Chicago Style Italian Beef

This post is brought to you by my sweet friend Kristin. By the power of the internets, she could make this in her home in Wisconsin and I can share it with you from my house in Philadelphia. I'm so excited that she'd share her recipe with us. I met Kristin after she moved to Philadelphia from Chicago and brought with her the deliciousness that is Italian Beef.  Apparently, like cheesesteaks, there is a right way to order your sandwich. Your options include "hot and wet" and "dipped and sweet." Whoa, Chicago!

Philly Cheesesteaks

I've been thinking about the idea of regional foods and how strongly we identify them with the places we love. I figured I'd introduce you to quintessential foods from places I've called home starting the cheesesteak.

When I first moved to Philly I lived a few doors down from Pat's King of Steaks and Geno's, the two "famous" cheesesteak places. Pat's is gritty and everything great about Philly including a commeration of the filming of the great motion picture "Rocky". Geno's is the Disneyland of cheesesteaks. The neighborhood always smelled like grilled meat and onions. The traditional cheesesteak is made "wiz wit" mean cheese wiz with onions. I prefer provolone to wiz any day. Save yourself the headache of dealing with the lines and make one at home.

Got leftover ham? Make ham salad.

If you have ever come to my house for dinner, you know I cannot stop myself from making too much. I always worry we won't have enough and over-prepare. I come by it honestly and my family is worse than I am. I swear. I tried to learn the lesson from Thanksgiving when I made a 19 lb turkey and 7 lbs of mashed potatoes. WAY too much. So I tried to buy a small Easter ham. It was one of those tiny, unimpressive ones. I thought I did good until we only ate half of it. I can only eat so many ham sandwiches myself. I considered making split pea soup, since I love it, but it was way too many steps for my "taking care of me" weekend. A co-worker suggested ham salad and it sounded good to me.

My grandma used to make us ham salad sandwiches when I was little and we'd go out on the boat. She never went out on the water but she waited on the dock and had sandwiches ready when we got back. I can picture her, sitting in a lawn chair with a hardcover book from the library. She looked up from reading and wave as we got closer. She probably also had celery sticks with peanut butter. <3

But anyway, back to the ham salad. It's super easy. I chopped up the remaining ham and some pickles. Most of the recipes I looked at called for pickle relish, but that's just chopped up pickles anyway. I threw those in the food processor with some black pepper. I pulsed it 5 or 6 times, then added some mayonnaise. The proportions are up to you. It's all about consistency. I don't like a lot of mayonnaise, but maybe you do. Pulse it a few more times and you've got ham salad. It's weird, but I like it. What I had left made enough for about 3 sandwiches and that's probably all I'll be able to stand.