PASTRAMI REUBEN ON SEEDED RYE
And yet another “guilty pleasure,” but this one I might only fix once a quarter, if that often. It becomes a major event in that I have to buy most of the ingredients, just for this meal. I have to buy seeded rye bread which I use for nothing else, unless I have to finish it. The pastrami I use is just from Hillshire Farms and is both fattening and extremely salty. I make my own Thousand Island Dressing, which is very tasty, and goes well with sauerkraut as a side dish. And I buy the “Silver Floss” sauerkraut which I’ve come to enjoy when mixed with the Thousand Island Dressing.
I have a honed process which works to the letter and t. I first butter one side of each slice of rye bread and toast that side in the oven. I then turn it over and put either Swiss or White American (Wegmans preferably) and toast that. I then add a layer of deli pastrami on top of the melted cheese and finally add sauerkraut and mix some Thousand Island Dressing with it. This keeps the “wet” items from getting to the bread and making it soggy. I slice the sandwich in half and it stays surprisingly neat.
I do like my Ranch Dill Pickle Spear with this meal and as I’ve said I like to add a side dish of sauerkraut and TI Dressing. The dressing “turns” the sauerkraut.
Making these sandwiches at home stemmed from an exceptional Pastrami Reuben Sandwich experience I had in about 2017 at a Macado’s Restaurant in Salem, Virginia. I was on one of my short vacations which normally only last 3 or 4 days, and had been in Lynchburg, Virginia the night before. The sandwich was exceptional and it came with rough cut fries (not crinkle cut) and both the catchup and soft drink were ice cold. So good that I had Pastrami Reubens and two other restaurants before making it back home. The one at the Grille in Asheville was very good also, but not quite to the level of Macado’s.
*A note about this short vacation. In Lynchburg I had stayed at the Quality Inn and that morning just before leaving had snagged a Bigelow Tea bag of “Raspberry Royale.” It was delicious both hot and cold. I have bought this since, both for Christmas presents and for home use and now get it at the Wegmans in Raleigh, North Carolina. — So two food related items that I was introduced to on this trip have become a constant part of my life ever since.
FROGMORE STEW
Since getting my Instant Pot Mini (3 Qt.) back in November of 2025, I have made this classic large pot meal often. I bought a steamer insert which keeps everything out of the juicy broth, and I don’t add salt until after everything is done, and then not in the broth, but on the cooked ingredients. That way I can re-use the broth to make a Frogmore Stew Soup, using the same ingredients.
CHICKEN STIR-FRY @ HOME
One of my favorite things to fix at home is a chicken stir-fry in my electric wok. It’s quick to prepare the ingredients. Quick to cook them. Delicious, and easy clean-up.
A recently deceased cousin of mine, who had turned 100 years old, several years ago gave me a Westinghouse electric wok. I would use it periodically, profusely, and then go long bouts of not using it. But each cycle, I would recall how easy it was to fix a stir-fry, delicious, and then the clean-up was very easy.
STICKS-N-STONES MARGHERITA PIZZA
I first heard about Sticks-n-Stones from a morning national TV show. I don’t recall which one, Good Morning America maybe. But they said that this was one of the top 3 restaurants for “wood fired” pizza. And it was delicious. And repeatedly so until a few years ago when the flavor went down seriously. The last two times have been better.
I have them add fresh jalapenos to this basic Basil & Mozzarella pizza, and I pour on the Red Pepper Flakes and the ground Parmesean Cheese at the table.
SPAGHETTI SAUCE IN MY INSTANT POT MINI
I’ve recently enjoyed making spaghetti sauce in my Instant Pot Mini (3 Qt.). I had stopped making spaghetti sauce because I had cut way back on eating spaghetti noodles, but found lately that in moderation, they don’t spike my glucose levels too much.
I think the other reason for my joy in spaghetti sauce is finding that green bell peppers and fresh button mushrooms give the sauce that “just right” flavor, even though I know that a more colorful bell pepper has sweeter flavor and more Vitamin C. And I’ve been able to get fresh button mushrooms lately at Pate’s Farm Market.
My sauce is simple: Ground beef & onions sauteed in the IP. Then half a jar of RAO’s spaghetti sauce starter, Maranara. Then a can of diced Hunt’s Roasted Garlic tomatoes. Slice the green bell pepper and mushrooms, and add oregano, powdered garlic, some sweetener, and some Red Pepper Flakes. Close the lid, hit 8 minutes on High Pressure, and then about 5 minutes cool down. The sauce is a little runny, but everything is cooked and it goes great with some Angel Hair Pasta.
LONGHORN CHEESEBURGER & SEAFOOD CHOWDER
This is one of my “guilty pleasures.” I have gotten into the habit of slicing some sweet onion (and sometimes adding a few slices of sweet pickles) and putting those in a zip lock baggie. The meal comes with dill pickles, and I like dill, but not for this meal. The onion they provide is okay, but there is more of mine and it’s a little more flavorful. And, I use the empty baggie to take home about half the appetizer bread that they give. I eat all the butter with the half loaf of bread but I usually don’t eat any of the hamburger bun.
The above cartooned images are of my actual visit for lunch, not too long ago. I was waiting to be seated and saw a couple of cartoonable characters, but before I could get my phone out to take a picture they had gone on to be seated, so I took the picture of a couple that were leaving with leftovers. I cartooned them and because it turned out pretty well, I decided to record my whole lunch as a cartooned story. *I find that I like cartooning various events and things, even people because it simplifies what you see. The colors are fewer, the elements more elemental.
