Whether you’re cooking for one or for a crowd, getting dinner on the table every night is often a real challenge. How do people manage it? I’m about to divulge their secrets.

As part of this month’s “Get Dinner on the Table” series, I asked Panini Happy readers and other food blogging friends to share their strategies for getting dinner on the table every night. Interestingly, three distinct strategies emerged among their responses – and, no, they don’t involve packaged meals or fast food! Read on to learn these secrets and see which approaches might work well in your household.

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Thanks to all who shared their weeknight dinner strategies in last week’s “Let’s Fix Dinner” giveaway. I was so inspired by your insightful advice that I decided to compile them in an upcoming post – stay tuned!

Random.org selected entry #3 to win the limited edition “Let’s Fix Dinner” children’s book and placemats by Todd Parr – congratulations to Celeste!

“Get Dinner on the Table” month has only just begun – I’ve got more giveaways, recipes and tips to come. And, yes, we’re going to be using the panini press!

© Panini Happy®, 2010. Panini Happy is a registered trademark of Kathryn Strahs.
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With the exception of our family vacations and the occasional parental date night, my mother prepared a home-cooked dinner every night of the week. And we all sat down together to eat it.

How did she do it??

To this day, I have no idea how she made it happen with three daughters needing to be picked up from two or three different schools and shuttled around to soccer practice, cheerleading practice, saxophone lessons, Brownies. I sure wish I’d been more appreciative at the time. Now that I have a family of my own, and do nearly all of the cooking, I understand the challenge of getting a healthy meal on the table every night.

Welcome to my month-long series, Get Dinner on the Table. My goal is to help us all learn and share strategies for preparing stress-free weeknight meals. I’ll have several great giveaways (including one today – read on for details! [THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED]), cookbook reviews and new recipes for easy dinners on the panini grill.

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Boy, pop tarts are everywhere these days, aren’t they? Recipes for homemade pop tarts have been appearing on food blogs for a while now, but once Bon Appétit published theirs this past spring it ignited a bit of a trend. Then, last week, the Pop-Tarts World retail store opened its doors in Times Square. The sweet little breakfast treat we grew up with all of a sudden got huge!

Of course, I’m of the belief that almost anything that you toast can be made just as easily – possibly even better – on the panini grill. Pop tarts definitely qualify. So I cut out some puff pastry rectangles, filled some with homemade blueberry jam and others with chocolate-hazelnut spread (aka, Nutella), sealed them up and put them on the grill. Within about seven minutes I had perfectly puffed,  flaky, golden homemade pop tarts…complete with ridges to cradle some tangy lemon glaze.

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Sometimes it’s best to keep things simple. You may have seen Mark Bittman’s incredible list of 101 Simple Salads in the New York Times last summer or his 101 Fast Recipes for Grilling just a few weeks ago – in just a sentence or two he sketches out simple suggestions for preparing different types of foods. It got me thinking…out of the hundred or so panini recipes I’ve got under my belt a good number of them are super-simple and would lend themselves to a similarly useful list. So here you go: 27 Simple Panini.

Most of the panini on this list require little preparation and many of them are great for using up your leftovers. For those who would like more detailed guidance I’ve included links to my full write-ups for each sandwich. If you’ve got other simple panini ideas you’d like to share, please do so in the comments!

This just a small sample of the nearly 100 panini recipes to explore on this blog. See the Recipe Index for the full listing of all the panini I’ve grilled.

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#2 - Spicy Grilled Cheese Sliders

1. Simmer shredded leftover (or rotisserie) chicken in barbecue sauce, grill with fresh mozzarella and caramelized onions on Italian bread. Brush chili oil on the outside of the bread for extra flavor. (Pulled BBQ Chicken Panini)

2. Combine shredded pepper jack and mozzarella cheeses. Grill on slices of baguette, with chili oil brushed on the outside. (Spicy Grilled Cheese Sliders)

3. For a kicked up leftover turkey sandwich that doesn’t taste too much like Thanksgiving – turkey, Monterey jack cheese, sliced jalapeños, sliced tomatoes and mayonnaise grilled on sliced sourdough. (Turkey Jalapeño Melt Panini)

4. Try a classic Reuben: corned beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, Thousand Island or Russian dressing, grilled on rye. (Classic Reuben Panini)

5. Combine shredded leftover (or rotisserie) chicken in a bowl with halved grapes, chopped walnuts and mayonnaise. Season with salt and pepper. Grill with shaved Gruyère cheese on dark rye bread. (Chicken-Grape Salad & Gruyere Panini)

