FOUR RANDO SANDOS 🥪

The weather is here, pack a sandwich, take a hike, and enjoy it! 🥾🌳☀️🌿🌄

Spring break, Passover, and Easter (check out last week’s Easter recipes for inspo) will all be over by next week when we start to close out the month of April and move into sunny May. With more time on our hands and the weather finally perking up, we’re putting on our hiking boots and getting out in nature. Since we can’t do anything without incorporating food in some way, our time outside usually consits of either a hike or a walk to a meal-related destination (restaurant/market), in a natural area or park near the place we want to eat at, or if the hike is long enough to a spot for a rest, a view and a picnic lunch. So this week, with picnics in mind, we are sharing our go-to sandwiches to pack for mid-hike lunches. We may not be able to control the weather, the wildlife, the views, or the other people on the trail….but we can make sure you have something good to eat while you’re there.

Lake Como lakeside lunch

Of course, our preferred picnic lunch is somewhere in Italy with a fresh panini and a bottle of wine. Unfortunately, we don’t wake up every morning in our beloved boot-shaped country (yet 😏), so our favorite local hiking spots will have to do. But if you’re in or near Michigan, Illinois, or Florida, check out some of our top hiking locales!

Southeast & Southwest Michigan:

• Kensington MetroPark Trail, Milford

• West Bloomfield Trail, West Bloomfield

• Maybury Trail, Northville

• Rosy Mound Natural Area, Grand Haven

• Hofma Preserve, Grand Haven

• Hemlock Crossing County Park & Nature Education Center, West Olive

Chicago-area, Illinois

• Busse Woods, Rolling Meadows (be sure to stop by Matsuwah, the Japanese grocery store and food court, after!)

• Palos trail system, Palos Park

• Des Plaines River Trail System, Des Plaines

• The 606 Trail, Chicago

Naples, Florida

• Gordon River Greenway

• North Collier Regional Park

• Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

• CREW Rookery (beware: full of wildlife….🐊🐢😱)

FOUR RANDO SANDOS FOR A MID-HIKE PICNIC

A warm, crispy piece of focaccia always hits the spot. And when you take that delicious piece of bread and fill it with burrata, prosciutto, and pesto, you have a sandwich worthy of our Italian picnic dreams. If someone brought this for me on a hike, I think I just might cry.

Since tomatoes aren’t in season yet, the only tomatoes that actually taste like a tomato right now are Kumatos (Trader Joe’s), Dirty Girls, or Sugar/Flavor Bombs. Simply layer these tomatoes onto sliced focaccia with pesto, burrata, and prosciutto, and you’ve created yourself a masterpiece.

And, if you think this sandwich is already absolute perfection and couldn’t possibly get any better, well…think again. Because when you make it using homemade focaccia, it reaches epic proportions.

Homemade focaccia sounds intimidating, but if you use our recipe, it’s actually incredibly easy and doesn’t even take very long!

Ahh, the Summer Sandwich… the one we used to walk 6 miles for 😵‍💫. Unfortunately, Palate Pleasers has closed, but luckily, we had this sandwich enough times that we were able to recreate it by memory.

Sometimes the simplest sandwiches are the best, and that’s really the case with the Summer Sandwich. Because of its simplicity, it’s important to use high-quality ingredients: flavorful tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, simple roasted eggplant, and the most important part…. good bread. The original recipe used ficelle bread (a chewy, skinny baguette), but it works just as well on a fresh French baguette.

And although we “hiked” to this sandwich (well, idk if you can call walking on sidewalks through neighborhoods hiking lol), its freshness and lightness make it a great mid-hike meal that won’t leave you feeling too sluggish on your way back.

The American Spoon Turkey Sandwich is another sammy from our childhood that we still think about and make to this day. The original sandwich was an apricot preserves turkey sandwich from a cafe inside an American Spoon preserves shop we visited 15 years ago in Petoskey, Michigan. The turkey's saltiness, the preserves' sweetness, a bit of mayo, a slice of white cheese, and toasted bread make for an elite combination. Even 15 years later, it clearly made an impact 😂

This recreated version tastes just as good as the original. Turkey sandwiches are great, and it’s nice to mix it up and replace the usual mustard with a touch of sweet preserves and mayo. We prefer shredded turkey from the deli (ask for it “shaved”) and white cheddar. We also bought the Apricot preserve spread from American Spoon, but any will do.

And for fun, why not a Japanese 7-Eleven style egg salad sandwich? TBH, I’d be elated to pull one of these out mid-hike (or enjoy as a finger sandwich at an Easter Brunch….why didn’t we think of that last week?!).

Egg salad and strawberries and cream sandos at a Japanese 7-Eleven

This “viral” egg-salad sandwich was the first thing we picked up on our trip to Japan. It’s an understatement to say that 7-Elevens are very different there. They are known for their delicious sandos (egg salad, chicken, strawberry & cream!), and tons of fresh and unique items. Recreating the egg salad sandwich was the first thing on my to-do list when we got back, and it turned out pretty darn good.

Speaking of enjoying walks outside, we are happy to announce two new furry additions to the family!

Meet Benji and Bruno. Our parents adopted this father-son duo last week. We haven’t met them yet as they are still in their two-week decompression period.

But we have forced our parents to send us excessive pics and videos. They are so cute and we can’t wait to give them some sugar!

To celebrate, here is our go-to homemade dog treat recipe!

THANKS FOR READING!

Cheers 🥂

Hil & Nat

Don’t forget you can access the entire recipe library with all your favs here.

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