I still had some pastrami, from Wegman’s, left over, some Swiss cheese slices, and a couple of slices of the seeded Rye bread, from WalMart. There was a container of sauerkraut, but I chose to throw it out and open a new can. But, the thought was that sauerkraut is probably one of the things that might last the longest, just because of the way you make sauerkraut… salt, water and cabbage… over time. *I tried to make sauerkraut once and it did not work, but I think that I used too much salt to water concentration.
I went through my routine for making this sandwich and I’ve got it down. I opened a bag of wavy potato chips, which surprisingly had remained opened for several days. I bought this bag of chips at IGA for about $1.38 plus tax. This is a small bag of chips, not the regular size, but perfect for me… who doesn’t have portion control.
The sandwich wasn’t bad, there was nothing I could point to that I would say was “off,” but as I finished the sandwich, sauerkraut & Thousand Island dressing, and wavy potato chips, I realized I hadn’t actually enjoyed eating this. *I am thinking that I don’t want to buy my pastrami at Wegmans next time. Have to find some other source. Probably not use the seeded rye bread from WalMart. Looked good, and had no off taste, but just want to try somewhere else for it.
NOTE: As I was putting the homemade Thousand Island Dressing back into the fridge, I saw my jar of spicy dill pickles. How could I forget to have a dill pickle with my pastrami sandwich?
I made some spaghetti sauce yesterday, and had some with some Angel Hair pasta. I used a half can of diced roasted tomatoes, about a half jar of Rao’s starter sauce, some sweet bell peppers (red & yellow), onion, chopped some raw garlic, fennel seeds & red pepper flakes. I add sweetener which, for me, makes the sauce. This turned out well, and it looks like I have enough sauce for two more helpings.
I took out some frozen chicken breast from my freezer and let it thaw. This morning, I fixed my Salsa Ranchera Chicken dish, and had half a baked sweet potato and finished off the cucumber & onion in vinegar with sweetener. The chicken dish had some diced tomatoes, sweet bell peppers, carrot diced, and onion. *The sweet potato, that I bought at Sprouts has been perfect for cooking in the microwave. I set the timer for 4 minutes, and these three times, the sweet potato cooked perfectly not too hard and just soft enough to be easily mashable, with sour cream, margarine, sweetener and ground cinnamon.
The Salsa Ranchera Chicken dish was delicious, the baked sweet potato perfect, and the pickled cucumber & sweet onion refreshing. This all worked together well.
ADDENDUM [ 09//27/23 ]: I was shopping in WalMart this morning and walking along the deli meat section. I wasn’t actually planning on buying any deli meat because I have uncooked pork chops, later bought round bone lamb chops, and have left over spaghetti sauce and some Salsa Ranchera Chicken in the fridge. But, I looked up and spied several Hillshire Farm offerings. And, there was a packaged pastrami, and it was in the little clear plastic container that has the red plastic top. The price was under $6 and I knew this was a good price because they make the containers to be easily re-usable. The top has printed advertising attached with removable glue that is easily peeled off and the container is microwavable and can go into the fridge also. I use these containers to store my sliced bacon after I open the bacon package.
I decided to try this pastrami from WalMart to make a sandwich. I did however, use the White Mountain Bread, from Publix, instead of the seeded rye. I made the sandwich the way I do, buttering on one side, flipping the toasted slices and melting the thin sliced Swiss cheese on the other side of the bread. Added about three slices of pastrami, a little sauerkraut on each side of the sandwich, and then the homemade Thousand Island dressing. I also put some extra sauerkraut on the plate and added some Thousand Island dressing to it. This time I remembered to get an icy cold spicy dill pickle spear. But, as I sit here writing this, I realize that I forgot the wavy potato chips.
But, today this sandwich and fixin’s worked really well.
There is a black man at Sprouts that is the “green grocer” and is friendly to me. Recently I saw some good looking sweet potatoes at Sprouts and bought one (because I had bought a not so good looking one earlier at another grocery store). When I got to the checkout there was a woman with a young daughter (the girl sitting in a grocery cart) just ahead of me, and I saw that she had a couple of the same sweet potatoes. This potato cooked in 4 minutes and was perfect. It was soft, and mashable, and mixed with sour cream, margarine, cinnamon and sweetener, was delicious. I bought a couple more sweet potatoes another day and have cooked another half of one, 4 minutes, perfect again.
I had told the green grocer about these good sweet potatoes and told him how I had cooked it in my onion cooker. He had said he had never tried cooking that way but wanted to. I recalled this a few days later at home, and happened to see an unopened onion cooker (had bought several a few years ago to use as Christmas presents) up on the shelf above my stove. I pulled it out and set it aside so that I would remember to take it with me the next time I went to Sprouts. This I did today, and took the cooker in with me in my bright yellow grocery bag. I walked to the back of Sprouts, where the vegetable section is located. I saw what appeared to be the black gentleman I had talked to earlier, as he was disappearing into “the back”. I waited near this door a short time and the man came back out. I asked if he was the one that I had talked to previously and we established that he was. I asked if he could “receive gifts” and showed him the onion cooker. I gave it to him as a gift, and he said he would take a couple of types of potatoes home and cook them with this cooker. *I recall that we give gifts to make ourselves feel good, not the person we are giving the gift to. However, if the recipient feels good about the gift, it does make me feel better.
Agri Supply sells the Vidalia Microwave Onion Cooker for $3.66 @.
Bill Gibson, II 