A few years ago while on vacation I got a cryptic e-mail from my friend Jamie at the office. “I have a surprise for you when you come into the office! That is all I am going to tell you, you’ll just have to wait until you get here.”
Upon my return, I discovered that at a housewares show he had to work, he successfully traded some of our product for a Hamilton Beach Panini Press!
The Actual Panini Machine on Jamie's Desk - 2008
At that point, we declared that all Thursdays must be Panini Thursday. A day where we make ourselves sandwiches at our desk. What kind of sandwiches? Generally we would begin this discussion by listing what we have in our fridge, the challenge being to spend as little money as possible. But sometimes we went whole hog and looked up sandwiches in the recipe book that came with the machine.
The best? Pound Cake, buttered on one side, spread hazelnut cream cheese on the other side, and lay strawberry slices on top. Place it on the press, and just hold the top barely over the strawberries (you don’t want to burn them). Holy hell it was sooooo good.
Ready to Eat (Location: Jamie's Old Desk)
We’ve made other delectable delights, but have tapered off over the past couple of years due to busy meeting schedules, Jamie changing positions, and now Jamie moved from 2 cubes down, to being downstairs. BUT today we decided it was WAY overdue and we decided to introduce our friends (all of whom have started working here within the past year or so) to Panini Thursday!
We had the following leftovers among us:
- ham slices
- cheese (various)
- mustard (various styles)
- mayo (various styles)
- onion, tomato, lettuce
- tortilla chips
- olive oil
I Googled around and found that most recipes for ham slices (specifically honey ham) were limited to bread, cheese, brown mustard, mayo, lettuce & tomato. That sounded boring to me until I found a few that were Hawaiian themed. WIN! Only had to buy 2 additional items:
- pineapple chunks
- cilantro
So here is a recipe for what we are calling the Maui Wowie. You decide how much of each item you want. I will list them in order of stacking:
- one slice white bread, with olive oil brushed on the bottom
- colby cheese
- ham
- red onion, thinly slices
- chopped cilantro
- pineapple chunks
- pepper jack cheese
- spicy brown mustard
- one last slice of white bread, with olive oil brushed on the top
And press! This sandwich was amazing! I’m going to put them together for dinner this weekend so George can have a try. Other folks did the following ham sandwich toppings:
- classic, simple swiss and mayo
- cheddar, cilantro, lettuce, tomato
- swiss, tomato, lettuce, cilantro, pineapple, mayo
All were delighted by our creations, and I have to say it didn’t end up to be the chaos I expected. We all brought our contributions pre-sliced where necessary. Rather than cooking at Jamie’s or my desk, we went to the lunch room, set up a table with all of the ingredients, and had the press on a table-height rolling cart (making it easy to transport our bags of food around the office).
I really wish I had taken pictures 🙁 BUT it was such a hit that I think this is at least going to be a monthly thing. I’ll post some of our other creations as they come up!
xo
en