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Show m Page C2 THE DAILY HERALD, Prove I'Uh, Tuesday, September 24, 1996 Sandwich meals good for work, trips, spectator sports Bonnie Tandy Leblang is a reg-istered dietitian. Carolyn VAman - is a junk food fanatic. Each week, they critique three new food items. Jimmy Dean Green Box r Tastefuls! Meals. $229 per 6- ounce to 6.1 ounce box of two pretzels, mustard and dessert Bonnie: I'd say the folks at .t J -- Jimmy Dean must have brains as , wt" well as taste to have created a low-r- r' ready-to-ea- t, fat, moderately priced sandwich meal with enough food to satisfy both adults and old-kids. "V" Each green-boxe- d Tasteful! contains two small turkey, ham or chicken and cheese sandwiches, a bag of pretzels and a low-fdessert. Because the items are packaged separately, people with smaller appetites can save something for snacking later in the day. Best of all is how each contains only 8 grams of fat and just under 500 calories, as compared to up to - 29 grams of fat and 620 calories in d the original Tastefuls! These also have less fat than low-fLunchables. These Green Box Tastefuls! are good for work, trips, canoeing or t spectator sports. I can fault them in only for not including a beverage. Carolyn: Belated praise to Jim- ;, my Dean for creating the first and only deli lunch kit to contain real sandwiches on bread instead of - crackers, meat and cheese. Lunch-- i ables' crackers always make me i. think I am eating a snack rather than a real lunch, like Tastefuls! offers. The lower fat cheese and meat used in these new healthier Taste-- , fuls! didn't hurt my enjoyment of the sandwiches to any significant degree (although microwaving them for a few seconds as suggest-- , cd on the box improved my enjoy-- , ment considerably). As for the pretzels and healthy desserts: I couid tolerate all but the Famous Amos fat-frbrownie. And the fact that everything is ' individually wrapped made it easy to give away. Incidentally, Tastefuls! can be frozen, even after being refrigerated. That makes them a great dinnertime alternative to frozen entrees and a pinch-hittlunch on days when you run out of luncheon meat andor bread. Nabisco Snack and Brownie , er at : at er , Bars. SnackWell's Fudge Brownie, Chocolate Cherry Brownie, Golden Snack, Banana Snack; Oreo Brownie; and Chips Ahoy! Snack. $2.19 per ( i. box of five individual- 6.5-oun- w rapped bars. "' ly Bonnie: These new individually wrapped snack bars are basical-- " ly soft bar cookies based on the Oreo, Chips Ahoy! and Snack-- , Well's brands. Each is the nutri- ' tional equivalent of about three " cookies, with one exception: Chips 1 Ahoy! fans will save 2 grams of fat by eating a snack bar instead of three chocolate chip cookies. You'll save 3 grams more per serving on top of that by having any one of the SnackWell's bars. Despite the fat savings, each bar contains 130 calories (or only 20 calories to 30 calories less than the Oreo or Chips Ahoy! bars) and lots more chemicals. Carolyn: Softness is one big thing that distinguishes packaged cookies from homemade. In fact, it's such a big thing that Procter & Gamble accused Nabisco, Keebler and Frito-La- y of stealing the recipe for its packaged Duncan Hines Soft & Chewy Cookies ari'acikrsatitin that resulted in a $125 million settlement for P&G. These new soft Oreo, Chips Ahoy! and SnackWell's cookie bars are making a much quieter debut probably undeserved because they taste much better than their soft batch cookie progenitors. I'm continually impressed by Nabisco's ability to put Oreo's here taste into different forms the creme appears as a frosting. My other favorites included the Chips Ahoy! and the banana-flavSnackWell's. All the SnackWell's bars glisten with granulated sugar. Instead of suing Nabisco over it, I recommend eating them with a glass of water and a toothbrush. Frito-La- y Reduced Fat Dori-to- s Tortilla Chips. $2.09 per bag or $2.99 to $3.09 per bag. Bonnie: For a time, Frito-La- y had me believing they had unlocked the mystery of removing fat from chips while still leaving in taste. What originally made me think that was Baked Lays, the low-fpotato chips that won our "Golden Shopping Cart" award for the best new product of 1995. Frito-La- y followed that with Baked Tostitos. Both products contain a mere gram of fat. Now to Frito-Lay- 's new Reduced Fat Doritos. They taste just like the original but also contain five times as much fat as their other successes. I still suggest buying them in place of regular Doritos. Serve them in a bowl, and I'm willing