Mushroom and Swiss Patty Melt

A burger patty, Swiss cheese, and sauteed mushrooms and onions, sandwiched between 2 slices of bread then grilled until hot and melty.

Grilled cheese sandwiches are a favorite of mine.  I love melted cheese and buttery crisp grilled bread.  I was planning to make a grilled cheese with some Swiss cheese I had when I thought I'd add a burger patty to make it more filling for dinner.  Once I decided to add the burger, mushrooms and onions were an obvious addition.  I love Mushroom and Swiss burgers too. This patty melt is a combination of two favorites.  A mushroom and Swiss burger and a grilled cheese sandwich.  I had a package of precooked frozen burger patties in my freezer so I just heated them in the microwave to make this super simple.  It made a delicious and easy dinner.

A combination of two favorites.  A Mushroom and Swiss burger and a grilled cheese sandwich [Tweet this]

Mushroom and Swiss Patty Melt

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp butter
5 large mushrooms, sliced
1/2 onion, chopped
few dashes Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste
4 slices of bread
Butter (at room temperature or spreadable margarine)
4 slices Swiss cheese
2 burger patties

Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat.  Add the mushrooms and onions.  Saute until tender.

Add a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce, and a little salt and pepper to taste.  Stir and keep warm.

Meanwhile, thaw and heat the burger patties if frozen or use just cooked patties.

Butter all four slices of bread on one side only.

Place 2 slices of buttered bread, butter side down, on a warm griddle (or frying pan).

Add a slice of cheese to each.  Then a burger patty, half of the mushroom mixture, another slice of cheese, and finish with a slice of bread butter side up.

Turn heat to medium-low to medium, cover with a lid (covering the sandwiches helps the top slice of cheese melt too so the bread won't slide off when you flip them), and heat until the bottom slice of bread is dark-golden brown and the cheese has started to melt.

Very carefully flip the sandwiches and cook the other side until brown.  This would be much quicker and simpler with a panini press so use it if you got it.  I don't :(

Cut diagonally (don't ask me why, but I can't eat a grilled cheese sandwich, or patty melt, unless it's cut diagonally) and serve warm.

Makes 2 sandwiches.

Don't ask me why but I can't eat a grilled cheese sandwich unless it's cut diagonally [Tweet this]

Enjoy.

For more sandwich ideas check out:

Mayonnaise-less Egg Salad Sandwich

Spiced Eggplant & Mushrooms Sandwich

Cucumber Finger Sandwiches

Linked to:  Pretty Pintastic, Show Off, Best of the Weekend, See Ya in the Gumbo, 2 Cup, Best of Blogosphere, Treasure Box, Lou Lou Girls, Teach Me, Tickle My Tastebuds, Whimsy, Wed Roundup, Full Plate

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Herb Roasted Leg of Lamb

Delicious lamb leg roast seasoned with herbs and spices.  Makes a great holiday, or romantic, dinner.

I don't care much about Valentines day (except the cute stuffed animal my dad sends every year).   This year I'm more excited about Friday The 13th.  Yep that's today.

I love Friday the 13th's.  I'm a big horror movie fan so Friday the 13th is all about Jason Voorhees.  If I can find any of the movies (I wish I owned them all) it's marathon time.  If not any horror movie will do.  What could go better with a slasher movie marathon than a bloody leg (of lamb).  It's really not that bloody it's about medium rare and oh so good.  This could easily be a romantic dinner too if that's your thing.  But I say turn out the lights and fire up the scary movies.

This was my first time cooking leg of lamb so I googled for instructions.  I found many and used a little bit of all to make this roast.  Most of the recipes I found said to bake in a roasting pan.  I don't have one so I just put it in my largest/deepest baking pan with potatoes and carrots lining the bottom (an easy and delicious side dish).  One of the recipes I really liked suggested broiling the roast on both sides to sear it but the broiler on my oven doesn't work so I just roasted it at a high temperature to start then lowered the heat for the rest of the cooking.

Herb Roasted Leg of Lamb

Ingredients:

1 5 pound semi-boneless leg of lamb
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp rosemary
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp coarse ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 450F

Remove lamb from fridge at least 1 hour before you plan to roast it.

Chop some potatoes and carrots into bite sized pieces, toss in olive oil and spices of choosing (salt, pepper, garlic, thyme).  Place in bottom of your largest baking pan (I used a glass 9x13).

Rinse the lamb and pat dry.  Then, rub all over with the spice mix and place in baking pan on top of the veggies.

Bake in a preheated oven at 450F for 15 minutes.  Then lower the temperature to 325F and continue baking for about 1 hour and 45 minutes or until the roast reaches 130F for medium rare.

Let rest for 15 minutes before slicing and serving.  Serves a lot. 8 or 10 maybe.  We ate it plain a few nights, then I made some other dishes with it.

Serve with those roasted potatoes and carrots, mint jelly if you have it, or I served it with tzatziki.

Enjoy (stay tuned to see what else I made with the lamb).

