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Caramelized Ham and Swiss Baked Buns

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The Story

The Big Game comes with big appetites. Rooting for your favorite team, yelling at the officials, fist bumping after great play – it all makes a football fan downright hungry. So let me help by sharing a recipe that has always been a crowd pleaser, especially for a day as big as Super Bowl Sunday. Caramelized Ham and Swiss Baked Buns tends to resurface every few years, with new, updated variations on the theme. Basically what you have here is a casserole of hot sandwiches filled with ham and cheese and a sauce poured over the top. No, no. That’s not quite accurate. What you really have here is a slightly sweet billowy bun with a little slather of horseradish sauce, onto which black forest ham and swiss cheese is layered, and then a sweet and savory butter sauce does its magic in the oven. The tops of the sandwiches get caramelized and glazed, the cheese inside melts and melds with the horseradish sauce, and you find yourself in a situation where you just can’t pass one up. Yep, that’s a much better description. Now, as I’ve said, there are many versions of this recipe including potato or dinner rolls, but the classic version is the Hawaiian sweet rolls. The original recipe also calls for ham and swiss cheese for the filling, but substitutions have included turkey or pastrami. Also, horseradish sauce is often substituted for butter or mayonnaise. But I say, why mess with a good thing? Folks love this dish, and when you make it for this weekend’s big game, you’ll see why.

Spiced Rubbed Steaks with Tomato Chutney

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The Story

As a butcher’s daughter, I learned early on the definition of phrases like dry-aged beef (hung on a rack to dry for several weeks to concentrate flavor and tenderize the beef) and wet-aged beef (typically aged in a vacuum-sealed bag to retain moisture). Whether wet or dry-aged, my father’s approach to cooking a great steak was to keep it simple; a slight coating of olive oil, salt, pepper, and, if possible, allow most of the high heat to come from a top element like a salamander broiler, which allows the juices to drain down through the beef and not onto the pan. That’s how I was taught, and that’s how I cooked steaks most of my life. But in the last decade, the idea of rubbing steak with coffee and chocolate to match a steak’s rich, beefy flavor has become a popular method. Add to it bold spices like toasted, ground coriander seeds and it becomes anything but “your father’s steak.” Rather than the traditional baked potato accompaniment, a spicy tomato chutney is spooned over the top of the steak making this dish a simple, elegant, and complete main meal – and a real butcher’s daughter delight!

Cornell Barbecue Chicken

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The Story

One delicious way to kick off your Memorial Day celebration is by popping a cold one in honor of the man who has helped make barbecued chicken one of America’s favorite picnic foods. Cornell University professor, Robert Baker, is the creator of the famous Cornell Barbecue Chicken Sauce, the recipe that is often referred to as “State Fair Chicken.” This simple and tasty sauce can be used as a fabulous 2-hour marinade or for basting chicken on the grill. The Cornell Barbecue Sauce isn’t the only iconic recipe to come from Professor Baker. He is also the inventor of more than 40 other recipes including chicken-and-turkey hot dogs and the world-famous chicken nugget (McDonald’s generally gets the credit for inventing the chicken nuggets, but Baker published his chicken nugget recipe in the 1950’s, while McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets recipe was patented in 1979). Another creation that probably helped land Baker in the Poultry Hall of Fame (yes, there is one!) was his revolutionary method of binding breading to chicken, which is used in hundreds of food applications today. In the book, “The Lexicon of Real American Food,” it says that Robert Baker’s goal in life was to get people to eat more chicken. Mission accomplished – especially this weekend!