to bet no one will know they're reduced fat. Carolyn: Ads for this new product show eaters suffering from a case of permanent surprise at how great these taste. I also think these taste great, but so do many, if not most, of the reduced-fa- t products we've tried. That's why I'm not that surprised. I am worried, however, that the very little difference between reduced-fa- t products and regular will mean that these and other reduced-fa- t products will eventually replace the originals. or 7.5-oun- ce 12.5-oun- at 1 Club sandwich is engineering triumph By WILLIAM RICE Chicago Tribune Culinary evolution is well documented. Although some dishes disappear entirely over time, others survive but reflect changes in popular taste, availability of ingredients and diet theories. As a case in point, consider the evolution of the club sandwich, devised sometime in the 1880s. This is one of the few gastronomic classics whose American origin is uncontested. Most likely it was created in a casino (or clubhouse) in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., birthplace as well of the potato chip, according to John Mariani's "The Dictionary of American Food & Drink." In what should be considered more a triumph of engineering than culinary creativity, the chef combined two sandwiches bacon, lettuce and tomato and sliced chicken into one by making a double-decke- r. In more or less pristine form, it remains a staple of hotel room service and country club menus. But through the years, chefs and cookbook authors have deconstructed and reconstructed the club, sometimes beyond recognition. The late James Beard, while calling the club "one of the greatest sandwiches of all time" in his "American Cooking" published in 1972, grumbled, "Nowadays the sandwich is bastardized because it r, is usually made as a which is not authentic, and nowadays practically everyone uses turkey, and there's a vast difference between turkey and chicken where sandwiches are concerned." Beard provided no reference for the "authentic" version. His "perfect" club used the familiar ingredients, including only two slices of "freshly made crisp toast," which he buttered. His order of construction was lettuce, mayo, chicken, tomato (peeled), salt, bacon, "more mayonnaise," and the second piece of toast. He also suggested the risky option of presenting the ingredients on platters at a large party and allowing guests to build their own sandwiches. From Beard's place at the great buffet in the sky, America's great arbiter of culinary taste must be grinding his teeth as he peers down and sees what is being wrought by chefs using the name of his beloved club. It's not just the extra slice of bread that would trouble him; it's what the chefs are putting between the slices if they use bread at all. There are many ways to con struct a club sandwich. Here is just one (classic) version: Bread: The classic club is definitely a white bread sandwich. Choose bread that toasts well and cut away the crusts after toasting it. favor lean Bacon: Club-loveover fatty bacon, cooked crisp and blotted to remove surface grease. Tomato: The tomato should be ripe but not so ripe it makes the rs sandwich soggy. Purists peel the tomato before slicing and prefer several thin slices to a single thick slice. Mayonnaise: To approach the richness of homemade, doctor bottled mayonnaise with lemon juice and mustard. Spread to the edges of the toast slices. Chicken: Moist, freshly poached chicken breast at room h slices, temperature, cut in is the platonic ideal. Lettuce: The type of lettuce is less important than its condition. 14-inc- - - K'Tl P d! JHf" ' nbt Photo three-decke- The Canadian club sandwich is a triumph of engineering. The sandwich has evolved through the years into a sometimes surprising tower of ingredients. For example, one variation on the club sandwich was developed by chef Steven Pyles of Star Canyon restaurant in Dallas. It calls for brining and smoking a pound of shrimp, baking a brioche loaf flavored with chipotle chilies, making an aioli (garlic mayonnaise) flavored with cascabel chilies, and combining these with lettuce, bacon, tomato and sweet onion. The recipe is available in his book "The New Texas Cuisine," if you care to seek it out. At the popular Union Square Cafe in New York City, chef Michael Romano serves a double-decksandwich (on sourdough bread) of fresh tuna salad, aioli, arugula and bacon. He calls it a "club" and no one has said he labor-intensi- er can't. At the Million Room, the elegant restaurant at Arlington International Racecourse in Arlington Heights, 