Dessert Panini

In the mood for something sinfully delicious, yet sinfully easy to make? How about this dessert panini? Yeah, I can't think of a more original name and I can't find the original recipe (which I deviated from anyway), but it's delicious and very simple. I did make it on my panini grill, but I suspect any sandwich-grilling solution would work. Let's dive in, shall we?
To start, spread creamy peanut butter (or any other dessert-like spread) over the "insides" of two pieces of white bread (per panini). Quarter a banana in half and then length-wise (like the picture above demonstrates). A whole banana is a lot per panini unless you really dig banana... Put these banana slices on your peanut butter and spread miniature marshmallows all around (they'll kind of stick to the peanut butter). Now for the part that requires coordination: take one half of a panini and, using your mad skillz, flip it on top. You can do this without losing any marshmallows, I swear. Butter a side (or both) and warm up your panini-grilling mechanism. Once it's nice and hot, start cooking each panini (and butter any sides you may have not buttered yet). Grill for only a few minutes (we're not cooking any meats here) and then remove. You should have nice, grilled cheese-looking lines on your paninis. Cover them in a dusting of powdered sugar and then line with chocolate syrup. Diabetes, here we come. Enjoy!
The ingredients are straight-forward:

• two slices of white bread per panini
• creamy peanut butter (or another sweet spread)
  
• a banana or less per panini
• miniature marshmallows (as many as you can manage)
  
• butter (to spread on the outsides of the paninis before grilling)
• powdered sugar and chocolate syrup to cover (and help you die faster)
  

Roasted Peppercorn Turkey Panini

A few weeks back, my mother and grandmother came to spend the weekend with me. Not one to miss an opportunity, I enlisted them in choosing and helping me fashion a lunch for the three of us. After a long weekend of cleaning and shopping, nothing hits the spot like a delicious, not-exactly-healthy panini. This particular recipe came from a book on cast-iron grilling, but applied equally well to my less antiquarian cooking methods. That is to say, I used a panini grill and not two pieces of ribbed metal. I wonder if George Foreman has a panini grill, as it really is the trendy version of his famous "grilling machines".
I had to highlight the sliced avocado, as it something to behold. These paninis are made in fun sections. For each one, butter a side of its two pieces of multigrain bread (for serious, multigrain actually tastes good here). Prepare a mixture of the mayonnaise, sour cream, chipotle pepper, lime juice and zest, and cilantro. Spread this on the non-buttered side of each slice. Spread the turkey breast between the paninis, laying it along one side each, and then top with the cooked bacon. Put the paninis together and grill them until the cheese has melted, about 7 minutes or so. Once removed from the grill, add the sliced avocado in the middle, slice, and serve. To slice an avocado, by the way, peel it, pull out the core, and then cut length-wise until it's in thin slices, being careful that they don't fall apart. This my mother taught me and she did it fantastically.
The ingredients to make four are as such (please don't sue me):

• 1/2 cup of mayo
• 1 tablespoon of sour cream
• 1 teaspoon of "chopped chipotle chile in adobo"
• 1 teaspoon of lime juice
• 1/2 teaspoon of lime zest
• 1 tablespoon of cilantro (if you want)
• 2 tablespoons of softened butter (for each side of the paninis)
• 8 slices (or 2 * n) of whole wheat or multigrain bread
• 8 slices of provolone cheese
• a pound of deli-sliced peppercorn turkey breast
• 8 slices (or more!) of smoked, cooked bacon
• a ripe avocado, peeled, pitted, and cut in 1/4" slices
  

The chilis in adobo sauce you can find in the Hispanic section of your grocery store (did I say that unracistly?). The sliced provolone can be found in your fresh dairy section.

Black Forest Ham and Gruyère Panini

OK, OK, OK, it's not really Black Forest ham, I couldn't find any of that, it's just regular deli ham. Proper Black Forest ham (with capital letters) - from the Schwarzwald region in Germany - is cured with a myriad of spices for one to three months. Albanian ham - from the Clifton Park region of New York state - is sold pre-packaged as lunch meat. Anyway, what's with this cookbook's fascination with Gruyère?
Oh, yeah, so... I bought a panini grill. A friend of mine clued me in to a great deal (she stays up late looking for sales on cooking equipment, apparently) and so I thought I'd indulge. Paninis and panini grills have been trendy this past year, but paninis are actually quite delicious and, if you can convince yourself, rather healthy. Alright, before you grammarians start complaining, I know "paninis" is a catachresis, but you're just going to have to deal. "Panino" is the singular and "panini" is the plural; I'm not saying panino.
So back to the sandwich... Between the (rather large) pieces of Italian bread, we've got a spread of Gorgonzola, caramelized onion, Albanian ham, and sliced Gruyère. When we afixed the Gruyère atop the turkey burgers of a weekend prior, we found that this cheese is simply too hard to melt in such a format. In between hot grill presses, it melted fantastically and was absolutely delicious. As the top and bottom of the bread was buttered for this panino (sigh), the grill left absolutely gorgeous marks upon each. Seven minutes, as the recipe commands, is simply too long for such bread (soft, but not crusty). Five would work fine, though maybe it would vary if you used a more gourmet roll (pro tip: pick up some from Panera on your drive home).
And now for the recipe, which serves four (please don't sue me). Adjust your quantities as per your guests:

• 2 red onions
• 1 tablespoon of chopped, fresh tarragon (if you choose)
  
• 1 tablespoon of chopped, fresh flat-leaf parsley (if you choose)
• 4 tablespoons of crumbled Gorgonzola cheese, softened
• 4 crusty (curmudgeonly?) Italian rolls, sliced horizontally
• 1 pound of Black Forest (or Albanian) ham, thinly sliced
• 8 slices Gruyère cheese
• misc. quantities of butter, sugar, salt, and pepper as detailed below
  

We'll want to caramelize the onions first, so melt 2 tablespoons of butter into a cast-iron (or non-stick) skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the sliced onions for two minutes, then reduce heat to low and season with 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of ground black pepper. Sauté for another 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once removed from heat, you can toss the onions with the tarragon and parsley. Butter both sides of your crusty Italian loaf (that was fun to type) and then combine 2 tablespoons of softened butter with the 2 tablespoons of softened Gorgonzola. Spread the Gorgonzola on the insides of the rolls, layer with the caramlized onion, the ham, and then two slices of Gruyère each. Grill these sandwiches in the panini grill for five to seven minutes and then eat while hot.