Make Mine a Sandwich!

I have always enjoyed ground meat spreads for sandwiches.  My favorite, as a kid … and still now, is what we lovingly call ‘bologna salad’ that we would make from a thick stick of bologna.  I learned  early in my home cooking, though, that you can make a flavorful spread out of any leftover meat.  Before our kids were grown and had kids of their own and outgrew the size of my little house, my siblings and I always gathered on Christmas Eve.  Mother always brought her popular chicken salad and we would make a big platter of sandwiches on white and whole wheat breads.  Added to all the other snacks we piled on the table; these sandwiches were often the first to disappear!  One year she surprised us all by making her chicken salad out of rabbits.  Daddy had had several successful rabbit hunts and she needed to use some of the game.  Nobody knew the difference, until she told her secret.  We were all game eaters, so it didn’t really matter.  It was just unusual. 

The sandwich spread recipe I’m sharing in this post is made from a single leftover boneless pork chop!  It makes enough for two sandwiches for a nice lunch a day or two after the original meal.  The pork chops were seasoned with Italian herbs, dredged in breadcrumbs and gently fried.

Here’s what I did two days later!  The breadcrumb coating wasn’t really thick, but I scraped most of it off the chop.  The chop weighed about 6 ounces, so I added about half as much cheddar cheese.  I used my food processor to chop the meat and the cheese.  I added about a teaspoon of mustard and ¼ cup of mayonnaise.  Because the pork chop had been seasoned with Italian flavors, I wanted to enhance those flavors, so I added 3 Tablespoons of muffuletta giardiniera … an Italian flavored blend of olives and other pickled vegetables.  Season with salt and pepper, blend it all together and use it for a spread on crackers or to make a couple sandwiches,

This is an article that will eventually land on my "Lovin' Leftovers" page and if you'd like to see similar articles, just follow that page on my blog. 

Enjoy!