kadyellebee

Last weekend when we were at Costco, we saw these beautiful hoagie rolls (and then even ciabatta bread, which has beautiful bubbles in it for cheese to get into; that’s what TGIFridays uses!), and it made me want a French dip. So we called my siblings to see if they would like some too, because I was thinking we could have dad make them for dinner over the weekend. I got all of the yummy ingredients, and got all excited.

Megan said we should do dinner at our house. So we got up Saturday morning and took down the tree and cleaned up.

There had been weather things in the paper that had suggested it was gonna be cold. But uh, we hadn’t really watched the weather. So I was totally surprised when I called Leonard to see when he was coming over and he said "no way, we aren’t driving, there’s ice all over everything." Stupid ice storm.

My mouth was already watering and nobody could come. So what did I do? I decided not to wait. I really wanted a sandwich!

Kristine’s Incredible French Dip

• Ciabatta roll, square, sliced in half
• bit of butter
• 2 large pieces of Roast Beef
• 2 large presliced squares of Tillamook Swiss Cheese
• 1 smaller piece of Tillamook Medium Cheddar
• Sweet Onion
• Olive Oil for Sauteing
• Au Jus mix

First, Saute your onions. (I think that low heat is recommended.)

Then start building. Cut the ciabatta into a good sandwich half, I didn’t cut it all the way through so it was slightly attached still. Lay flat on a cookie sheet. Put a little bit of butter on the roll and then put it under the broiler for just a minute. You don’t want it brown, just barely golden.

Now take your roast beef and curl it up on the bottom half of the roll. I took a bit of Chedder cheese and put it between the roast beef folds. On top of this, put a generous helping of the sauted onions. Now put your each square of swiss on top of each side of the roll.

While you are doing this, put some Au Jus on the stove to get hot. You can get powered mix at your grocery store that you just put together with some hot water and then simmer gently.

Put in the oven at 350° for like 5-10 minutes, just to get it all warmed through. Change the oven to broil, and watch carefully till the cheese is perfectly melty. Take out of the oven and fold into sandwich shape, and then slice in half lenthwise so that the somewhat-attached fold is on both halves. Ohhh, look, the cheese is melting down the sides, perfect.

Pour yourself a cup or bowl of Au Jus and put both on your plate with some optional Sour Cream and Cheddar Chips (or fries, but they took too long!), and a cold Cherry Coke with a few pieces of ice, and you are the happiest girl in the world.

recipe crossposted at

Even though it was cold and icy and nobody could come over, I got my sandwich and was really happy about it. So happy that when some of my family was able to come the next day, I happily ate the same meal twice. Leonard did a better job sauteing than I did the second meal, and so it did add to the enjoyment that way.

As always, when we shop at Costco, we bought more food than we needed, so we’ve had sandwiches several times this week. But none were as good as when I took the time to slowly make my sandwich that first day!