the sandwiches and let soak for 5 minutes, turning once. Soak these too long and you might have some difficulty transferring the sandwiches to the frying pan.

In a nonstick skillet, heat half of the oil over medium heat. Fry 2 sandwiches at a time, turning once – giving each side a nice golden brown color. This is just like making french toast. Move the fried sandwiches to a baking sheet. Repeat with the other 2 sandwiches.

Place the baking sheet with the 4 sandwiches into the oven. Bake for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

You can serve this with some garlicky green beans sauteed in olive oil for a light dinner.

I made these last weekend and they were pretty good. I would add curry powder to the burgers next time, but they are good as is. The recipe calls for 1# hamburger, but it really depends on how many burgers you want to make and what size. Most restaurants serve 1/2# burgers, and in my opinion that’s too big. I prefer a 1/3# or 1/4# burger.

Pickled Cucumbers

1 small cucumber

1 T apple cider vinegar

1 1/2 t sugar

1/4 t crushed red pepper

Using a mandoline, thinly slice the cucumber. Mix the pickling juices together and let it sit at room temp until the burgers are done.

Asian Burgers

1# hamburger (preferably grass-fed and organic)

1 T minced ginger root

3 garlic cloves minced

2 T chopped fresh cilantro

1 T tamari

salt and pepper

Mix everything together, but don’t mix too much or the burgers may fall apart. If this happens, you can add breadcrumbs and/or egg white to bind everything together.

Grill the burgers and serve on buns with pickled cucumbers and wasabi aioli (3 parts mayo to 1 part wasabi powder).

Here is an easy recipe that works really well with leftover chicken. I bought one of those all natural rotisserie chickens from the grocery store for this dish. Just make sure the chicken is shredded.

Barbeque Chicken Sandwiches w/Blue Cheese & Carmelzied Onions

makes 4 sandwiches

1 rotisserie chicken or 3 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded

1/4 cup brown ale (try Newcastle or Bell’s)

3/4 cup barbeque sauce ( I like Kowalski’s brand BBQ sauce – all natural w/out any wierd ingredients and it tastes really good)

roasted garlic bread, sliced (if your local bakery carries this kind of bread, great! otherwise any rustic style loaf of bread will work)

4 oz blue cheese (my favorite of the moment is Oregon’s Rogue River blue cheese – a raw milk cheese)

1 medium onion, sliced

1 T evoo

Heat 1 T evoo in skillet over medium heat. Add onion and saute 1-2 minutes, till fragrant. Reduce heat to med-low or low and cook onions till carmelized.

Meanwhile, combine the chicken, brown ale and BBQ sauce in a small saucepan; heat over medium heat till thick and the flavors have combined (about 5-8 minutes).

Slice blue cheese and place on slices of bread. Divide onions among the slices, then top with BBQ chicken. Place the other slice of bread on top. Enjoy!

Of course brown ale will go well with this quick meal. To round out the meal, serve with sauteed broccolini and tomato basil soup.