Cooking with Braddy: Crock Pot Sammiches

This is weird, but I don't really like sandwiches. I know, I know. I must be un-freakin'-American, but it's true. It's not the presentation that bothers me - I mean, bread is great at turning just about anything into finger food, and that's cool. The problem is that I don't care much for lunch meat. Most sliced turkeys and hams and whatnots are processed beyond belief, and if you put even the thinnest slice of bologna in front of me I will end you. Hard.

However, that doesn't mean that I won't ever eat a sandwich, especially when I get it free from my loving folks. So my mom introduced me to this recipe she found on Pinterest and... well, okay, it's not REALLY a recipe as much as a preparation technique. Still, it's effective.

When making crock-pot sandwiches, you buy a loaf of bread and slice it up without cutting all the way through the bread. That way, you wind up with several pockets in which to stuff whatever "meats" you fancy. That... um... that pun was not intentional. I'm so, so sorry.

Anyway, my parents recommended (and I've also enjoyed in reproducing the recipe) stuffing your sandwiches with sliced mortadella with peppercorn, hard salami, and provolone. You can also add onions and other veggies. In fact, sweet peppers work really well. I would have included them the last time I made the sandwich, but someone had shoved my bottle of peppers to the back of the fridge, where they all froze in their own juices. It was tragic.

After your little sandwich pockets are full, you wrap the whole thing up tight in tin foil and set it in the crock pot. It's a good idea to put a little water in the bottom of the crock pot, but you'll need to elevate the sandwiches out of the wet if you do that. Little balls of tin foil work to that end. Then set your crock pot to "low" and go take a nap through True Grit or whatever it is you have to do.

When you're ready to eat, just pull the bread out and cut all the way through, so you wind up with a little, surprisingly moist (in a good way) sandwich. I've found that this way of preparing the sandwich helps you save on condiments, as you really shouldn't have to add much in the way of mustard or whatever to keep the sandwich from tasting too dry. Of course, without the sweet peppers, I felt there was so ring still missing, so I added mustard, anyway.

These sandwiches are a great way to pull a trick on your friends. Invite them over for dinners or whatever and tell them you're having "crock pot sandwiches." They'll be all set for Sloppy Joes or whatever, and their minds will be totally blown when you pull a loaf of bread out of the crock pot. Do it. It'll be fun.