Killer Nuts Tailgating

Mrs. Crappy returns for the second installation of what it was we ate on Saturday. These things were freaking delicious and easy to make, so thanks to her for finding the recipe. As was the case a week ago, I’ll add some notes in the photo captions and the text in italics. And finally — bonus points to whomever gets the reference in the headline. -UC

The second week of the 2012 season versus the University of Central Florida Knights gave us a chance to try out a recipe I’ve had my eye on for a while. I found these Hawaiian Sweet Roll Ham Sammies on Pinterest, as all things are these days, by way of beyerbeware.blogspot.com.

Uncle Crappy’s mom Pat has a similar recipe using regular grocery store sandwich rolls instead of the sweet sandwich rolls; Uncle Crappy made them for us years ago. They were very good, making individual sandwiches that are then frozen for future use, but the recipe makes like 40 sandwiches and there were only two of us. Sort of like the first time we went skiing in Snowmass and Uncle Crappy took me to the top of the mountain after four skiing sessions in a county park with a hill (Whiner.).

Anyway, here’s the recipe for Hawaiian Sweet Roll Sammies:

1 package of 12 King’s Hawaiian Sweet Rolls (Distinctive orange packaging. Uncle Crappy found ours in the deli section of the grocery instead of bread section. After much searching.)
1 onion minced
1 stick of butter
3 tablespoons of Djion mustard
2 teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce
3 teaspoons of poppy seeds (Remember, these can sometimes trigger false positives in urine drug tests, so leave them out if this is something you need to worry about.)
3/4 pound shaved ham (We used Giant Eagle Market District Ham Off the Bone. Good, not overly salty to counter the sweet rolls.)
8 slices of Swiss cheese

Sweet merciful crap, did this smell good.

Melt butter in a small skillet and add onions. Medium heat. Let saute for a few minutes to soften onions, but don’t brown the onions. Mix mustard, Worcestershire sauce and poppy seeds into onion and butter. Simmer for a few minutes, until the onions are soft.

Note that there are a couple different kinds of rolls in those pans. I couldn’t find three packages of sweet rolls in the two stores I visited, so I did some improvising, using the sweet deli buns as well. Didn’t notice a difference at all.

Slice rolls as a slab (not individual rolls) lengthwise, and place bottom in an aluminum foil lined 13′ x 9″ baking pan. Spread 3/4 of onion mixture on roll bottoms, then layer ham and cheese on top. Place top of rolls on the pile, spreading the remaining onion mixture over the top of the rolls. Cover with foil and refrigerate until ready to bake.

This is the butter/mustard goop spread on the bottoms of the buns. Make sure you hold back enough to coat the tops, too.

The finished sammiches, ready to be baked. Under the bun tops are layers of ham and Swiss cheese. Note: I got three packages of bread for two casseroles. I also fudged the amount of ham and cheese upwards a bit.

Bake covered with foil for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

And they’re done. A little sweet, and meaty and goopy with cheese. This recipe is a keeper.

Uncle Crappy put two of these casseroles together on Friday and then we baked Saturday morning before going to tailgate. Refer to last week’s entry about how we transport hot things to the tailgate. We were warned when we got to Columbus that we might have six additional tailgaters, so we whipped the Eggless Sausage Casserole from last weekend out of the freezer and cooked it too. Good thing, too — with 15 very hungry people, we came away with about a quarter casserole of the sammies, which Uncle Crappy and I ate for dinner Sunday.

Not the most artful shot of the cake — sorry ’bout that — but hooboy, was it good.

Additional food included: Chilled Cajun shrimp, which I’ll get the recipe for, and My Grandma’s of New England Coffee Cake, which is honestly the best coffee cake I have ever had and will be ordering for Christmas presents this year! We had the plain coffee cake, but we all want to try the other flavors too, especially the blueberry. Interested? You’ll find all the info here.

And the bonus recipe this week is for Suzanne’s Jarlsberg Cheese Dip — 2 cups chopped red onions, 2 cups mayonnaise, 2 cups shredded Jarlsberg cheese, mix together in a dish. Chill and serve with crackers. Now, in looking up this recipe, I found that it is meant to be baked at 350 degrees for 20 minutes and served warm. I have never had it that way and it is one of those that you can’t stop eating cold, so I wonder what the warm version is like. My cousin also makes it cold, but loads it with fresh cracked black pepper, which is yummy. Someone out there, bake it and report back what its like warm.

Now looking forward to Saturday’s match up with University of California Golden Bears, and wondering what we’ll eat! Go Buckeyes!