The Marlboro Man Sandwich

This is it, the recipe I've been wanting to share!  I made this for dinner Saturday night and we ate it for leftovers last night.  Plus Jon took some for lunch today.  This meal can easily serve 6 people.

This recipe comes from The Pioneer Woman.  I heart The Pioneer Woman.  None of her recipes have every led me astray.  I wish I could go live with her for a week and eat all her yummy food!  Here's a link to the original recipe and below is how I do it.

The Supplies

Plus you'll need rolls and cheese.

(I forgot to include them in the picture.)

Please note-- those onions are fresh from our Pea Patch!

The Marlboro Man Sandwich (Abbey Style)
Prep time 15 mins
Cook time 20 mins
Serves 6+

Ingredients
1 whole large (or 2 Small) Onions
1 package mushrooms
1 stick of Butter
3 pounds Cube Steak
Johnny's Seasoned Salt (or Similar Seasoned Salt)
Lemon pepper
1/2 cup (approximately) Worcestershire Sauce
6 whole deli rolls
6 slices Provolone cheese

1. Slice onions and cook in 1/4 stick butter until soft and light brown. Remove and set aside.
2. Slice (or use pre-sliced) mushrooms and cook in 1 tablespoon butter until brown.  Set aside with the onions.
3. Slice cube steak against the grain. Season liberally with seasoning salt and lemon pepper.
4. Heat 2 tablespoons butter over high heat (in same skillet as the onions and mushrooms were cooked in) until melted and beginning to brown. Add meat in single layer. Cook one side until brown, then flip and cook until brown, about a 2-3 minutes on each side. Repeat until all the meat is cooked.
5. Return all the meat to the pan after the last batched is cooked.  Add the mushrooms and the onions. Add 1/2 cup (at least) Worcestershire sauce and 2 tablespoons butter.  Stir to combine.
6. Split the rolls.  Butter and then brown the rolls in either a skillet, small toaster oven (like I do) or under the broiler in your oven.
7. To assemble, lay bottom half of roll on plate. Place meat mixture on the roll, then a spoonful of juice from the pan followed with a slice of Provolone and top with the other half of the roll.  Eat.

Heaven.

This is one of my favorite meals.  The sauce is amazing and the cheese melts just enough to hold everything together.  Please don't skip toasting the bun, it adds an amazing element.  I'm not big on reheated meat, this is one of the few beef recipes that I'll eat for leftovers.  It's almost better the next day after all the juices and flavors have melded.  You really need to try this recipe!

If you go to The Pioneer Woman's (Ree Drummond) cooking website you'll find lots of variations of this recipe.  I've made this version earlier this year and it was heavenly as well.

One note, if you don't like worchestire sauce, you may not like this recipe.   We love worchestire sauce in our house so we love this recipe!

No cooking for me tonight.  I'm getting some Mommy time out with friends.  I'll be back tomorrow night with a comfort food favorite of Jon's.

Quiche part 2... The recipe

After a night's sleep (not good, just a night's) I'm less annoyed with the quiche. While it didn't work out for dinner last night, with two full quiches in the fridge we now have a week's worth of breakfast and lunch leftovers!

The recipe I’ve developed for my quiche is based on the quiche Lorraine recipe from my trusty Better Homes & Gardens cookbook. I'm not going to post the original recipe, because I've changed it a bit, I’m just going to post my version. Let's call it quiche Cantrell. Please note this makes two full quiches or 12 servings.

Quiche Cantrell
Prep time: 25 minutes
Bake time: 35 minutes to an hour
Makes 2 quiches

2 Premade Pie crusts
1lb Bacon, sliced into 1 inch pieces
4 Ounces mushrooms, sliced thin
1 Medium onion, sliced thin
6 Eggs
3 Cups milk
½ teaspoon Salt
Nutmeg
3 Cups Swiss cheese, shredded
2 Tablespoons Flour

1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Remove pie crusts from the fridge and allow to come to room temperature, this takes approx. 15 minutes. Once the oven and pie crusts are ready, put one pie crust into a pie dish, yes you’ll need two pie dishes for this recipe. Poke the bottom of each pie crust with a fork 5-6 times to prevent big bubbles from forming while the crust bakes. Bake for 5-10 minutes or until the crust is very light brown and no longer looks wet.  Once the crust is done baking turn the oven down to 325 degrees.
2. While the pie crust is baking, cook the bacon until crisp. I use our cast iron pan on medium-high heat. This step can take 5-15 minutes depending on the size of your pan and how thick the bacon is.
3. While the bacon is cooking prep the mushrooms and onion. Then start grating the cheese. If you’re using pre-grated cheese, you can skip that last part.
4. After the bacon is crisp use a slotted spoon to remove from the pan and set aside. I use a paper towel lined plate to help drain off the extra bacon grease.
5. Using the same pan as the bacon, cook the onions until they start to brown, 4-5 minutes. Add the mushrooms once the onions are browned. Cook the mushrooms and onions together until the mushrooms start to brown, another 4-5 minutes. Finish grating the cheese if needed.
6. Once the mushrooms and onions are brown, turn the heat to low while you finish prepping the remaining ingredients.
7. In a small bowl, combine the cheese and flour. Make sure the flour evenly coats the cheese.
8. In a medium sized bowl, add the eggs and beat. Add the milk, salt and nutmeg. Stir in the bacon, mushrooms and onions. Next add the cheese and mix well.
9. Pour the mixture into the pie crusts, making sure there is an even (or as close to even as possible) amount of liquid and solids in each crust.
10. Bake for 35 minutes to an hour… or longer. The quiche is done once the top is slightly browned and you can insert a knife in the middle and it comes out clean.
11. Remove the quiche from the oven and let sit for 10 minutes before serving. This step is important. If you skip this step the quiche may not be fully set and could fall apart when you try to remove it from the pie pan.

I know this recipe sounds complicated, but it really isn’t. The original recipe only has three steps, mine has 11 because this is the way I prepare it. I hate when a recipe has 3 steps, but inside each step there are 4-5 steps they’re assuming you’ve already done. I found that very frustrating when I first started cooking. I learned to always read, reread and read again any recipe before starting it.

You can save yourself sometime by buying pre-grated cheese, but I like the taste of freshly grated cheese. You could make your own pie crust, I haven’t tackled that challenge yet, I’m perfectly happy saving time and energy using the premade Pillsbury stuff you find the refrigerated section at the grocery store. Oh, and 4 ounces of mushrooms is half a package.

I use fresh nutmeg, I think it tastes better. You can but whole nutmeg in the bulk section, they look like small walnuts. You just need a micro plane/zester . I use ours for nutmeg, garlic, cheese, lemons, and all sorts of stuff. I was scared of it at first, but know it’s one of my favorite kitchen tools.

For some reason I’m out of flour, strange I know, so I used cornstarch instead and it worked fine.

Make sure you turn the oven down to 325 after backing the pie crusts.  I've fogotten this step in the past and it wasn't pretty.
This is another dish that tastes better the next day. I always make two quiches so we have lots of leftovers, if you only want to make one, you can half the recipe and only get one. :)