6. Simmer 1 1/2 lbs. of sliced boneless-skinless chicken thighs in a bottle of Buffalo wing sauce (the wing sauce, not the hot sauce) for about 15 minutes until cooked through. Combine with caramelized onions and crumbled blue cheese on pita breads (microwave the pitas for a few seconds to make them more malleable), fold over the pita and grill till toasty. (Buffalo Chicken Panini)

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I was so glad to see that so many of us are intrigued by the idea of cheesemaking! There really is nothing like making things on your own from scratch. Before I announce the winner of the 30 Minute Mozzarella & Ricotta Cheesemaking Kit, I wanted to introduce you to a new website that’s dedicated to preserving this and other “old-school domestic arts”.

Punk Domestics, according to the site’s founder, my friend Sean Timberlake (of Hedonia), is “designed to be equal parts content aggregation and community for the growing segment of people (like me) who are obsessed with, er, interested in the old-school domestic arts, like canning, pickling and so forth.” I’m definitely among this segment too and I think this concept is fabulous. Now that I’m learning how to make my own cheese, it’s going to be great to have a resource and community of others who enjoy the same. Plus, maybe I’ll once and for all conquer my fear of canning!

You can submit teasers and links back to content on your own blog (if you have one) or just browse the site and interact with other “punk domestics”. If you like DIY cooking projects, definitely check it out.

And now for the winner of last week’s cheesemaking kit giveaway…

Random.org has selected entrant #41: Victoria

Here’s Victoria’s favorite dish using fresh mozzarella:

“It’s tough to pick just one favorite dish using mozzarella cheese, but perhaps I’ll go with a yummy New York style Margherita pizza! Like the one at Lombardi’s with San Marzano tomatoes and fresh basil fired in their coal oven. Oy!”

Congratulations, Victoria! Happy cheesemaking!

© Panini Happy®, 2010. Panini Happy is a registered trademark of Kathryn Strahs.
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It was just a matter of time before I tried to make my own cheese on this blog. There are few things more satisfying to me than making something from scratch with my own two hands. I guess that’s why I was also drawn to activities like knitting, sewing, painting, carpentry – and, of course, cooking – from an early age. Even if my end result isn’t 100% professional quality (and it rarely is), homemade has that “something special” that always trumps store-bought in my mind.

Domenica Marchetti‘s story about her experiences making fresh mozzarella with her 12-year old daughter on the Washington Post‘s All We Can Eat blog sparked my interest in giving it a try. I ordered the cheesemaking kit she recommended, and I’ve had so much fun with it that I’ve decided to order another to give away to one lucky reader – be sure to read (or just scroll) all the way to the end of this post to enter. [THE CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED]

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You know the classic caprese, right? Ripe red tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and basil – it’s one of my favorite combinations, for a salad or panini. How about a caprese using fresh summer peaches?

The flavor affinities are all there. According to The Flavor Bible (which I often consult in new taste situations such as this – I talked more about this fantastic book last summer), peaches are known to taste great with basil, cream and salt among numerous other things. In my version I kept the basil, which seems to just love so many other summer fruits, like strawberries and watermelon. I used homemade fresh mozzarella, representing the “cream” flavor (and, yes, I’ll soon post about my cheesemaking travails!). Last year’s annual peach panini taught me that peaches love salty pork too, so I included some prosciutto for good measure.

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© Panini Happy®, 2010. Panini Happy is a registered trademark of Kathryn Strahs.
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Sara Rosso ~ Ms. Adventures in Italy

Did you know that panini in Italy aren’t quite the same as they are in the U.S.? That they’re not always grilled? Or that they’re typically very simple, with just two or three ingredients?

I interviewed my friend Sara Rosso, an American expat living in Milan who blogs about food at Ms. Adventures in Italy and recently started the Eye on Italy podcast, for her insights on how Italians do panini.

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More from Panini Happy:

~ Autumn means apple season! Dive right in with Roasted Apples, Brie & Pecan Panini?.

~ Try Grilled Cheddar Panini with Apple Chutney for a robust autumn flavor combination.

~ Ready to buy a panini grill? Check out my advice for features to look for.

~ For all of the nearly 100 panini recipes I've posted on Panini Happy so far, check out the Recipe Index.

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© Panini Happy®, 2010. Panini Happy is a registered trademark of Kathryn Strahs.
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