Summer evenings are for gardening, sitting by the pool, or sipping Hamm’s on ice with friends. They are not for standing in a kitchen, getting sweaty over a hot stove. Grilling is one great way to get around being in the stifling kitchen. But I also like speed and ease-of-use in summer evenings. Especially when I’m cooking for one (or, one and a parasite, as in my case) when Mr. Meat and Potatoes is on the road.

On those occasions, I like to have the fixin’s of The Great Sandwich on hand. For me, concocting the perfect summer sandwich is a feat of creativity, a show of homage to the fantastic ingredients that are available to me. Also, I’m lazy and it’s fast.

Many of these beauties can be concocted with no extra planning or trips to the store. Leftovers, garden veggies, whatever you have around will usually do. Usually, as I peruse the items at the farmer’s market, I have future sandwiches in mind. I consider my leftovers when I’m at the grocery store, and dream up spreads and sauces that can be made with leftover cheeses and salad dressings. Usually, a summer s’wich isn’t too far away, but it to really do it right, you might want to keep a few staples prepared in your fridge.

First, I recommend having some sort of special spread at the ready. I like to use this olive and mushroom antipasta salad as a starting point. It’s great to have around because you can serve it with some crackers as an appetizer (or, as a meal, if you’re me and you eat, when you’re alone, standing over the sink with no utensils), or you can use it as a nice addition to any number of sandwiches.

Rocky’s Antipasto

8 ounces sliced mushrooms (canned)
12.8 ounces marinated artichoke hearts, undrained
green olives
1/2 cup bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup vinegar
1/3-1/2 cup olive oil
s and p
2 cloves minced garlic

Toss it all in a food processor and give it a few turns so it gets chopped nice and small, but not into mush. Slowly drizzle in olive oil while you pulse.

Once you have a jar of that in your fridge, your’re ready to roll.

With this “olive salad”, you can concoct a muffuletta. I’m sure what I make is wildly inaccurate to the original, but we do what we can with what we have on hand.

If you have some sturdy bread on hand (real muffuletta bread is dense flat loaf), that’s best. Foccacia is usually a good substitute, but eh, sometimes we just make due with whatever bread is handy – baguette, artisan, whatever.

All you have to do then is plop on some olive salad, a slice or two of cheese (provolone would be best), some salami, and a lovely garden tomato. I usually keep some genoa salami and mortadella around the house – again, it’s great for flinging out as an appetizer, or for a snack over the sink. If you have leftover ham from Sunday dinner, or a little shaved roast beast, feel free to bastardize the muffaletta in any way you can imagine.

Or, if you have a little feta cheese on hand, leftover from your last pasta salad endeavor, you might whip up a little feta spread like this:

Herbed Feta Spread

4 T crumbled feta
3 T mayo (NOT MIRACLE WHIP! MIRACLE WHIP IS THE DEVIL)
2 T sour cream
1 tsp fresh basil, chopped (or whatever delicious herb you pluck from your garden)
1 clove of garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste

Stir it up and be ready to spread it on your sammy, maybe with some hummus, in a pita. Or, with some pickled red onions, a slice of swiss cheese, that garden tomato slice again, and some left over roast beef (or roast beef cold cuts). A good crusty baguette from Wheatfields would make this quite fancy.

My mama always has these lovelies frozen and at-the-ready. You do have to warm them, but you can do it on the grill, or put them in the oven and then leave the house.

Grandma Green’s Hot Ham ‘n Cheese Sandwiches (circa 1970)

Ingredients:

Potato Rolls (or any nice small bakery buns or rolls)

(For each sandwich)
1 Tb.butter
1 tsp. dill weed
1 1/2 tsp. minced or chopped onion
1 tsp. mustard
1 slice of Swiss cheese
several slices of shredded deli ham

Mix the amount of butter, onion, dill weed and mustard for the number of sandwiches you are making.

Slice rolls and spread the mixture on one side. Top this with a slice of Swiss cheese–you may have to “fold’ the cheese to fit the roll. Place the ham on the cheese and top with the other half of the roll.

Wrap each sandwich in foil. Place the sandwiches on a cookie sheet in an oven pre-heated to approx. 300 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes (check to see when the cheese is melted).

Or, what if you need to use up a couple of green apples? You might like this one:

Smoked Turkey and Brie Baguette

2 T good mustard (I usually use something stone ground)
2 T honey
8 oz smoked turkey
1 green apple, sliced thin
1 handful of greens (I recommend watercress or arugula for this)
1 small wedge of brie
1 small baguette

Assemble, eat! If you MUST have your brie melted, you can do it in the microwave apart from the sandwich. Brie melts quickly and beautifully in the microwave – only about 15 seconds needed.

If you have some Art and Mary’s Chips (made right here in Kansas!), you’ve got yourself a gourmet meal, by my standards. Admittedly, my standards are usually ridiculously low, but really, let’s have a communal “Hell ya!” for not heating up an oven, shall we?