Crazy Cooking Challenge-Loaded Pizza Grilled Cheese

 When I saw that grilled cheese was the topic for May’s Crazy Cooking Challenge, I knew that I wanted to do something pizza inspired.  I found a recipe for Pepperoni Pizza Grilled Cheese at Never Enough Thyme.  I wanted a few more things in my sandwich so here is my take on that recipe.

Lana made a compound butter.  I did, too, but added garlic powder to mine, used Italian seasonings instead of oregano, and used 1/4 c. parmesan cheese.

I make my own no cook pizza sauce so I made up a recipe of that.  If I have leftover pizza sauce, I put it in ice cube trays and freeze i.  I put the frozen in a freezer bag; and when I want just a little pizza sauce, I put them in a bowl and thaw in the microwave. 

Besides cheese and pepperoni, I wanted Italian sausage, olives and green onion in my sandwich.  I browned up a pound of Italian sausage, drained it and blotted it with paper towels.  That is the amount that I had on hand so there was extra sausage.  I divided it into 1/4 c. amounts, put that in snack bags and put them into a freezer bag for the freezer.

I like to degrease my pepperoni so I put the amount needed for the sandwich between two pieces of paper towel and microwave it for 5 seconds.

A sturdy bread is needed to hold all the filling in this sandwich.  I used a multi-grain bread in my sandwich, but any favorite sturdy bread can be used.

I found a mozzarella/ provolone cheese blend at my local grocery store.  They had both sliced and shredded, and it was BOGO so I got both.  I ended up using the shredded.

Although I did not do it when I made this sandwich, I like Lana’s idea to brown the sandwich on both sides and then put it in a 325 degree oven to finish melting the cheese.  I think this would be good to do when making a number of sandwiches at a time.

Italian Garlic and Cheese Butter
!/2 c. butter, softened
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. Italian seasoning
1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese (shelf stable)

Combine ingredients and mix well.  Chill to let the flavors blend but bring to room temperature to spread on your sandwich.  Makes about 3/4 c.

No Cook Pizza Sauce
1 can (8 oz.) tomato sauce
1 t. sugar or to taste
1 t. dry oregano
1/2 t. marjoram
1/2 t. basil
1/2 t. garlic salt or 1/4 t. each garlic powder and salt

Combine ingredients and let set at least one hour to let flavors blend.  If using sooner than that I would heat the mixture until it boils and simmer 5 to 10 minutes.  Makes 1 cup.

To make one sandwich:
2 slices bread of choice
2 T. Italian Garlic and Cheese Butter
2 T. pizza sauce
enough pepperoni slices to cover 1 slice of bread, usually 5 to 6
1/4 c. mozzarella cheese
1/4 c. Italian sausage, cooked
sliced ripe olives as desired
sliced green onion as desired

Place pizza slices between two layers of paper towel and microwave 5 seconds to degrease and cook slightly.  Set aside.  Place a skillet over medium heat and start  heating it up.  Spread one side of one slice of bread with about 1 T. butter mixture.  Place in skillet.  Spread about 1 T. pizza sauce on the other side of bread.  Arrange pizza slices on the bread.  Top  with the cheese.  Sprinkle the Italian sausage over the cheese.  Top with the amount of sliced ripe olives and green onions desired.  Spread remaining pizza sauce on second slice of bread.  Place bread on sandwich and spread remaining butter on the top side.  Press down lightly to help keep ingredients together.  Continue cooking on first side until bread is as brown as you like.  Turn sandwich and cook on second side until it is as brown as you like and cheese has melted.  Remove sandwich to a plate, cut it in half and enjoy.  Makes 1 sandwich.

Come and join in for next month's challenge.  You can get all the details at Tina's Mom's Crazy Cooking blog.

Linking to:  Crazy Cooking Challenge

Cooking from the Blogs-What I Made

Recently I made a couple of blog recipes that I managed to take photos of.  Both of these were great and will go into my regular recipe rotation.

Since I make lunch for hubby and me every day, I am always looking for something new that will provide more variety than my old standbys.  I had seen this recipe for French Dip Crescents and Easy Au Jus over at Mommy Loves Food and included it in one of my Friday Finds.  When I ran across deli roast beef at a great sale price, I bought some to make this.  I used cheddar cheese instead of  Swiss.  These were very good and hubby said that he would eat them from time to time.  I had two left over that I took for lunch at work.  Although the meat was a little dry, they reheated nicely in the microwave.  I liked the homemade au jus very much, but I would double the recipe next time so that I could put some in the freezer as we used all of it.

In my last Cooking from the Blogs post, I had made Roasted Potato Stacks which were very good.  Those were made by stacking slices of potato in muffin pans.  This time I made Crisp Roast Potatoes from Amanda’s Cookin  which was her Secret Recipe Club recipe this month.  For this dish, you slice the potatoes thinly and place them on their edges in a baking pan.  She used shallots.  I didn’t have any so use red onion slices instead.  I halved the recipe since there were just the two of us and knew that there would still be leftovers.  I used a 7x11-inch baking dish and ended up using about nine medium potatoes to fill the dish.  I mixed some garlic powder with the butter and olive oil that is poured over the potatoes and used Spice Islands Rosemary Garlic Grinder as my seasonings.  Hubby said the these reheated well in the microwave when he fixed them for dinner the next night.  This was another fun way to serve potatoes, and I will make these often.

