One of the reasons the shooter’s sandwich may (or may not) be called the king of sandwiches is because it’s basically steak cooked medium and stuffed into bread.  Most modern recipes advocate using two (!) boneless ribeyes of 8 oz or more, which, while appealing on paper, has two key drawbacks that will sink into your forebrain during the refractory period after actually consuming the finished product:

1) You just ate two steaks and an entire loaf of bread.

2) You just ate a $30 sandwich.

Like many seduced by the promise of a portable steak dinner, I wanted to experience the majesty of the king of sandwiches for myself.  But I set out to make it in a way that wouldn’t send me into hibernation or require me to take out an Adjustable Rate Deliciousness Loan from a shady sandwich lender.

It turned out to not be that hard. I made a miniature version of the shooter’s sandwich that you can actually eat in a sitting, and, while the length of prep time argues that you should make multiple sandwiches at a time, you can comfortably make two sandwiches for under $10 all-in.  Note that calling them “miniature” is only in comparison to a proper shooter’s sandwich, which is about the size of a Frisbee, whereas these are about the size of a smoke detector. (That there’s poetical, that is.)

You’ll need (to make 2 sandwiches):

• 2 4-6 oz top round sirloin steaks, boneless
• 2 medium-sized sourdough rolls (should be roughly the same size as the steaks)
• 1/3 cup cremini mushrooms, diced
• 1 tablespoon’s worth of shallots, diced
• 1 tablespoon butter or margarine
• 1 oz Worcestershire sauce
• 1-2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

Steps:

• Slice the tops off of the sourdough rolls and hollow out the rolls with your fingers, digging out most of the crumb.  There should only be roughly about a 3/4-inch wall left around the rolls.  Save the tops.
• In a medium skillet, sautee the diced mushrooms and shallots in the butter until thoroughly softened.  Add Worcestershire sauce.  Salt and pepper to taste if desired, then remove from heat and set aside in a small bowl.
• Cook the top sirloin in a large skillet over medium heat just until just beyond medium-rare.  (Cooking it any longer will result in a tough sandwich; cooking it any less risks illness.)
• Place the steaks in the hollowed-out rolls, 1 each.  Use your fingers to push the steaks well into the rolls.
• Spoon the mushroom/shallot mixture evenly across the tops of the steaks.  Spread the Dijon mustard on the sourdough tops and replace.
• Wrap both sandwiches in butcher’s paper, and place a large cutting board on top of the sandwiches.  On the cutting board, place as much weight as you can find and evenly distribute.  I mean a lot of weight.  I used about 30 lbs. worth of books, and that arguably might not have been enough.
• Let the sandwiches sit under the weight for at least 6-7 hours, preferably overnight.  Do not refrigerate during this step.

I like to leave the sandwiches in the greaseproof paper, and when you’re ready to eat it, simply cut into slices with a large knife.  And now you have a royal lunch fit for a prince, without paying a king’s ransom.  (Eh? Anybody?  No?  Okay.)

On my most recent jihad against expiration dates, I realized I actually had everything needed to make a potato leek soup.  I recently attended a dinner party at a friend’s house, and had a potato leek soup that she made that was so excellent I felt compelled to see if I could make one myself that was, if not as good, nearly as good, with the benefit of being as simple and quick to make as possible.

(If it’s not already apparent, one of the themes of nearly every recipe on this blog is simplicity.  I’ll talk about why soon, but I don’t want to get too far afield of the subject of soup.)

Here’s how to make the easiest potato leek soup that doesn’t involve opening a can.

You’ll need:

• 1 leek, bottom half only, chopped
• 1/4 white onion, chopped
• 4 red new potatoes, cut into thin slices (so they’ll cook faster)
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 4oz half and half
• 1/4 tablespoon thyme, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon butter

Steps:

• In a medium skillet with a high lip, melt the butter over medium heat.  Add the leek, onion, and potatoes, and sautée, adding salt and pepper to taste, until the leek pieces are tender (about 7-10 minutes).
• Pour in the chicken broth and add the thyme, bring everything just to a boil and then cover and reduce heat to a simmer.  Allow to simmer about 10-15 minutes or until the potato pieces are thoroughly tender and part easily under a spatula.
• Remove the mixture and pour everything into a blender.  Add the flour and half and half.  Blend on a medium setting until the mixture is chopped and thoroughly even.
• Return the mixture to a medium saucepan and heat to serving temperature over medium heat.  Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.

The nice thing about this recipe is that it only takes less than 25 minutes and makes two main-course-sized servings, so it’s easy to whip up as a quick and filling meal.

Typically, when people ask me “how the coffee thing is doing”, I do what most people do when things haven’t been going well:  I smile and nod and say, “great, never better”.  Then some of them will stare into middle distance and make a vague statement about how they wish they could own their own business.

It won’t surprise you to hear that owning your own business is not exactly the path to an easy life.  It’s a lot of work for what are sometimes intangible results, and the risk that comes with leaving your previously well-paying job is always hanging over your shoulder, champing at the bit to say “I told you so”.

Don’t take that as pessimism, or a fatalistic pronouncement of doom.  That’s simply the fact of striking out on your own, the lay of the land as it is.  There is also, of course, often a wealth of positive reinforcement for the self-directed.  It may not be true of everyone, but I find actual comfort in being able to say, “If I fail, I have no one to blame but myself”.  Owning your own small business gives you a real sense of agency, and can reward competence directly in a way a cushy corporate job sometimes can’t (or won’t).

Unfortunately, my first year didn’t really result in any of that.  I’m not really looking to get into why, just to admit that on balance, 2010 was a professional failure for me.

