Gone are the days when dinner was defined as “a meat and two sides.” Easy to fix one-dish items like sandwiches, salads, and quesadillas now qualify as a proper meal.
Thank goodness is my sentiment!
These days I am all about casual, comfortable eating. But easy doesn’t have to translate to boring or bland. The sandwiches hot off my grill are not your typical brown bag lunch.
When I develop recipes, I look for inspiration in many places. Most often it comes from a memorable dish at a restaurant or at a friend’s table. I am not shy about asking for a recipe or writing a menu description on a cocktail napkin! Call me crazy, but I find it fun to go home and see if I can replicate the same flavors in my kitchen . . . most of the time just from memory.
The Ultimate Burger, for example, is from one of my favorite neighborhood restaurants. The Blackened Snapper Po-Boy was inspired by two of my favorite treats from New Orleans (where I was born, by the way!)—blackened fish and the iconic po-boy sandwich. The Black Bean Burger was one of those items that I tasted at a friend’s house and then begged for the recipe!
The beauty of a good sandwich is that it is mostly assembly—bread, cheese, and condiments like mustard require no cooking. And no need to worry about a side dish. The sandwiches in this chapter are so satisfyingly good, all you will need is a bag of chips.