Taco and Sloppy Joe Grinders

I have to admit that I have no idea what a Grinder actually is.  I am calling these two recipes Grinders because I got the idea for them from Amanda’s  (Amanda’s Cooking ) post for  Guinea Grinders.  They are a type of Italian seasoned meat sauce and mozzarella cheese hot sandwich.  I made them, and they were very good.  My husband approved so the Grinders will go into our regular lunch rotation.

When I made the recipe, I used my Pizza Sauce recipe and multiplied it by 4, used sandwich buns instead of French Bread, and used an Italian Cheese Blend instead of the mozzarella as this was what I had on hand.

The more I thought about the method used in the recipe; the more I got to thinking, which is not a good thing sometimes, why not use the same method with other fillings such as taco or sloppy joes.  So I did. 

I am also thinking that the fillings could be cooled and put in the buns with the cheese, wrapped, and put in freezer bags, frozen and reheated from the frozen state.  I have some of the Guinea Grinders in the freezer right now to test that out. 

Update:  The already filled buns did not work out as well as I had hoped.  The sandwiches took too long to reheat.  For Plan B I put about 1/4 cup of the filling into zip-top snack bags, then put them into a freezer bag.  I hollowed out the buns and froze them separately.  I then removed the filling and a bun from the freezer, put the filling in a small bowl and heated briefly in the microwave.  I put the filling in the bun, topped with cheese, wrapped in foil and put in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes.  This worked much better and will still allow me to heat one or two sandwiches at a time.

I can get sandwich buns like the ones shown in the photo above for $1.00 a package at my local bakery outlet stores.  These have various names:  stadium, outdoor, hoagie, etc.  While the filling is cooking, hollow out a trough in both halves of the buns as shown above.  I use a grapefruit spoon to do this, but it isn’t  necessary.  Be careful not to go through the bottom or top of the bun.  Frugal tip:  spread the hollowed-out bread on a baking sheet and let dry to make dry bread crumbs.

 

Fill the trough in the bottom with your filling (about 1/4-1/3 c.) and top with the grated cheese (about 2 T.)

Fold the top of the bun over the filling.  Cut a square of aluminum foil and wrap bun with it.  Bake in a 375 degree oven 15 minutes.  Serve and enjoy.

Below are the recipes I used to make the Taco and Sloppy Joe Grinders.  Feel free to use your favorite recipes if you have them.  It may be necessary to reduce the liquid called for in a Sloppy Joe recipe.  I cook the seasoning with the ground beef for 5 minutes after adding them and simmer the filling 30 minutes before using.  I think I get a more flavorful product that way.  The Taco Grinder filling can be topped with ripe olives before adding the cheese if desired.

Taco Grinders

1 1/2 lb. lean ground beef

Taco Seasoning (this is adapted from The Thrifty Cook, Farm Journal Books, 1974)
1 T. instant minced onion
1 t. salt
1 1/2 t. chili powder
3/4 t. ground cumin
1/2 t. crushed dried red pepper
1/2 t. garlic powder
3/4 t. cornstarch
1/2 t. dried oregano leaves

1 can (8 oz.) tomato sauce
1/4 c. water
Grated sharp Cheddar cheese

Heat a large skillet until hot, add ground beef and cook until browned, breaking up beef as it cooks.  Drain fat it necessary.  Combine taco seasoning mix in a small bowl and mix well.  Add to ground beef, mix well and let cook for 5 minutes.  Add tomato sauce.  Measure water and use to rinse out tomato sauce can.  Add to skillet.  Mix well.  Simmer 30 minutes.  Using 1/4-1/3 c. fill sandwich buns as shown above.  Top with cheese.  This will fill 6-8 buns.

Sloppy Joe Grinders

1 1/2 lbs. lean ground beef
1/2 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. chopped red pepper (or can be green for more authentic Sloppy Joes)

Sloppy Joe Seasoning Mix  (this is adapted from The Thrifty Cook, Farm Journal Books, 1974)
1 t. salt
1 1/2 t. cornstarch
3/4 t. sugar
1/2 t. garlic powder
1/2 t. dry mustard
1/2 t. celery seeds
1/2 t. chili powder

1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste
water
1 T. brown sugar
2 T. ketchup

Heat a large skillet until hot.  Add ground beef, onion, and red pepper.  Cook until browned, breaking up ground beef as it cooks.  Drain fat if necessary.  Combine Sloppy Joe Seasoning ingredients together in a small bowl.  Mix well.  Add to ground beef mixture, mix well, and cook for 5 minutes.   Add tomato paste.  Fill tomato paste can with water and use a small spatula to get the last of the tomato paste.  Add to ground beef and mix well.  Add an additional 1/4-1/2 c. water, brown sugar, and ketchup.  Mix well and simmer 30 minutes.  Using 1/4-1/3 c. fill sandwich buns as shown above.  Since Sloppy Joes don’t typically have cheese added, cheese would be optional.

Linking to Melt in Your Mouth Monday, Make a Food "e" Friend