Worthwhile Challenge Week 25 and 26!

I didn't get ANYTHING accomplished last week except our trip to Iowa and getting the new member of the family settled in! I might have made a new recipe but I cannot honestly remember it! So today I am giving you a double!

First up, Philly Cheesesteak Sandwiches. I've been having a hankering for them for awhile now. I decided to ask my philly friend, Chuck, how to make them.

Say hi to chuck!


My tools for this project were my big electric griddle thingy (that is usually only used for pancakes), and this big metal pampered chef spatula. That way I could continue chopping the meat while cooking, etc.



First step was going to the local grocery store that has a meat counter. So I went to Dillons. I picked out a package of Ribeye steaks (the cut Chuck suggested). Then I went to find the nice meat man and asked him to slice them up super thin for cheesesteaks. I had chosen a package of two large-ish steaks. He sliced it up, rewrapped it, and i was off to the checkout.

I took a vidalia onion and sliced it super-thin. I took a moment to wish that I had not sold my pchef Mandolin slicer so many years ago. It would be very handy for this. Turned the griddle on and got it good and hot. Butter toasted some hoagie buns. Then I put about 1/2 a stick of butter on the griddle and got it melted, and I threw on the meat. I ended up only using one of the steaks and froze the rest. One steak made three decent sized sandwiches. As the meat cooked, I salt and peppered it, and threw the onions on. Stirred and chopped while it was cooking to your desired doneness. I am a fan of no-pink. Many people do peppers in their cheesesteaks..but not us! Matt thought some grilled mushrooms would have been a nice addition.

This is the meat about half done:

Warming the bun back up a bit before I topped it off.

Now when the meat is to your likeness, put several slices of provolone cheese on top. Apparently true Philly folk use Cheesewhiz and slather it on the buns, but Chuck said provolone, so that's what I did. Let it melt. (I helped it along by putting a large skillet lid over it to trap in the heat/steam.

Scoop a spatula full onto your spatula, set it on your bottom bun, put the top bun on and hold the meat in place while you slide that spatula out. (That was my Diners, DriveIns and Drives move there).

The finished product; fabulousness.

A great dish to go with this is a pasta salad. Years ago...probably 8 years...I made little cookbook of recipes that I had a bunch of friends contribute. I made copies for everyone. My friend Nicola recently moved and emailed me to see if I had a recipe from the book, because she had misplaced it in the move. I thought, "if this recipe is so good that Nic has been using it for 8 years and would ask me for it, I think I will try it!". It never really sounded good to me before.

Very simple. Cook and drain 16oz of penne pasta, pour 1/2 cup vegetable oil over it in a large bowl. In a blender, put in 1 cup white vinegar, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 Tbs parsley flakes, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp pepper, 1/2 tsp yellow mustard (not dried), 1 small onion and one peeled medium cucumber. Blend all in a blender until smooth and pour over pasta. Marinate over night and stir occassionally. Add black olives, chopped tomatoes....veggies of your choice really. I did carrots and tomatoes and it was good. Broccoli would be good too! The nice thing about this dish is that it is not Mayonnaise based so it would be nice for a potluck!

Enjoy my friends!