Good Boy Sandwiches

When I was newly married I made my husband a brown bag lunch every day. It typically included a sandwich, chips, a beverage, and sometimes a little love note. One day, the honeymoon ended. I don't even remember what the argument was about, but I remember I was steaming mad. Fuming, I packed the lunch.

One of my husband's odd, favorite sandwiches is peanut butter and mayonnaise. I know. Ugh. But, if you put dill pickles in there, it's actually, strangely good. But I digress.



Angry though I was, I made the lunch. Peanut butter and mayonnaise. Heavy on the peanut butter. Whisper light on the mayonnaise. On dry bread. And a half a cup of juice. No chips.

He called me at lunchtime. I expected a repentant apology. No, he hadn't even noticed! So I pointed it out to him. Then he apologized. And now he knows the warning signs of an angry outburst on the horizon - dry bread with lots of peanut butter, little mayonnaise, and 1/2 a cup of juice. No chips.

This sandwich is kind of the antithesis of the "I'm pissed" sandwich. This is a "good boy, you deserve a biscuit sandwich." My daughter and I saw this on Everyday Food and knew we had to make this for our wonderful, deserving husbands. We call it - The Amazing Sandwich. Which it is. By some strange kitchen alchemy it takes 5 ingredients and transforms them into something, well, amazing!



Notes: I couldn't find round, crusty loaves of the right size. Obviously, I could have made them, but I didn't have the time. So I went to Great Harvest and bought two round loaves there. It wasn't till I got them home that I realized they weren't crusty. Plus they're a bit larger than one pounders. Working with smaller, one pound loaves will yield slightly smaller sandwich slices.

The recipe says this serves 8. Ha! We served 6 and had a loaf and a third leftover. You could easily halve this recipe if you don't need to feed a crowd.

Amazing Sandwich
- adapted from Everyday Food

2 round or oval loaves country bread (1 pound each),
1 jar (12 ounces) oil-packed roasted red peppers
12 ounces salami, thinly sliced
12 ounces provolone cheese, thinly sliced
2 bunches arugula, (about 6 ounces each), washed well and thick stems removed (about 10 cups)

1- Slice the tops off the bread, about 1/4 of the way down.

2- Scoop out the bread with your fingers, leaving a rind of about 1 inch of bread inside the crust, including the top. Save the scooped out bread to make bread crumbs.

3- Brush inside the loaves on the bottoms and inside the tops with oil from the roasted red peppers.

4- Dividing evenly, layer bottom bread halves with roasted peppers, salami, cheese, and arugula; top with remaining bread halves. You can alternate layers of the salami and cheese to make it more stripey looking. Really press the layers in firmly. When you put on the arugula, some might fall out. Just tuck it back in.

5- Wrap each loaf completely in plastic wrap securing the top to the bottom.

6- Lay wrapped sandwiches on a baking sheet. Position another baking sheet on top, and weight with heavy canned goods, a large skillet, or workout weights. Let stand for at least one hour, pressing down occasionally with hands. You can put the whole thing in the refrigerator and let it squash down overnight.

7- To serve, cut each sandwich in wedges.