111., chef Ron Krivosic adds another element: toasted Recipes for some Chicago Tribune These are not sandwiches, so use a knife and fork. ALLEN SUSSER'S at GRILLED PORTOBELLO, Blueprint for a club sandwich By WILLIAM RICE Chicago Tribune - 'jM' AVOCADO AND GOAT CHEESE CLUB SANDWICH Preparation time: 20 minutes Marinating time: 30 minutes Yield: 4 servings Grilling time: 2 minutes 4 very large portobello mushrooms 2 tablespoons white wine 1 tablespoon each: minced garlic, olive oil 12 teaspoon each: kosher salt, freshly ground pepper 6 to 8 ounces fresh goat cheese 1 firm but ripe avocado, peeled, pitted, sliced 1 medium yellow tomato, chicken" and 2 slices of tomato. Curiously, the tomato slices are not part of the sandwich but are placed in the center of the plate with "2 pickle chips as garnish. The sand wich is cut into four triangular shaped sections." each section tnl be "pierced with a wooden tooth pick to hold it together and! arranged arouna me tomato sucesi "in standup" position. The club sandwich in the 1964 edition of "Joy of Cooking" calls for the consensus ingredients: 31 slices of toast, lettuce, bacorj tomato, a generous amount on mayo and sliced cold chicken Even here, though, a wild-caringredient appears: drained slices of pineapple, enclosed by paren theses indicating, we hope, thafl it is an optional addition. Even "Joy" leaves some ques-- l tions unanswered. Are the crusta left on the toast or cut away? Whaif is the specific number of tomato! slices? We are told to slice the! sandwich on the bias, but into! halves or quarters? Craig Claiborne helps us there. In his 1990 revision of tha "New York Times Cook Book,' Claiborne calls for "firm whita bread, toasted," mayo, crisp! bacon, tomato and lettuce leaves but he (unaccountably) adds mus tard to the mayonnaise, as well ad slices of ham and cucumber to the! sandwich. He does him the crustsj from the toast, cuts each sandwich! diagonally and serves it with "chilled bread and butter pickles." In "The Book of Sandwiches" (1989), Louise Steele adds several! rococo touches. Her "Toasted! Club Sandwich" calls for 2 "largej medium-thick- " slices of whiteff bread and 1 of whole wheat, butterf in addition to mayonnaise, cucumber and sliced fegg. Her garnishes are "cocktail pickle fans" and cocktail onionsiAn onion and pickle fan is skewered atop each quarter of the sandwich, creating the appearance of a trophy. A word of warning about" the club sandwich. Don't ever lull yourself 'into "hinking the club is stuffy or benign. Making and eating one can g and even dangerbe ous. The excitement comes as you try to keep a club from as you cut, lift or bite into it. The danger is provided by the sharp toothpicks intended to prePlease vent its remember to remove or eat around them! knife-and-fo- cheese. He grills marinated chicken breast, then garnishes it with smoked bacon and Herkimer Cheddar. This combination is placed under the broiler to melt the cheese, then encased in seven-grai- n bread along with tomato slices and mayonnaise. Stretching the concept further than it should go, probably, Allen Susser, of Chef Allen's in North Miami Beach, Fla., has created a sandwich without bread. While such strident revisionism is recent, a gradual evolution of the club during earlier decades of this century is well documented. The recipe for the "Pennsylvania (Railroad) Club Sandwich" might be the most specific version of all. It is found in "Dinner in the Diner, Great Railroad Recipes of All Time," by Will C. Hollister (1977). The ingredients: 3 slices of "fresh" toast, 3 slices of "broiled" bacon, 4 "heart leaves" of "crisp" lettuce, 2 pickle chips, sliced breast of chicken "from a 4-l- b. and serve on a bed of frisee. head washed 1 frisee (chicory), nerve-rackin- n. Nutrition information per serving: 325 calories; 430 mil- Cut stems from mushrooms and ligrams sodium; 26 grams fat; 45 reserve for another use. Carefully milligrams cholesterol. slice each mushroom cap in half Here is a less stridently revisionist version of the club. Use horizontally. Combine wine, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. Pour smoked turkey slices in place of over sliced mushrooms and mariturkey ham if you like. Serve this club with cornichons, pickled nate 30 minutes. charcoal onions and potato chips. Prepare a medium-ho- t fire or heat broiler. Grill or broil CANADIAN CLUB mushrooms, turning once or twice, Preparation time: 10 minutes Yield: 1 sandwich until they are cooked, 1 12 to 2 2 tablespoons mayonnaise minutes. 