Five Sweet as Pie recipes in three weeks! Whew! For our final installment for February, we made Marlboro Man’s Favorite Sandwich. Now, let it be known that I love sandwiches. Some people (my dad, Phillip) name steak as their favorite food, some people like crawdads (my brother), some people love chocolate. But me? I love sandwiches. Of all sorts of variety. So I was definitely excited to have a sandwich on the Sweet as Pie menu. Did it turn out to be my favorite sandwich too? No, not even close. Was it Phillip’s favorite sandwich? When I asked him, he said “My favorite sandwiches invariably have goat cheese on them.” And this sandwich definitely didn’t have any goat cheese on it. But, nevertheless, it was a quick and tasty meal and an introduction to a great base sandwich. Next time, I think we’ll start with the PW recipe, but then amp it up a little bit with some extra ingredients. Mushrooms or green onions, maybe. Maybe even some goat cheese for Phillip. At any rate, here’s how it came together:
Like so many PW recipes, you start with a little butter.
The butter is for the onion, which you saute until soft and lightly golden.
The main ingredient is sliced cube steak. I’d never thought about using cube steak this way and was pleasantly surprised.
Seasoned with black pepper, lemon pepper, and seasoned salt.
Brown all of the meat in your trusty cast iron skillet.
Then, toss it all together with some Worcestershire and Tabasco to taste. After simmering for a few minutes, it’s ready to spoon onto the bread.
Toasting the bread is key to the sandwich holding up well under the juices of the meat mixture.
The final product:
What I do love about this recipe is that it’s a family favorite at Pioneer Woman’s house and it sounds like she pretty much just made it up one day. Do you have one of those? We do – it’s a buffalo chicken wrap that I invented in grad school when I had some random stuff in my fridge. And Phillip and I love it. It’s nostalgic for us, just like I bet this sandwich is for the PW family. It’s the same reason I love Kraft macaroni and cheese in the blue box, Chicken McNuggets, minute steak, and countless other “not so fancy” dishes – it’s all about the memories tied to them. That’s been one of the best things about Sweet as Pie for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love the cooking and eating parts, but I really love reading about families cooking together and making their own memories. And, of course, making our own memories, too.
Side note: After making this sandwich, I gladly turned the kitchen over to Phillip for the week. My sweet husband agreed to take over dinner duty this week while I power through the last few days of bar exam prep. He came up with the menu himself and I am pretty excited about it – grouper, Cornish game hens, and steak, for example. I hope he enjoys cooking as much as I think I’ll enjoy his dishes so he’ll volunteer to do it again sometime!