For ways to use leftovers check out:  Greek Nachos, Lamb Salad, and Lamb & Guinness Shepherds Pie

Linked to:  Pretty Pintastic, Best of the Weekend, Merry Monday, 2 Cup, Lou Lou Girls, Teach Me,Tasty, Whimsy, Cook Craft Share, Full Plate, Foodie Friends

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Bananas Foster Pancakes

Whole wheat pancakes topped with sweet bananas in syrup.

Hey it's Friday the 13th.  I love Friday the 13th mostly because I can usually find a Jason (Friday the 13th) movie marathon on TV and I love slasher/any horror films.  Tonight is even more special because it's also a full moon.  That means even more strange things may happen tonight...cool.

Anyway...

I had never had bananas foster before this breakfast.  I thought of the idea when I saw someone make crepes with bananas foster, on another blog.  I decided it would also be good on pancakes.  I searched online for bananas foster recipes and found a general consensus of brown sugar, butter, bananas, and dark rum.  The amounts all varied depending on how many servings the recipe made so I just made a small batch for two.  The pancakes can be your favorite recipe I used my whole wheat pancakes to make this a little bit healthier (and they are my favorite). It was good but I still prefer maple syrup on my pancakes.  I wonder if you could do all of this in maple syrup....hmm I've got something new to try (but my husband hates warm maple syrup; maybe it would be ok in this instance).

Bananas Foster Pancakes

Ingredients:

1 recipe of Whole Wheat Pancakes
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
4 small bananas, sliced thick
1 oz dark rum
toasted pecans, chopped

Make pancakes according to directions.  Set aside to keep warm.

Meanwhile heat a skillet over medium heat.  Add the butter and brown sugar mixing until it becomes syrupy and starts to bubble.

Add the bananas to they syrup and stir to coat well then add the dark rum and flambe.  I just lit the rum with a long lighter and stood back until the flame died (be careful make sure there is nothing flammable near your stove).  You probably don't have to flambe this just let it cook for a few minutes to burn off the alcohol but it's so much fun.

Pour bananas and syrup over pancakes, top with chopped pecans, and serve.

Makes 2-3 servings.

Enjoy.

Linked to:  Best of the Weedend, Pretty Pintastic, Saturday Night Fever, Share it Sunday, See ya in the Gumbo, Two Cup, Lou Lou Girls, Teach Me, Brag About It, Tasty Tuesday, Whimsy Wednesday, Wonderful Wednesday, Eat Create Party, Freedom Friday


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Holiday Cookie Exchange

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As promised we from the 12 Bloggy Days of Christmas are bringing you a Cookie Exchange Link party.

You know the general link party rules:

-Please follow all of us in some way

-link to the post not your home page

-view and comment on other posts

-don't add any giveaways or other link parties

-only cookie recipes please

-most importantly enjoy

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Bacon Egg and Cheese Spring Rolls

Bacon, egg, and cheese baked in a crispy spring roll and then dipped in maple syrup.  A great breakfast for gameday.

 

Yay football season.  Here in Hawaii we have to rise early to watch our favorite teams (GO PIRATES).  The games start at 6:00am.  So instead of just the usual gameday snacks I always like to make an easy and delicious gameday breakfast.  This is my latest creation.  Everything is prepared the night or day before and all you have to do Saturday morning is bake them (or you could fry them but playing with hot oil early in the morning is not my thing).  These would also make great tailgating food too as they keep crisp for quite a while, when baked.

Ingredients:

1/2 lb bacon, cooked crispy
4 eggs, cooked however you prefer, but I don't think runny eggs would work very well.
7 american cheese slices
7 spring roll wrappers

I'm only cooking for two so I used 1/2 of a pack of bacon (I always cut my bacon packages in half crosswise).  This gave me 14 half slices of bacon.

Peel off 1 spring roll wrapper and lay it flat on your surface with one point facing you.  Keep the other wrappers covered with a damp towel.

Place 1 slice of cheese on top of the wrapper about 1/2 inch from the edge.  Then, stack 1 strip of bacon, egg (the eggs I made kind of like an omelet with some salt, pepper, green onions, and hot sauce mixed in, then, cut it into pieces to fit the rolls), and a second piece of bacon.  Then roll as shown in the diagram above (it's from the pack of wrappers and describes the process much better than I can).  Repeat until you run out of bacon (this makes 7 rolls).

Put the spring rolls, with seam side down, in a seal-able container or wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to cook.

On gameday preheat the oven to 400F.  Place the spring rolls on a baking sheet, seam side down, and bake for 15 minutes.  Turn the rolls over and bake for 5-10 minutes longer until golden and crispy.

Makes 7 spring rolls.

Remove from oven, let cool for a bit, and serve with maple syrup for dipping (my husband just came up with a great idea, try maple syrup mixed with soy sauce).

Baking the spring rolls keeps them crispy for a long time, they don't get soggy.  We had 2 leftover which we refrigerated and my husband ate for breakfast a couple of days later and he claims they were still crispy.

Enjoy (GO PIRATES).

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