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard Rinse a sharp knife under hot 3 slices English muffin bread, water and blot dry. Carefully cut goat cheese with hot knife blade, trimmed, or 1 large English mufas thinly as possible, rinsing knife fin such as Wolferman's, sliced with hot water between slices. horizontally in thirds 1 or 2 thin slices smoked Stack mushroom, tomato, avocado and goat cheese slices alter- turkey ham, about 1 ounce nately, finishing with a mushroom Freshly ground black pepper 13 cup coarsely chopped top. Carefully cut stacks in half watercress 1 thick slice tomato 3 thin slices Canadian bacon, about 2 ounces, broiled Stir together mayonnaise and mustard. Toast bread or muffin and spread one side of each slice with mayonnaise mixture. Place turkey ham on the first slice, folding or trimming it to fit; season with pepper. Add watercress. Top with second slice of toast, mayonnaise side down. Place tomato slice on toast; top with Canadian bacon and third slice of toast, mayonnaise side down. Insert 4 toothpicks in sandwich to hold it together; cut into quarters with a serrated knife. Nutrition information per serving: 520 calories; 1,650 milligrams sodium; 29 grams fat; 55 milligrams cholesterol. 3 dinners help ease the stress of fall season's busier pace Easy-to-ma- ke By KATHY MARTIN Knight-Ridde- r Newspapers If you're not sure what day of the week it is, let alone what you're making for dinner, welcome to the club. School is in full swing. The reality of homework, lunch boxes and car pools is a rude awakening after 10 weeks of taking things a little easier.Well, take a chance to regroup: do some planning, grocery shopping and maybe even a little cooking ahead; a ready-mad- e pot of chili or soup can be a lifesaver on a hectic weeknight. At our house, the basics include chicken breasts, lean ground beef, d substitute ground-bee- f and Italian turkey sausage; lots of frozen vegetables; salsa, reduced-fa- t jack cheese and flour tortillas for burritos and quesadillas; tuna, tanned beans, spaghetti sauce and - soy-base- Jpasta. main Here are three jdishes that serve at least six. fllicy're fast and fairly healthful, fny family likes them, and you almost certainly have the makings for at least one of them: Everybody's Favorite Hot J Dish: Cook a pound of pasta shapes (elbows, ruffles, etc.). Meanwhile, brown a pound of ground beef or bulk Italian sausage along with a chopped onion and a couple of minced garlic cloves. Drain the meat and pasta, put them back in the pot, and stir in a jar of spaghetti sauce. Spread the mixture in a baking dish, sprinkle with about a cup of grated cheese (any kind) and run it under the broiler until the cheese begins to brown. Mexican-Flavore- d Rice and Beans: Cook and drain 2 boiling bags of rice (or use 4 cups leftover rice). Rinse and drain a can of beans (pinto, black, kidney, etc.). Stir together the rice, beans and cup salsa in a I and a half-qua- rt casserole. Cover and microwave on high for a couple of minutes, just to heat through. Sprinkle with about 1 cup grated cheese (jack is good) and microwave, uncovered, for another minute or so, just until the cheese melts. Mom's Salad: Cook a pound of pasta shapes (shells are nice) for about 6 minutes. Add a package of frozen baby ce y- 1 Tuna-Nood- le 13-in- ch ed club sandwiches rk sliced hard-cook- peas to the pot, and stir until the water returns to a boil; the peas and pasta will be done. Drain, return to the pot, and add cold water and ice cubes to cool it down fast. Meanwhile, drain and flake 2 cans of tuna, and stir it together in a large bowl with 1 cup mayonnaise (or 12 cup mayo plus 12 sour cream or plain cup no-fAdd yogurt). chutney or chopped fresh herbs to taste. Drain the cooled pasta and peas really well, and stir them into the tuna mixture. QUICK BEEF AND A. "Hi,. "A at CHEESE BURRITOS pound lean ground beef 1 and cups chunky salsa 8 ounces Monterey jack cheese, cubed 8 flour tortillas, warmed Sliced lettuce, chopped tomato, sliced black olives Brown the beef in a skillet 1 one-four- th heat until no over medium-hig- h longer pink. Pour off drippings. Stir in salsa and cheese; heat until cheese melts. To serve, divide filling among tortillas. Fold bottom edge of each tortilla up over filling; fold sides to center, overlapping edges. - ' in itoto Beef and Cheese Burritos are easy to prepare and can quickly become a family favorite. They top tha life meals and are one of many list of post-summ- er ni possible meals that can be quickly made after days at work and school. Also try Everybody's SalaflfT Favorite Hot Dish and Mom's Tuns-Nood- I! le |