Pesto Panini Bread

When I go back to Colorado, one of the foods I look forward to is a Turkey Pesto Ciabatta sandwich from Mimi's Cafe.

This time, I ordered pancakes when we went to Mimi's. Still good, but not the sandwich I was craving.

I also feel like having school start the Monday after Thanksgiving limits the amount of leftovers I can consume.

So, turkey was on sale at Wegmans, and I picked up a nice little turkey breast.

I wanted to recreate the Turkey Pesto Ciabatta, but did you know ciabatta has to rise overnight?

I didn't. Not enough foresight for that to happen.

So I switched to a panini idea. I wanted to make the bread.

I couldn't find a recipe for bread to use in panini making. I was disappointed.

The Pioneer Woman has never failed me, so I altered the recipe for Blooming Bread from her Pastor.

This bread ends up crispy and delicious, perfect for making into a panini.

Pesto Panini Bread

• 4 Cups of All Purpose Flour
• 1 Teaspoon Active Dry Yeast
• 1 Stick of Butter, melted
• 1 Tablespoon of Pesto
• 2 Teaspoons of Salt
• 1 Cup of Lukewarm Water

Combine the warm water and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer. Allow to sit for 5 minutes, activating the yeast.

Add the rest of the indgredients and knead for 10 minutes. My mixer, Vera, didn't have any problems with this, but if yours starts to heat up, give it a rest for a few minutes or finish by hand.

Move the dough to a large cast iron skillet and allow to rise for 1 hour. I placed mine on top of the oven I was using to roast a turkey.

Once the dough has doubled in size, it can be moved into a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes, covered in aluminum foil, or with any oven-safe lid. We want to control the browning.

Remove the cover an allow to bake for another 15 minutes.

Cut the loaf into sixths and enjoy filling this with whatever strikes your fancy.

I filled this loaf with tomato, pesto, mayo, turkey and mozzarella cheese. They were amazing!

I pressed them in our little George Foreman grill. No panini maker necessary! 2 cast iron pans work just as well.

Grilled Hawaiian Sandwich

I'm done! Fall quarter is finally over for me, as of 11:00 this morning when I finished my last final.

I'm completely exhausted. I love the quarter system, it allows me time to focus on a lot more subjects in a year than I could have in the semester system, but am I ever tired after 10 weeks.

I also leave for Colorado tomorrow. Be ready for some awesome home posts for the next week.

But that also means flying... I hate flying. It's scary. Let's put humans in a metal tube and fling them across the country. That sounds sane.

Oh well. It's how people travel I guess. Code Boyfriend wants me to give train travel a try. What is it with boys and trains? Anyone? I don't get it.

Anyways, with this week being so busy with finals, I tried to plan simple dinners I would feel like throwing together after a day of studying.

So I give you...

Grilled Hawaiian Sandwiches

• Any bread you'd like, I used slices from an Italian loaf
• Maple Ham
• Pineapple Slices
• Cheddar Cheese
• Butter (for your grill pan)

This delicious grilled sandwich was created by buttering bread to toast on a grill pan, and adding some cheese.

Then heating the ham on the same griddle and grilling the pineapple slices. The grilling helped heat the ham all the way through and made the pineapple slices sweeter.

Then the hot ham and pineapple were placed on the bread, and the sandwich was grilled on both sides until the cheese was melted and both sides of the bread were completely toasted.

It was amazing. Code Boyfriend said, "These is a surprise in the middle of this ham melt and it's pineapple!"

The pineapple and cheddar combine with the slight sweetness of the maple ham to make a very tasty sandwich.