Marinated portobello grilled sandwich and a beginning

This past week I had some really good meals. Delicious, satiating, the kind of dinner you think back on periodically through the evening just to bask in. Then Friday I had leftover white bean and collard soup. And it was, you know, fine. Nothing wrong with it. And I spent the evening considering snacks.

More on my past week's dinners soon, but for now, tonight's dinner: Marinated portobello grilled sandwich. Man that was good.

I let myself buy a little jar of Blake Hill French Onion with Rosemary jam this week at a kitchen store...and then needed to figure out what to do with it. I wasn't interested in roasting meat, and a cheese board didn't seem like a well-rounded meal, so sandwiches and wraps were the remaining suggestion from The Internet. After looking through several lists of "best-ever sandwiches" I concocted my own.

This afternoon, I washed, de-stemmed, and de-gilled a portobello mushroom (first time ever for that last), cut slits into its underside, placed it in a lidded glass container and drizzled/sprinkled it with:

- balsamic vinegar

- soy sauce

- dried rosemary

- black pepper

Into the fridge with it. I also made coleslaw with:

- one bag coleslaw mix

- one handful pre-shredded carrots

- one peeled and grated Granny Smith apple

- 1/2 cup mayonnaise

- 1 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar (more or less; my bottle was dribbly)

- 1 tsp sugar

- 1/2 tsp celery seed

- salt and pepper

Into the fridge with that.

Tonight I chopped up an onion and put a little in a hot pan with olive oil. When it was a little burny I sliced the mushroom cap and added that to the pan. I cooked that fairly thoroughly, turning partway, and removed the whole mess to a plate.

Meanwhile I'd gotten out two big slices of Klinger's Roasted Garlic Parmesan bread and spread one thinly with the onion jam. I sliced up some gouda and arrayed it on the other slice. I added some butter to the hot pan and put the slice with the cheese in, spread the mushroom slices and onion on top, and topped it with the slice spread with jam (jam side in, in case that's ambiguous).

When the sandwich was thoroughly toasted on both sides (flipping it was a [mis]adventure), I put it on a plate, peeled up the jam-covered side, and added a generous helping of coleslaw. I put the sandwich back together, cut it in half, and had a meal fit to reminisce about.

Now I need more bread and another mushroom to do this again...

Credits: The ingredient list for the mushroom marinade is from Well Plated's Grilled Portobello Mushrooms (rosemary? twist my arm); the coleslaw dressing was adapted from Shelf Cooking's The Best Slaw Recipe (the ingredients may be standard but pray appreciate the fact that it makes a lightly dressed slaw and not cabbage soup like so many recipes).