March 20 Pork Panini

March 20   Roast pork panini with a beet salad

This is my week to post two days in a row which really puts the pressure on to make sure that I actually cook something worthy of sharing two days in a row. It also forces me to plan ahead and you know what? I like that more than I thought I would. Saturday night we had the roast pork loin with orange herb sauce and ate  half of it. For our Sunday night supper, I made paninis using some of the leftover pork, using up some of the orange sauce as well in there. It was very touch and go there for a while as far as actually eating in instead of going out for dinner but luckily, Fractured Rib Shack over did it during the day and was really sore and grumpy by dinner time so he was happy to be fed in his man chair.




Because we are not normally a sandwich family, making these types of things never used to occur to me to serve as an actual meal but I have to admit it is such a great way to use up leftover meat and the guys really do seem to enjoy them. I almost feel guilty that I have not been feeding Shack fancy sandwiches for the last 16 years just because I don't really eat them. I guess I  just assumed that he doesn't consider them a meal either but I am actually getting exited about all of the flavour combinations we can try over the summer using up all of the leftover bbq meats that are inevitable in this house.

layer of antipasto on bottom half of sliced bun

next is a layer of brie

couple slices of pork with some of the orange herb sauce 

arugula

slice of harvarti

put the top on

wrap the sandwich in foil

I don't have a panini press so I improvise by putting the sandwiches on a cookie sheet and covering them with my big, heavy cast iron pan.
Preheat the oven to 375F and put the cookie sheet on the bottom shelf and cook them for about 20 minutes like I did here.

Let the sandwiches sit for a minute or two before you slice them so they don't fall apart and ooze everywhere. You could use even more filling to make them thicker but I like to be able to get my mouth around a sandwich and so I don't like them a little thinner.