A Happy Birthday And The Elvis Sandwich

Dan    Mains, Recipes     bacon, banana, Dan Clapson, Dan's Good Side, Elivs, lunch, peanut butter, quick and easy, recipes, sandwiches

Did you know it’s Elvis’ 78th Birthday today? I’m not sure if I’m on the ‘Elvis is still alive’ bang wagon (if that wagon still exists?), but I can’t argue that the man had taste. Rumour has it that his favourite dish in the whole, wide world was a Peanut Butter, Bacon and Banana Sandwich.

I shared a recipe for this guilty pleasure sandwich in a blog entry on this site back in December as a quick and easy lunch for a day when you don’t feel like spending a lot of time in the kitchen. Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwiches have always been a favourite of mine, so adding in some crisp bacon just takes it to another level.

Not that this one really needs a recipe, but, nonetheless, here it is…

What you’ll need…

8 slices bacon

8 slices white bread (keeping’ it classic, old-school all the way!)

2 bananas (1/2″ sliced)

peanut butter (the more the merrier!)

Directions:

Fry up the bacon in a large frying pan until they’re nice and crispy. Place onto some paper towel to absorb any excess grease and to cool slightly. Toast all bread slices until they’re golden brown. Slather each piece with some peanut butter, top with sliced bananas and one piece of bacon. Combine slices into pairs, slice in half and chow down!

Always so simple and satisfying! Happy Birthday Elvis!

Serves 4

Total prep time…10 min

Eat-Harmony: The Perfect Date at Vero Bistro Moderne

Dan    Calgary & Area, Restaurants     alberta, calgary, delicious, dinner, first date, lunch, romantic

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, it’s time to start thinking of a place to take that ‘special someone’ for a perfect date because, gentlemen, a box of chocolates and some flowers just don’t cut it any more. Just the other day, while doing ‘ideal date place’ research, I popped into Vero Bistro Moderne. Needless to say, it was love eat at first sight. Vero oozes romance from their decor and colour scheme to item descriptions on the menu. As it was the lunching hour, I looked over their ‘Sexy Lunch Menu‘ and opted for their daily $15 two-course special. The daily offering was an organic greens salad with pumpkin seeds, apple slices, goat feta (from Fairwinds Farm outside of Edmonton), and topped with an apple cider vinaigrette. Fresh and delicious. I’m always a bit worried when the dressing of choice is ‘apple cider vinaigrette’ as my mind wanders to standard issue cider vinegar, olive oil, and garlic, but Chef Jenny used real apple cider and a nice helping of cinnamon. Perfect.

Next up, my main dish, conchiglioni (shell) pasta in a creamy ricotta sauce, topped with a generous helping of beef and veal bolognese. The bolognese was surprisingly sweet, but in a good way, and the two sauces combined were amazing. If only licking the plate was appropriate in restaurants…

Normally, I don’t opt for the dessert during my lunch hour, but who can turn down a passionfruit crème brulée and home-made vanilla gelato? Did I mention that the gelato was served in the form of a snowman? I feel bad for cute-looking, tasty little culinary offerings, as a fork/spoon/knife/bite/chew massacre is always just around the corner. Let’s just say the sweet vanilla snow gelato-man did not even have time to melt. The crème brulée had a sweet hazelnut layer at the base, which played nicely with the tang of the passionfruit.

After lunch, I talked briefly with chef/owner Jenny Chan (not to go unmentioned, she owns/runs Vero with her brother Frankie). Vero Bistro Moderne has been in Calgary since July of 2008 and has been one of Calgary’s most romantic dining spots ever since. I asked her whether with Vero having such a romantic — sexy if you will — atmosphere, she had seen any marriage proposals. The answer was…

To read more about Vero Bistro Moderne, and to check out some more photos, head over to Food Network Canada’s site!

Now, who wants to be my date?

Beer Bread & BLT

Dan    Recipes     beer, bread, lunch, sandwich

What you’ll need…

2 1/3 cups all purpose flour

2 TBSP brown sugar

2 TSP salt

2 bottles beer (Pref. Steam Whistle Pilsner)

1 TSP cinnamon

1/4 cup butter (melted)

3 TBSP beer simple syrup

Yes, I am cooking with beer again, but trust me, you are going to love this! The beer bread for this sandwich is going to be beautifully dense, and slightly on the sweeter side. A BLT is pretty straight forward, so I’m only going to list the recipe for the bread, just promise to use it for your BLT sandwich!

Combine all dry ingredients, add in the beer, simple syrup, & melted butter, mix together until a dough forms. Place the dough in a greased loaf pan (try a mini loaf pan & make individual loaves for each person’s sandwich!), and pop into a pre-heated oven at 400 degrees.

Bake for 40 minutes, check with a toothpick, and if it comes out clean you’re good to go. Let the bread cool while you start getting the rest of sandwich components ready.

Serves 4

Total cook time…1 hour (not including sandwich assembly!)

Shout out once again to Steam Whistle Pilsner for featuring this recipe on their website!