I have an easier time discussing it because the business is strong now, stronger than its ever been, and most of its pain points have been managed or removed.  It would certainly be more politic to not mention that it ever had issues, but for whatever reason I have this thing about living in a glass house.  I would have an easier time admitting what didn’t work and starting from a clean slate than trying to pretend everything was great while frantically trying to repair things behind the scenes in the hopes that reality will eventually catch up to the story I’ve been selling at dinner parties.

It’s not about outlining a sob story, either.  In the interest of not seeming coy, I will sum it up briefly: the partnership I let myself be talked into joining, because it was something I wanted, turned out to be with someone whose personal dishonesty was only matched by a towering incompetence, and who saw the business solely as a handy cash box to assist him in his noble endeavor of trying to drink himself to death.  He has since been ejected, legally and physically, but not before he managed to do a great deal of damage that I spent the middle of 2010 slowly learning about and the end of 2010 trying to repair.  The end.

There’s something to be said for the fact that most small businesses don’t survive that kind of damage and yet we’re poised to be more profitable in 2011 than we’ve ever been.  That’s one thing I am sort of proud of regarding 2010–being able to bounce back from near bankruptcy to stability and profitability.  There are very real challenges ahead in the short term, but I can say that after having the kind of year I just had–a year of basically spinning my wheels and not understanding why things were no better off than the day before, of bearing all of the kind of stress I left my previous job to get away from and not managing it effectively–I am more determined than ever to make this successful, and so far it seems to be working.

I guess all this is really a way of talking around feeling like I’d lost my edge.  (Or not.  Maybe I don’t have an edge.  Maybe I’m just a big ol’ soup spoon.  I dunno.)  In terms of what I’ve been wanting to accomplish with my life, I can pretty much write off 2010 as a loss, largely because I wasted too much time wringing my hands together and trying to pretend nothing was wrong, instead of seeking the root causes and addressing them honestly and effectively.

So my New Year’s resolution is Honesty, Competency, and Results.  I’m resolving to be honest with myself about what’s good and bad, what’s working and not working; to be competent in fixing what needs fixing and shedding what can’t be fixed; and to focus on quantifiable results that show how we’re in a better place today than we were yesterday.  At the risk of sounding unnecessarily maudlin, I don’t really have a lot of years left to “lose” the way I lost 2010.

I have two exceptions to this rule:  First is red velvet cake, that Southern staple, which my wife makes for me every year for my birthday.  It’s the only time all year that I eat cake of any kind.  Second is ice cream, which I will admittedly eat the hell out of.  I love ice cream.  Learning this recipe was probably a huge mistake.

This is my riff on the semi-famous Two Ingredient Ice Cream recipe over at Instructables, adjusted to make for a pretty great bowl of coffee-flavored ice cream.  Even with the extra ingredients it’s one of the easiest recipes I’ve ever found for homemade ice cream.

You’ll need:

• 1/2 cup of water
• 1 cup of sugar
• 2 1/2 cups of heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 teaspoon grated vanilla bean (more or less to taste)
• 1 heaping tablespoon finely ground coffee (more or less to taste)

Steps:

1. Using a hand mixer (or a whisk if you have the arms of a boxer), beat 1 1/2 cups of the whipping cream until it stiffens.  Set it in the fridge.
2. Make a simple syrup by boiling the water and stirring in the sugar, taking it off the heat as soon as the sugar completely dissolves.
3. Lightly whisk in the remaining cup of whipping cream, grated vanilla bean, and the coffee grounds to the simple syrup until it’s all fairly even.
4. Take the stiffened whipping cream out of the fridge and blend in the simple syrup/vanilla/coffee mixture until it’s completely folded in and once again stiffened.
5. Cover and freeze for six hours.

There are only two very minor pain points with this recipe:  First, whipping the cream takes forever if you’re not using a decently powerful hand mixer; second, you’ll want to whisk in the cream/vanilla/coffee quickly once you remove the simple syrup from the heat, to ensure it mixes evenly before it thickens.

If you leave out the coffee and vanilla bean, you can vary this recipe almost infinitely.  Sub in Irish cream, or grated dark chocolate, or salted caramel.  (Don’t use fruit though.)

This recipe serves about 6 to 8 people…or 1 if you’re me.  I’ve eaten an entire batch of this in one sitting.  I’m not proud.

Way of Coffee was started a few years ago, and if I’m to be completely honest, wasn’t intended to be a personal blog in any real way.  I started it partially as a living resume (because I didn’t have a job in coffee at the time), and partially because I, like too many people, thought I could make money off of my blog.  And, well, it did make money–not much, but I can say the site has paid for its own hosting since it began.  And I did my “real” blogging, by which I mean personal blogging, elsewhere.  First on Livejournal, then on Facebook.

But it’s not working as a long-term strategy, and I want to do something new anyway, so WoC gets a new deal.  I’m leaving Facebook, or at least refitting it to just being a feed for WoC, and this will become my personal blog.  I don’t really like Facebook, I never did, and I feel like all I and my friends do is complain about its technical limitations and privacy violations, so what’s the point?  ”Everybody’s on it” doesn’t really cut it anymore for me.

It does mean the content is going to be more varied and connected to my real life, but for the sake of a theme there’s going to be a lot more talk about food as well–after all, as a coffee roaster and foodie, a lot of my life revolves around my palate.

The tone will also be changing.  WoC’s always been lighthearted, straightforward, on-topic, and restrained.  I’m not always all of those things.  Sometimes I’m not any of those things.  So although I won’t insult you by pretending I’m not aware I’m writing for an audience, I don’t promise to always have a point, or to never say something offensive.

I do, however, promise to talk about food a lot.  I also promise to try to write things that are not soundbites.  This is my personal blog, but I will be upfront about the fact that I want it to be worth reading and I want you to like it.  To that end, expect posts that are longer-form and less frequent than, say, Facebook.

Oh, and no robots.