French Dip Sandwiches

About two weeks ago, my Mama and I were at the grocery store, and what was supposed to be a quick "in-n-out" trip soon became a "let's scan almost every single aisle" trip.

While we were scanning, we happened upon the manager's special items. Many of these items were marked down in price for the simple reason that they were missing pieces to them. Thankfully, Mama spotted a crock pot and an electric can opener, and bought them for me. Since I live just off campus in an apartment, Mama said those things would be good for me to have.

Going along with my new crock pot, I started looking for slow cooker recipes that I could easily make, and found several that sounded appealing.

In my search for recipes, I looked in the Sandwich section of the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, 15th Edition. In the pages I found a recipe for what was called 'French Dip Sandwiches', and I must say, it sounded amazing.

I made them earlier today for lunch, and they taste as good as they sound. If you want to taste for yourself, try it and find out.

French Dip Sandwiches
Start to Finish: 30 minutes
Serves: 4

     Ingredients:
1 large onion, sliced and separated into rings (2 cups)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
1 14-ounce can beef broth (can substitute consomme)
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, marjoram, or oregano, crushed (I used oregano)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
12 ounces thinly sliced, cooked roast beef (can buy prepackaged, if from deli, 3/4 pound)
4 French-style rolls, split (be fancy--use hamburger buns)

     Directions:
1. In a large saucepan, cook onion and garlic in hot butter until tender. Stir in broth, oregano, and pepper. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Add beef. Return to boiling, reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, about 5 minutes more or until beef is heated through.
2. If desired, toast rolls. (I broiled mine. If you're going to do this, I suggest toasting/broiling the tops at the very end, to prevent burning.) Remove meat and onion from broth mixture. Arrange on rolls. If desired, serve with dishes of broth mixture for dipping. (I dipped, and it was better with the broth.)

If desired:
  --Add 1/2 to 1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms to simmer with onions and garlic.
  --Place a slice of provolone, Swiss, or muenster cheese on each sandwich. Place on broiler pan, about 4 inches from heat until cheese melts. Add tops of rolls; serve. (I was able to use both provolone and muenster cheese, and found the muenster gave a richer taste.)



After having tried this recipe once, I would most definitely make it again.

Happy dining!

Love and Laughter to you and yours.

The Sun

O familiar face,
gone is the sun that shines in his glorious fashion, but behold the moon.
The moon shifts her face from us every so often, yet she is there in the sky.
Such is my love for you—it may not always be present on my face, but it is forever in my heart.

O Familiar Face - The Beginning

When I was about 17 years old, I started sending ‘good morning’ text messages to a few of my friends. After a few weeks, I added ‘good night’ messages to the mix.

A few entries are date-specific, while others were written in the morning and others at night. A few had simply come to me, wanting to be shared with the world.

The whole point, in my mind, was just to put a smile on peoples’ faces. I didn’t quite realize just how big of a smile that was, nor did I realize that I was one of the only reasons they smiled that day. That’s a really big weight to carry, especially for a teenager.

Some asked me to discontinue texting them, but that did not mean that I had to discontinue thinking about them.

Now that I'm a little bit older, I can only hope that, with these becoming public, the words help to brighten your day, whomever you may be.