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Recipe 7- Pardon My Panini By hurricane04 in Crazy Carla Cooks August 3, 2010

When I told my boys, ages 8 and 4, that I would be making Paninis, they both looked at me with eyes of confusion. When I explained to them that a Panini is basically a smooshed, grilled sandwich, they looked at me with eyes of mass confusion. I guess the concept is pretty silly—smash as hard as possible two pieces of bread together with some filling inside. But the yummy, melty, warm, crispy “smooshed, cooked sandwich,” aka the Panini, is well worth the smooshing. Rachael Ray gave several examples of what you could put in your Panini but specifically suggested using crusty, chewy bread. So I used freshly cooked french bread (from the grocery store of course, you think I have time to bake with all this cooking I’m doing?! Ha!) I gave my husband and two boys several choices of filling (mostly what I could scrounge up from the fridge while still giving justice to Rach’s filling suggestions)- turkey lunch meat, crispy bacon, pepperonis, jalapenos, banana peppers, pickles, jap. jack cheese, mozzarella cheese and cheddar cheese. Ya know, you can tell a lot by a person’s panini fillings. For example, my husband ordered his with turkey, bacon, pepperonis, jalapenos, jap. jack cheese on one and cheddar cheese on the other. What does this tell me? It tells me he’s becoming a bit more adventurous with food and less adventurous with his social life (thank the stars!). And of course, it tells me that he’s a manly man! Jayden, my 8 yr. old had bacon, pepperonis, pickles & independently ordered mustard, which was not on the condiment choice menu. This tells me that he’s undeniably, unmistakably, 100% pure and utter genius! How do I know, I just told you, from the fillings dude! Carter, my ever so fearless, adventurous, doesn’t-cry-with-5-vaccinations-at-once 4 yr. old, well, he ordered his with “nothing!” He went on to say that “smooshed sandwiches are soooo gross!” The psychologist in me tells me that his invisible filling order means that if I ate as little as he did I’d be one super-skinny mama!!! And it also tells me that he likes things consistent, no novelty in his world, plain and simple, would never take the time to eat if I didn’t force him to daily (either via bribery, taking away video games or acting like a crazy cheerleader on crack- “LET’S GO CARTER, LET’S GO!!! YEAH, YOU CAN DO IT, TAKE A BITE! RAH!). And for me you may be wondering? I had bacon, jalapenos, banana peppers, mozz. cheese, jap. jack cheese & cheddar cheese. Yeah, I know that’s a lot of dang cheese but lack of cheese to me is like that crackhead cheerleader I mentioned above without her crack, I like my cheese! What’s that say about me? It says I like the perfect amount of firmness, am spicy, fun, energetic, curious and well I guess that I like cheese a whole lot. So pardon my panini talk, now go make your own! :)

Oh, one last thing, I didn’t have a panini press but I remembered Rachael Ray saying to just use a heavy skillet and press down really hard, so that’s what I did and so can you! Get creative with the fillings, use whatever you feel like, even if it does sound a bit weird, because remember, your fillings say a lot about you! ;)

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