Saturday Sandwich 94: Souvlaki Pita Bread

A Souvlaki is a grilled pork kebab with a yoghurt sauce wrapped in a pita bread. We're looking forward to this one :)

First you make the meat filling. Diced pork, garlic, oregano, mint, lemon zest and juice, red wine, olive oil, salt & pepper all go in a bowl. Mix them together, cover and leave in the fridge for a few hours.

Slice an onion and some cherry tomatoes ready to make the sandwich then make the tzatziki sauce. You mix up plain yoghurt, pinch of sugar, squeeze of lemon juice, mint and finely chopped cucumber.

Grill the pork and lightly toast the pita bread. Then fill the bread with the pork, vegetables and tzatziki.

This is a really good sandwich! The pork is tender and flavourful, the vegetables give a nice crunch and the tzatziki adds a tart moistness to the whole thing. We enjoyed this sandwich a lot but we'd made ours with a flatbread which made it hard to eat (not technically the sandwich's fault though). We opted for that instead of a pita because the only pita we could find were tiny :D

Anyway, a delicious sandwich enjoyed by all (me and JD).

Ratings: JD -3, Emma - 3

Next Saturday - The Schumwich

Saturday Sandwich 93: Dill, Shrimp and Egg Smørrebrød

A Smørrebrød is a Scandinavian open sandwich on dark rye bread. 

Is an open sandwich a sandwich at all? Many would say not, including me! But it's in our sandwich book so make it and eat it we must.

Ingredients: dark rye bread, shrimp, dill, boiled eggs, butter, lemon juice and mayo.

Mix the shrimp, dill, lemon juice and mayo in a bowl.

Butter the dark rye bread and add a layer of boiled egg slices. Top with the mayo shrimp stuff and serve with ice cold schnapps.

This is the worst sandwich I've ever eaten. I'm not a big fan of shrimp anyway but combined with the foul rye bread and the dill flavoured mayo it made me feel sick. I managed a couple of bites before throwing it away and making this peanut butter and jam sandwich instead.

JD also threw away his Smørrebrød after eating half of one. The texture was the worst part followed closely by the taste. we won't be eating these again. We didn't lie the peach schnapps either. :(

Ratings: JD - 0, Emma - 0

Coming Next Saturday - Souvlaki Pita Bread

How I Learned To Love My Face in 30 Days

Today I took my last selfie of the month. I've been taking pictures of myself every day for the past 30 days to try to like how my face looks more. There have been times that I've cried over how I looked in a photo.

And I can honestly say it's worked. I've looked at my face more this month than I have for a long time. I can see how my face has aged in the last few years, I have creases under my eyes and lines on my face that weren't there years ago. But in looking at myself more and forcing myself to take a picture a day I've come to like what I see. I see me, as I am most days with no filters or effort to make myself look better.

Some days I didn't feel like taking a picture, I felt tired or my hair was a mess. I took the pictures anyway. Usually those pictures would never see light of day, they'd be deleted and never shown. But those pictures represent the real me, me as I am every day. Sometimes I look good to myself and sometimes I don't but that's ok.

I feel pleased that I've managed to change my attitude. I want to feel more content with who I am and how I look instead of changing how I look like we're encouraged to do by society and the companies selling beauty products.

 Here is my 30th photo, I feel that I look considerably happier about taking my picture than the first one :D

 I'd just washed my hair and I haven't even combed it before taking a picture, success!

Saturday Sandwich 92: Pork Belly Mantou

A mantou is a steamed bread roll from Northern China. This mantou is filled with stir fried pork belly and looks delicious!

Here's the recipe if you want to make one ---> http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/oct/02/pork-belly-mantou-recipe

I felt really worried that we wouldn't be able to make this roll but it was quite simple to make. Once we had made it I was then worried how it'd taste, it looked like a loofah. I worry too much!

The whole process of making this sandwich was quite long and during the cooking of the pork belly it didn't smell too appetising.

The finished sandwich was great. The plain steamed mantou went perfectly with the sticky, sweet sauce on the pork belly. The mantou wasn't too spongy at all, it was light and soft. The pork belly was really tasty and tender. We enjoyed the finished product but felt it had been a lot of work to make it.

Ratings: JD - 4, Emma - 4

Next Saturday - Dill, Shrimp and Egg Smorrebrod

Saturday Sandwich 91: Bratwurst

German Bratwurst this week which should be a popular one with Leigh and Erin, they love hot dogs usually. In German brat means chopped meat and wurst means sausage. There are apparently over 50 varieties of bratwurst to try. We were happy to find some in Asda after looking in a few other places first.

Erin was in charge of making them so she opted for cooking the bratwurst in the oven. I usually have a combo of tomato ketchup and mustard on my hot dog but this recipe insists that only mustard is the best.

Ingredients: Bratwurst, bread buns and mustard.

Bake, grill or fry your wurst, enclose in a bread bun and serve with mustard.

I have to admit that they're right, mustard on it's own is far more delicious topping for hot dogs. I really liked the thick skin on the bratwurst (probably from oven baking them) but that was something Leigh didn't like about them. They were tasty sausages for a hot dog though and we all enjoyed them. There was a small debate about whether a hot dog is a sandwich, JD isn't convinced since he thinks a sandwich must have two separate pieces of bread to make it a sandwich. I disagreed but I feel like we've had so many different sandwiches now that I can't define them any more. It isn't a debate unless someone disagrees anyway so I'm sticking with it. :D

Ratings: JD - 3, Emma - 4, Leigh -3, Erin -3

Next Saturday - Pork Belly Mantou