Every family has holiday traditions that are unique.  I’d hazard a guess that most holiday traditions center in some capacity around food, and our family is no different.  The first year that Jeff and I were married we started a tradition of our own. The Annual Heitkamp Family Sandwich Extravaganza, to take place the evening of Black Friday, every year.

This year there were only four of us that cooked, and we had 13 people come to hang out, drink good wine, and eat decedent, delicious, and widely varied sandwiches.”

That first year, we decided that morning that we would make the most extravagant sandwich that we could think of for dinner that night, and each eat half of the others, and would then decide which one of us had ‘won dinner’.

I don’t remember now who won, or even what we each made, but a tradition was born. The second year it was also just the two of us, again, on Black Friday.

The year after, we added in friends. And my brother, who is ultimately also my best friend. This year however, we spent Black Friday in Fort Recovery, and I was gearing up to cook my first Thanksgiving meal solo.  (We celebrated Thanksgiving the Saturday after with Jeff’s family)

As such, we were not in a place or mindset that would have allowed for the kind of cooking that we would have ended up doing.

[[A quick note (ahem*fine print*ahem) the Amazon links below are affiliate links. What that means to you is this | I’ll receive a small commission should you choose to purchase through them. There is no additionally cost to you, in any way. Questions? Hit me up. I’m happy to answer them, or, click HERE for our terms and conditions]]

So we made an exception, so to speak, and moved this year’s Sandwich Extravaganza off of Black Friday, and back to Portland. (We spent ten or so days around Christmas in Portland this year, and figured that we would turn what would have been a night cooking all together anyhow, into this.)

I am SO glad that we waited.

This year there were only four of us that cooked, and we had 13 people come to hang out, drink good wine, and eat decadent, delicious, and widely varied sandwiches.

The best part of this year’s sandwich extravaganza was not the food, but was getting to be all together, cooking, drinking wine, and simply spending the evening in a warm kitchen filled with great smells, the sizzle of oil in a frying pan, and the rolls of laugher that come from a room full of friends.

“

Brent & his wife Cheryl brought Reubens, which while having been preassembled, were fried on the stove, and served hot. (BTW, BEST. RUBEN. EVER.)

Alex’s contribution was twofold. We weren’t sure exactly how many people were going to show up (realistically, the numbers change even as people start arriving, as with our house, my mom & Terry’s is very much come as you are, and bring a friend) and we had made sure to get enough groceries to feed an army.

The first of Alex’s, and the originally planned sandwich was a slow cooked beef French dip, with an au jus that he created. The second, which was much more of a fly by the seat of our pants decision, was a Philly Cheesesteak, made with the same slow cooked beef, sautéed onions & peppers, and of course cheese… (duh).

Jeff opted to go the route of pork schnitzel sliders, and I per usual, went off in my own crazy direction.

Early on in our trip we met friends for breakfast at Screen Door, which, if you’ve ever seen the show Portlandia, is the restaurant that they are mocking in the brunch episode.

We got brunch there on a Monday, and miraculously didn’t have to wait more than 15 minutes. As a table we decided that we were going to go the communal route, everyone agreed on what was ordered, and once the food was set down, it was open season.

Yup. You read that right. Praline Bacon.

The highlight of the meal, at least for me, was the praline bacon. Yup. You read that right. Praline Bacon.

I made the decision right then and there that I was going to somehow incorporate praline bacon into whatever sandwich I decided to make, but first, had to figure out making pralines, as I’d never done that before, turns out it’s SUPER easy.

Except for the minor disagreement that Jeff and I had in the checkout line about how many pecans we needed to buy. Turns out that I read the recipe wrong, and we didn’t need a whole two pounds…. just two cups.  Whoops.

So we doubled the recipe and figured that they’d make great left overs. (They definitively did, and it didn’t hurt either that we had extra, cause my brothers roommate Ted and I ate a whole bunch while we were making everything.) Depending on how you look at it, Ted either offered, or got voluntold that he was going to be the sous chef of the evening, and ended up being my right hand as the night went along. (In all fairness, I don’t remember which it was. Either way, he was a seriously kick ass sous.)

The night before we had the sandwich extravaganza, Jeff and I had had dinner at Little Bird, and the meal that I had there, solidified in my mind what I was going to make as my entry into the sandwich extravaganza.

I went a different route than everyone else, deciding that I was going to make a breakfast sandwich. Kind of.

The base was a cheddar chive crepe. On that was  a chicken breast that had been pounded flat, marinated in a herby white wine marinade, grilled, then thinly sliced. The candied bacon sat atop the chicken, a loose fried egg was layered onto the bacon, a rosemary-garlic-fondue-esque cream sauce was spooned across the whole thing, and a small pinch of fresh chives tied it all together.  So while not a traditional sandwich, it still had most of the sandwich elements.

Sort of.  I caught a lot of grief about it, until people cut into it, and had their first bites. All mocking ceased.

When it was time to vote as to which was the winner, it was again, a draw.

As with any recipes I come up with, I have notes on what I want to change, what I want to tweak, and how I think that will all look once I work through it again, and I’m sure that I will have another set of notes on what I want to change once I make it again, but for the time being, it was pretty fantastic.

The best part of this year’s sandwich extravaganza was not the food, but was getting to be all together, cooking, drinking wine, and simply spending the evening in a warm kitchen filled with great smells, the sizzle of oil in a frying pan, and the rolls of laugher that come from a room full of friends.

Spending time together like we all did that night, and feeding everyone, it feeds my soul. It is truly my happy place.  Next year, we’ll (hopefully) host two sandwich extravaganzas, one here in Ohio, and one again in Portland.

Want to work with me? Hello@cookeatexplore.com