It's all gouda: Cubano

Friday, February 20, 2009

Sweet Heavenly Havana ... Cubano Sandwiches!

A few months ago, I went out to eat at a local restaurant chain called Stanfords. Shortly after placing my order, the server returned to our table and delivered the bad news that the kitchen was out of whatever it was I ordered. Rats! Um, no I didn’t order rats ... that’s just an expression.

Anyway, she handed me the menu to reselect an item and I just randomly picked the Cubano sandwich. The server, who appeared quite relieved that I wasn’t flipping out due to the order snafu, assured me that it really and truly was her most favorite item on the menu. Alrighty, then.

Well, the server knew her stuff. Sweet heavenly Havana, the Cubano sandwich was delightful. So delightful, that I’m thankful to both angels and fate for working together to enable the change of order. Who knew that crunchy bread, warm cheese, tangy mustard, pork and pickles could be so good? I was determined to recreate it at home.

Cubano’s, also called simply Cuban Sandwiches, are a delightful, hot, pressed pork sandwich. No exotic ingredients are needed here. Some recipes call for just pork, while others insist upon both pork and ham. Mustard is a must, as are pickles and swiss cheese. A nice hearty bread encases it all. While these would be very convenient to make in a sandwich press or panini machine, I mimicked the process by stacking a hot, heavy cast iron pan on top of mine. You’ll see what I mean in just a minute. Let’s begin, shall we?

Gather these ingredients

1 hearty bread roll like ciabatta
Yellow mustard
Dill pickle slices
Swiss cheese
Pork ... sliced, shredded, etc.
Oil for greasing skillet
Aluminum foil
1 non stick skillet
1 cast iron skillet – heated

First, heat up a cast iron skillet until it is very warm, but not killer hot.

Now, slice open your roll, and slather with yellow mustard.

Then layer with a slice of swiss cheese,

Then pickles,

Then pork,

Then some more cheese.
Cap it off with the other roll piece. Using papertowels, wipe a nonstick skillet with just a touch of oil, same as you would for pancakes. Heat this greased skillet on medium heat,

Place sandwich in the skillet.

Put a slice of foil on top, and

Then put the heated cast iron skillet on top of the foil. The weight of the cast iron will press the sandwich flatter, and the heat of it will help cook the sandwich. Let cook until the bottom starts to turn a toasted golden color, then flip the sandwich, replace the foil, and put the cast iron pan back on top. Toast the bottom side just a couple of minutes. Remove from pan, and let sit for about a minute.

Slice in half and serve. YUM! Pressing the sandwich really transforms it. The bread takes on an entirely different texture when pressed, and the pork goes so well with the other tangy ingredients.

See how golden and crisp the bread becomes?

You can eat these hot or cold. I like 'em hot! Do you want one? Come on over, and I’ll make cubano’s for everyone.

Oh, and be sure to visit Cheryl's blog, Cooking Dunkin Style. She posted an awesome Cubano today, too! Great minds and all that!

Homeschool Tips and Tools: 2010

Bananagrams! Not too long ago, my kids and I discovered a great new game called Bananagrams. Far more fast paced and loads easier to play than Scrabble, this game requires only a table top and kids to get the fun underway. Better yet, adults and kids of all ages can play together. The playing pieces come packaged in a delightful, banana colored and shaped, zippered cloth pouch. It's free formed fun, and great entertainment for the entire family.

From a homeschooling perspective, it's a great tool to segue into creative writing or story telling. My kids create their own Bananagram "puzzle" and then use the words they created to write or tell an impromptu story. Silly or serious, all type of stories are encouraged!

The book titled English from the Roots Up by Joegil K. Kundquist has rapidly become one of my favorite resources for building a strong vocabulary base for my children. This spiral bound book provides both Latin and Greek word roots that provides students with tools to help them determine word meanings. I absolutely love it, and the rapid results that I see in my children are amazing. This is way better than a spelling program; by studying word roots, my children are gaining a much broader understanding of language and the power of words. The lessons are very easy to administer, short in duration, and my kids enjoyed them.

On the writing frontier, there is a book called Story Starters, Helping Children Write Like They've Never Written Before by Karen Andreola that provides writing prompts in the form of partially written stories for children to complete. While I found the book to be just ok, my children love it. I read the partially written story aloud, and they write the rest. The kids really enjoyed doing this as each of them looked forward to hearing the other's completed versions. This ended up being a great experience as the kids really wanted to impress their siblings with their version, and thus put more effort into their writing.

And for the grammar enthusiast lurking inside your student, here's a great book that explains how to diagram sentences. Diagraming Sentences by Deborah White Broadwater is a 46 page workbook complete with an answer key, and is perfect for your middle schooler.

Does your student embrace Science? Do you need quality supplies to conduct more in depth experiments at home? Check out Home Science Tools. I'm very impressed with the quality of the products we just ordered. Beakers, flasks, stirring rods, thermometers, chemicals, safety equipment, and so much more can be found and ordered on their website. www.homesciencetools.com . The items we received were top quality, the customer service rep was super, and the items were extremely well packed and delivered as promised. Look out Bill Nye ... future scientists in the house!

Lapbooking and Notebooking are buzz words in the homeschool community. Here are two great resources for incorporating those strategies into your learning curriculum. Big Book of Books by Dinah Zike and The Ultimate Lap Book Handbook by Tammy Duby and Cyndy Regeling helped me enhance our homeschooling experience using lapbooks. The content found in these books enabled me to teach a group of homeschool mom's how to incorporate lapbooking into their curriculums. You'll want to laminate your copies as they will get pulled off the shelf over and over again.