Comfort Food and a Nice Kabinett

This long election campaign season has me looking for quick stuff to eat and drink in between campaigning for my favorite candidates. I absolutely despise fast food. But in this day and age, sometimes it is a necessity.

Thinking about fast food got me to thinking about some childhood comfort foods that I still fall back on, on long weekends when I don't feel like cooking.

My mom still serves double decker sandwiches and pop (soda) if you're grown or kool aid, if you're a kid. A double decker is what the rest of the world calls a club sandwich. It's made of three slices of bread and stuffed with what ever....meat, cheese, lettuce...you get the idea.

Mom made ham and egg double deckers and here in Cincinnati, you could go to any deli and get one. It's a staple around here. But when I grew up and tried to order one in another city, I learned that I had to be more specific. I couldn't just say bring me a ham and egg double decker.

When I did that, the waitress gave me a sandwich with boiled ham, that was okay, but the egg was fried. Here in Cincinnati, the egg is hard boiled and sliced. You gotta specify exactly what you want when out of town. Cincinnati's got many idiosyncrasies that don't translate to the rest of the country.

Now that I'm grown, I've also dispensed with the pop and kool aid, substituting a nice glass of wine instead. I still sometimes use a half dill pickle and some potato chips as my side veggie though.

The wine I like best with my double decker is a german kabinett, usually from the mosel valley. Kabinetts are first harvest wines and not as sweet as spatlese, which is the second harvest. Kabinetts are usually called table wine. I think they're quite good for daily drinking. They pair easily with most food. Kabinetts are not too expensive either. I've got one for this weekend that cost me 19.99, but I've had others that were good, for as little as 9.99.

So when you're feeling lazy about cooking try this: ham and egg double decker w/white wine, your choice.

RECIPE

2-3 slices of ham, your choice in flavor

3 slices bread, toasted

1-2 hard boiled eggs, sliced

tomato

lettuce

mayo or miracle whip or your favorite spread

You're making a sandwich now, take a piece of toast spread mayo, layer egg slices to cover bread from crust to crust

put second piece of bread on top of eggs, spread mayo, layer tomato, lettuce, meat

take third piece of bread, complete the sandwich

Now my mom salt and peppers her eggs, I don't

My sister likes onion on hers, I don't

I have had some people put a slice of cheese on it...sometimes it's okay..but then I have a tendency to leave off the meat and just use the veggies, eggs and cheese

your choice!

Salud!

10/31/08 jam