Gimmicky delis and restaurants around the country have sandwiches named after celebrities, even if said celebrity has never been within hundreds of miles of the place and would laugh/express mild disgust if you knew them well enough to propose a trip to its location.
That said, every so often a celebrity will offer their “own” sandwich recipes to the slavering masses, and here are two.
Angie Dickinson’s Honeymoon Sandwich
Ange, as I like to think of her, has only been married twice, most famously to Burt Bacharach, so I don’t know why this is called a honeymoon sandwich. Maybe she caters them when people she knows get married. By the way, as I write this Ange is still alive and will turn 90 on September 30th, but by the time you read this that date will have passed. I’ve adapted this slightly to what I recently made for us. Serves 2, with a little for the Ravenous Hound. These are open-faced sandwiches.
4 slices rye bread
A little butter, softened. Since I’m not English I’m not usually a fan of buttering sandwiches but here I allowed it. Angie Dickinson was born in North Dakota, not Northampton (England) so I don’t know where she got this idea.
8 slices of baked ham
Dijon mustard
[Matt’s diversion here: enough slices of Roma tomatoes to cover four of the rye bread slices. I let them dry on a paper towel. Ange says to use 2 thick slices of beefsteak tomato per slice, but no. That’s too much.]
[16 dill pickle “chips,” the ones that are like coins that you find on fast food hamburgers. Ange says to slice a whole dill pickle in half and lay each half on each slice. No. Arrange the chips so they make a checkerboard, four per slice, like this ::]
8 slices of [sharp cheddar cheese, each big enough to cover a slice of rye bread. If your block of cheddar cheese is not the size of a slice of rye, and it may well not be, place 2 smaller-sized pieces vertically and then 2 horizontally, like this: #]
Toast the bread and spread a thin layer of softened butter. Each gets 2 slices of ham. Smear/schmear Dijon on top. Top with the tomato, then the pickles, then the cheese, 2 slices each, or 4 slices each for from a smaller block. Broil for a little bit until the cheese melts. Ange says, “…serve with good vintage brut Champagne” and I couldn’t agree more.
Norm Crosby’s Old Fashioned Pepper Steak Sandwich
“Mattie, what are you doing? Is that the Sinatra Celebrity Cookbook again?”
“Yes, but hear me out. I’m making Norm Crosby’s Old Fashioned Pepper Steak Sandwiches. Like you, he was a native of Boston and just died last year at 93. Did you know that?”
“I’ve never heard of Norm Crosby…?”
(Serves 2)
1 1/2 lbs. New York sirloin steak, very slightly frozen [you do this because you’ll be cutting it and it’s easier to work with.]
2 green bell peppers, sliced
1 large onion, sliced
4 small French, Italian, or sourdough rolls. [As luck would have it, I had 4 mini hero rolls, so I used those.]
Slice the steak into thin strips and set aside. Sauté the onions and the peppers until they’re “crisp-tender” and then add the steak strips and let them cook until they’re the way you want them, which is, of course, medium rare.
Reserve a little of the steak for The Ravenous Hound on a paper towel, being careful not to feed him a stray onion or pepper.
Norm says to split the rolls, hollow them out a little, and warm them in a microwave or a toaster oven. First of all, you should never microwave bread. Second of all, does anyone remember when RHONY Sonja Morgan, in one of her many failed grifts business ventures, had some kind of toaster oven scheme business plan that was dropped like a potato that had been sitting in a toaster oven set on high overnight? Anyway, no, warm the bread quickly on a baking sheet in your oven. Fill the bread with the steak/onions/peppers and salt and pepper them. Norm then says to add ketchup or mustard but I didn’t do this; rather, when I put the bread in the oven I made a little provolone lining.
Norm says to serve these with a Bud Light. I’ve never actually had a Bud Light, and Lord knows I drank enough subpar beer in college, and many gallons kiloliters of the good stuff during The German Phase. I served myself a good portion of a Rioja I had hanging around, and Better Half, since this was a workday lunch, stuck to water.
Oh, it is me again! This is off-topic, but as I was shopping for my autumnal wreath, I was thinking about the holidays. It’s never too early to search for things that will delight all the special people in your life, so might I suggest you start your gift hunt here?
I don’t know which tantalize me more. The strawberry bitelet plaque is very good. I have a few relatives who are sprots fans, so maybe they would enjoy the 9-cup Stadium Bundt Cake Pan.
Not everyone shares the same tastes with others in their household, so the Duet Bundt Plaque might be just the thing. If it’s a family of picky eaters, I would go for the Art Deco Bundt Cakelet Plaque. French Canadians can get the Fleur-de-Lis model.
Better Half will be getting the Cast Aluminum Elegant Heart Bundt Pan. For the wee precious ones who are too young to be let near an oven yet, they can get the Sandcastle Bundt Cake Pan, which they can take to the beach and fill with sand, thereby instilling in them the wholesome virtues that surround all things Bundt.
Look at all those pretty Bundt pans – a perfect gift for Butcher!
No.
Not gonna lie, my favorite is the octopus one. But then again, you can never go wrong with cephalopods.
Cousin Matty, I think you are the only other person I know who geeks out over Nordicware’s offerings as much as I do!😉🤣💖
And in case you haven’t already been, they have a pretty neat website:
https://www.nordicware.com/
When I saw “Celebrity Sandwiches”, I immediately thought of Ike’s Sandwiches in Reno (they are a great chain but that is the only one I have visited). The Paul Ruebens is delicious and a bunch of their sandwiches are named after celebs.
https://www.ikessandwich.com/menu/
The sad thing about so many celebrity recipes is how much they try to normalize the supposed creators. Oh, we just ate these sandwiches in our simple cabin overlooking the Missouri River…
I want fun stories — Robert Evans style accounts of debauchery and profligate spending, not grilled cheese where the secret ingredient is a shake of garlic powder.
Especially for celebrities that don’t seem like they know how to do anything in the kitchen or would consume that many calories in one sitting!
“Rachel Zoe’s steamed vegetables and skinless chicken breast”
Well that one’s entirely believable.
“Seasoned with tears for flavor”
Ooooh, I have some potential answers for the butter (AND those Beefsteak tomatoes!😉)
The part of ND where Angie grew up would still be an area where farmers would’ve had some dairy cattle, back when she lived there–and dairy cattle and the 1930’s/40’s Midwest meant EVERYTHING one ate which had any semblance of bread (even your saltiness crackers!) got a light schmear of butter.
Rolls? Butter… Sliced bread of any type? Butter… Lefse? Butter +white sugar (but it’s FAR better with some brown sugar!😉)… Saltine crackers? Butter… Potatoes? Butter.
Didn’t matter WHAT sort of sandwich you were making–if you grew up in the Silent Generation or the Greatest, and you made a sandwich, nearly everything got a swipe of butter… Peanut Butter & Jelly had a butter base… Ham or chicken–even on a roll–had a “healthy” layer of butter surrounding the meat… cheese sandwich on Wonderbread?
That cheese was gonna be butter flavored!😉🤣💖
As to the Beefsteak–those were THE slicing tomato–and basically the only tomato ’round these parts (the Upper-Midwestern states) back then. They grew BIG, and one or two could feed a family as a “side dish” when sliced and served with a little salt & pepper, next to your potatoes & meat.
Until Early Girl, Big Boy, and Better Boy came along, Beefsteak WAS the typical tomato up here… romas were mainly used for canning your tomato sauces, and the Beefsteaks were for fresh eating (or using green in Green Tomato or “Mock Apple” pies)