So, it does not take a large number of cartoon stills to tell a story. I came. I ate. I left.
NO.1 CHINA BUFFET
I don’t recall why I visited Asheboro, North Carolina a couple of years ago. I know it wasn’t to see the North Carolina Zoo. *I believe that if people want to see wild animals, they should be put in cages (the people) and driven through the wild county wherever the wild animals live. Less stress on the animals, and the people understand what it means to be a caged animal.
I do recall now. Jeff Mitchell, my good friend, had told me about David’s Restaurant and how good the food was. The first time I came through Asheboro, about 2 pm, I passed David’s and it was still busy. I didn’t stop. But I did come back eventually, for breakfast, and they had a good breakfast for a great price.
After breakfast, I took a self-guided tour of the town and at some point ended up at the Main Library. It was and still is a vibrant library, post COVID. I enjoy visiting each time I am in town.
So, not on my first or even second visit (I think.) did I find the “No. 1 China Buffet,” which is in the same shopping center as Walmart. But, with my first visit all those good times and the various Chinese restaurants and their buffets that I have eaten at through the years came flooding back. At different times, there was fried chicken livers, stir fried green beans, chicken on a stick, fried wontons, egg drop & wonton soup & green onions. They’ve had watermelon, and even a simple Wakami seaweed salad.
They have a Senior Discount day each Tuesday, so I choose to go to Asheboro on Tuesdays. Sometimes I go on to Greensboro and then back home. There is a Natural Foods Store in downtown Greensboro. And I actually found “Chlorella” there, a green silky algae that has a unique flavor. I love it on my egg salad.
CHICKEN TERIYAKI W/ BLUE CORN TORTILLA CHIPS
I fix this dish in my Instant Pot Mini and it is consistently good. You add frozen garden peas after everything is done and just let the hot water bring them to life. This recipe is a version from a young woman who is an Instant Pot guru, but I added the Spicy Chili Crisp to this.
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BIGELOW RASPBERRY ROYALE TEA
I think it was during a short vacation I took in April of 2017, during which I visited Lynchburg and Salem, Virginia and then went down to Asheville for a night and finally over to Florence, South Carolina before returning to Fayetteville. On this trip I had a really good experience with a Pastrami Reuben at Macado’s in Salem. But before that, after staying the night at the Quality Inn in Lynchburg, just prior to leaving, I snagged a wrapped tea bag of Bigelow Raspberry Royal tea. I heated the water in my room and used one of their small styrofoam coffee cups. Good tea and I took it with me as I drove the short distance over to eat breakfast at Famous Anthony’s. This restaurant is no longer there.
I left the tea in my car and went in and had a good breakfast. When I came out the tea was cold, but when I tasted it, it was good cold, so I took it with me instead of pouring it out.
Later that day I made it down to Roanoke, Virginia but decided to go on to Salem because it was about noon and I didn’t want to fight the lunch crowd in a busy downtown. There is a Macado’s Restaurant in downtown Salem and is directly next to Roanoke College.
So, I fell in love with the Raspberry Royale tea and have bought it both for Christmas presents one year, and then regularly for home use. I buy it at Wegmans in Raleigh.
LUNCH SALAD BAR BUFFETS
I do not recall exactly when, but possibly November or December of 2025 I stopped in to the IGA in Erwin, North Carolina. I had driven past this IGA many times but had never had a reason to stop in. This day I’m not sure if I even knew they had a salad bar and BBQ chicken wings bar.
I must have been looking for lunch and I walked through their green grocer section and saw some good looking avocadoes. They were only 99 cents and they felt just ripe so I picked one. I then walked over to the salad bar. It looked well cared for and they had Ken’s Salad Dressings so I picked up a plastic clam shell and started to make my salad. I probably put some lettuce as a base and then began to pick cauliflower and broccoli and then bell pepper, and raisins or grapes and before any dressing some bacon bits. If there was any fruit like strawberries then I might take a couple of halved slices. Thousand Island and/or Ranch Dressings.
I walked over to their Wings Bar and selected three different flavors. After several visits I was never able to come up with a good way to determine which flavors I liked best.
I paid for this and headed out to my car. I drove a short distance away and found a small park and small parking area to stop for lunch. I cut the avocado in half and it was perfectly ripe. I scooped some avocado out with my plastic knife and began to eat some salad with it. Then I took a bite of one of the wings. All of this was delicious together and with each bit I began to murmure, “This is so good.” And, it was. It was so good that I returned the next day for another lunch salad and it was just about as good. And thus started my month-long Lunch Salad Days.
I knew that Harris Teeter in Fayetteville had a good salad bar and they had Cindy’s Kitchen Dressings. The dressings were the highlight of this feast because of two unique dressings: Sweet Basil and Tangerine Vinegarette. One odd thing about the Harris Teeter salad bar was that they did not slice their hard boiled eggs but left them whole. *I thought this a waste on their part because I often did not want a whole hard boiled egg and thought that others might not also. I started bringing my egg slicer.
ASSORTED TIE-UPS
I will try to tie up various loose ends here about some things just mentioned in passing in the above sections. What for instance?
How about some of my favorite salad dressings, or how I got into growing sprouts which I incorporated into my lunch salads. I especially liked broccoli sprouts and Mung bean sprouts. Both easy to grow.
- Cindy’s Kitchen Dressings
- Sweet Basil Vinaigrette
- Tangerine Vinaigrette