Homemade is Better—The Hawkeye

I have been in Scouting as a leader, which we call Scouters, for over six years.  When I first started with our group, my son was a first-year Beaver Scout.  As a Scouter in Beavers, you get assigned a nickname, and I got Hawkeye.  I love the name so much that I kept it when our twins moved into the next level, Cub Scouts.  This year has been very challenging for our group—and every other organized activity in Canada or worldwide, I’m sure.  We have not been able to participate in traditional activities. For example, an annual Cub camp is known as Funarama that many groups around Alberta join in. Being a professionally trained cook comes in handy with camps like these, and since I enjoy cooking, I have had the great fortune to serve as the camp cook in previous iterations.

This year, we are doing our camp virtually, but I got inspired by a sandwich I saw from a YouTuber I follow.  His looked so good that I had to make a version of it.  I’m sure it will be a camping meal a few times over the summer, and I think this one might become a staple.  I also feel like some of the portions of ingredients could be played with.  So, if you’re adventurous, play with this recipe. For example, you could increase the amount of meat or change the mustard, or use different cheese!  Just have fun with it!

The Hawkeye Sandwich

Ingredients:

3 coloured peppers, sliced into ¼” strips
4-5 hoagie buns
1-2lbs Montreal smoked meat, sliced thin (deli-style)
8-10 slices of swiss cheese
Dijon mustard
Mayonnaise

Directions:
  • Turn on your oven to 350F.
  • Place a larger, non-stick frying pan on an element at medium-high heat. Get a frying pan that can fit your hoagie buns, even it is just one at a time.
  • Cut your buns in half lengthwise, and butter both sides.
  • Brown the hoagies for 1-2 minutes in the frying pan or until they release from the pan. You want a lower heat than high because they will burn otherwise.  You could also use medium heat, or if you have a griddle, set it to 350.  This is the same idea as grilled cheese.
  • Place the buns on the sheet pan.
  • Add the peppers to the frying pan and cook them until they are just soft.
  • Add the meat to the frying pan to warm it up, about 1-2 minutes again.
  • Add 1/8 to ¼ pound of meat to the bun, then the peppers, then cheese.
  • Put the buns in the oven until the cheese melts; if you want a little extra flavour, you can set your range to broil instead of 350F and let it melt and brown the cheese.
  • Once the cheese is melted, pull them out and let them rest for a minute, so they cool down slightly.
  • Spread the mayo and mustard on the other side of the bun.
  • Cut into halves, thirds, or quarters and enjoy!

Each week we have one or two recipes, because so much of adulting is answering the question, “What do you want to eat?”  I personally picked this one, from our April 9 edition, for the Best of the Voice because I went and made it, and it was simply really tasty.  What more do you need than that?