cuban bread

The other day, while we were at the Nyes’ house visiting, I (randomly) mentioned I’d been craving a cuban sandwich–you know, the kind with ham and swiss and a pickle? No idea why I was even thinking about one at the time, but you know, that’s to be expected from someone like me.

Well, without a moment’s delay, Mr. Nye was in the cookbook cabinet and out came this baby:

The well-worn pages show it’s been loved and used for years (I saw a note by a recipe from 1998). Mr. Nye explained that the recipe for the authentic cuban sandwich bread was in here, somewhere. The traditional bread for the cuban sandwich is the ‘Pan Suave’ (which means ‘smooth bread’ in spanish–and, apparently, Cuban), as opposed to the Pan Cubano, which is made with lard. The Pan Suave are also called ‘Cuban Sweet Rolls.’

I found it and decided to whip up some rolls this past weekend. I even bought the ingredients for an ‘authentic’ cuban sandwich, which is ham, roast pork (which I found pre-cut surprisingly easily in the deli at Wegmans) and swiss cheese, as well as a mayo-dijon combo I could make at home.

I was having a terrible time getting it to come together in my mixer and think I added a bit too much flour in the process. I should have just kneaded by hand.

Aren’t they amazing?!?!?! Despite adding more flour than probably necessary and not rising as much as I thought they might, they plumped right up in the oven. Before baking, I brushed them with an egg wash and sprinkled them with sesame seeds.

I packed both Andrew and myself a pre-sliced roll for our lunches, put what I thought we could eat in the next couple days in the bread box and bagged the remaining rolls for the freezer.

Here’s my lunch at school:

One roll and the ham, pork, swiss and pickle packed separately, along with a little mayo-dijon. (Because no one likes a soggy sandwich…)

Assembled sandwich! The bread was a bit dense (perhaps too much flour?), but it was chewy and sweet, almost cake-like. I can’t get over how ‘pretty’ they look. I mean, that’s all that counts, right? (No, not really, but it’s still nice when it looks like the picture. Except that this didn’t have a picture…but I digress.)

This sandwich was great–filled me right up! I love pickles on sandwiches–must do that more often. Not sure I would make this recipe again–I’ll have to return the cookbook, I don’t make cubans all that often, etc…–but it was a fun project.

Wish I had a scanner to photocopy the recipe…

sugar cream pie cookoff

Andrew grew up eating his mom’s sugar cream pie, something I’d never heard of until I met him and started visiting his house in New York.

Apparently, sugar cream pie is a Midwestern thing; Andrew’s mom is from Indiana, which explains why she made these pies, and Mrs. Nye–a New York native and pie-making extraordinaire–had never heard of them before.

Anyway, I randomly ended up making Andrew’s mom’s recipe in an effort to get rid of a pre-made crust that had been sitting in our freezer for awhile now.

However, I’d ripped another sugar cream pie recipe out of Food Network magazine years ago (having recognized the name from Andrew and thinking it would be fun to try), but had not yet made.

Andrew and I LOVE to do cook-offs to determine which recipe of something we like over another, so I thought to myself, ‘Why not do a cook-off?’ Andrew was up for the idea, but I was concerned about all that leftover pie the two of us would have. I decided I would take “cook-off slices” to our near and dear, since everyone was busy this past weekend.

Here, my friends, are the results:

Andrew’s mom’s pie:

This pie is light and has a gelatin-like consistency. It’s make with milk, sugar and cornstarch and is super easy. I liked the light flavor and with some fresh whipped cream, it’s awesome!

Hoosier Mama’s pie:

This pie is the recipe Hoosier Mama makes in Chicago. As I said, I found it in Food Network a long time ago and piqued my interest.

It incorporates a thick, crunchy crust made with a touch of red wine vinegar, of all things. I overdid the crust just a bit, but overall my tasters liked it a bit brown. The pie itself is made with both brown and white sugars, and heavy cream instead of milk.

It has a much deeper, richer–almost ‘burned’ sugar–flavor that reminds Andrew and me of the maple syrup pie we fell in love with in Quebec City a couple falls ago. (It does solidify; we microwaved it a bit which is why it’s a little runny above.)

Overall, I think the results favored the Hoosier Mama pie, but just barely. And really, they turned out so different from each other (something I hadn’t anticipated), that it was almost like comparing apples to oranges.

Do your own taste test and make them both!

all used up

Remember when I used up all my ink in a matter of weeks last semester??

After numerous calculations, I’ve worn all my erasers down to the end, which necessitates one of two things:

1. Buy more pencils.

2. Raid Andrew’s stash of giant, adjustable eraser “thing-a-ma-jigs” from college.

(While I wouldn’t normally be so hesitant to update my pencil collection, I happen to LIKE all my pencils and don’t feel like spending the money on new ones.)

So…

…I’ve now stocked my backpack and both pencil cups with these giant things. And I used to think they were only for engineers. I’ve gone to the dark side.

Now, as long as I don’t start using his fancy-schmancy metal “engineer” mechanical pencils (he has about a gazillion, seriously), I think I’ll be OK…