Sunday night dinner

For dinner tonight, I made sandwiches on tomato focaccia bread.  I like to make sandwiches with a nice quality bread because it can really enhance the flavors of the sandwich.  The focaccia bread I used was from Palermo Bakery in Chicago, IL.  If you've never tried it, it is divine.  It makes the sandwich.  On the sandwich, I started with a layer of pastrami, then pepperoni (you can use turkey pepperoni if you prefer), then smoked turkey breast, fresh basil, and smoked mozzarella cheese.  I put a thin layer of miracle whip on the top slice of bread, then added some garlic salt and pepper to it.  Once the sandwich was all put together, I popped it in a 325 degree oven for about 10 minutes, just to heat it through.  The bread remains soft and the mozzarella cheese is melted just enough.  It's perfect.  My husband chose to eat his sandwich with a bowl of leftover chili while watching football.  My daughter and I enjoyed our sandwiches without any sides. 

Then for dessert, I made homemade apple sauce.  You can easily do this on the stove, but I let the apples slow cook in my crockpot today, so then all I had to do was mash them up at dinner time.  When I put the cut up pieces of apple into the crockpot, I filled the crockpot up halfway with some water.  Then I added granulated sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and just a touch of vanilla.  I season it to taste.  I prefer for it to not be too tart, so I may add more brown sugar than most people.  My husband and I both like it sweet.  For the holidays, it's nice to shake it up a little by adding other fruits to it such as cranberries or peaches.  If you add cranberries to it, make sure you cook it with enough granulated sugar or it will be too tart and bitter.  The sugar is a must!

If you don't want apple sauce, skip the last step of mashing up the apples and just serve them in slices.  You've just made easy baked apples.  It really is simple and quick to make on the stove.  And if you do it in a crockpot, you just let them cook for a few hours and you're done.  It's so simple and your family will love it.  Especially the kids.