Making a New Recipe while Pregnant: A Comedy of Errors

So I set out to do a blog post about a recipe that my SIL had given me tonight. Put together the food, take a few pictures, post recipe--easy peasy, lemon squeezy, right? Yeah...not so much when suffering from what I like to call severe pregnancy brain. Also known as, I have a two year old who is covering himself with a red cupcake, I'm trying to remember to take herbs every time I think of them to encourage this baby girl find her way out of my womb, and the aforementioned toddler had no nap whatsoever today, leading to my brain being even more strung out than is my current 'usual.'


So back to the recipe thing. I think the easiest way to present the recipe in conjunction with the humorous, brain-dead approach I took is to give you the directions side-by-side with how I messed each step up.

Here is a link to the recipe I was given by my lovely SIL. I am very thankful to her to introducing me to this wonderfulness known as the "Overnight Sandwich" on Saturday. As I was eating my second piece, I literally thought, I could eat this every single day until the day I die. Pregnancy hormones are serious stuff, people!
http://www.recipetips.com/recipe-cards/u--3623/overnight-sandwich.asp
Ingredients

I accidentally left the pickles out of the picture, my bad.

• 2 loaves Italian bread My SIL clued me in that you only need 1 loaf of bread. I bought two, thinking I would make two sandwiches--one for now, one for later in the week or over the weekend. Unfortunately, this didn't work out since one of my cream cheese packets expired a long time ago--I definitely plan on doing two at once next time, though, assuming my brain can handle it! I used the "Everything Italian" bread from Walmart.
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
• 3/4 cup green onions, sliced ...OR if you are crazy and for some reason imagine that the recipe said 'chives' instead of 'green onions' when you get to the store, no worries--you can still use them! ;)
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 pound ham, thinly sliced I bought one pack of turkey instead (I just prefer it to ham) and only used half the package.
• 1 pound roast beef Note: roast beef typically comes in a package that is less than 1 pound, but I still used half (so I could get two sandwiches out of my ingredients)
• pickles, sliced
• 
  

Directions

Cut bread loaves in half lengthwise. Hollow out top and bottom, leaving 1/2 inch shell. I didn't get too technical with the "1/2 inch shell" thing. Also, I would add, be careful and try not to create a hole on the bottom that you have to cover up with a spare piece of bread later. No reason for that advice... ;)

Note to self: when taking pictures this close to your hand, you look like you have huge arms.

Possibly Helpful Hint: Save the 'guts pieces' of your sandwich to make croutons.
(This is only a 'possibly' helpful hint because I haven't actually attempted to make croutons before.
If all else fails, Ezra and I will take them to the park for the birds--win, win.)

Combine cheeses, onions, mayo and Worcestershire sauce. 

Chop onions (or chives, lol) first (I know, 'duh.')
Feel free to marvel at my very imperfect chopping skills.

I like how ingredients look in a bowl...this weirdness may be pregnancy-related...

After some stirring, mashing, and more stirring...

Spread over cut sides of bread. 

FYI: This mixture smells amazing!
(Oh, and if you've made that little 'hole' that I don't know why I would have mentioned earlier,
now is a good time to make sure it's sealed well. ;) )

Layer meats on both sides of bread. 

This was probably the easiest parts (and one of the only I didn't mess up)!

Place pickles on bottom half. Press halves together. 

OR...get lost in the method of placing pickles perfectly (can you say, "nesting syndrome gone haywire?") until you realize you've covered both sides with pickles. We really like pickles, but this is surely overkill. I had to scrape the pickles off of the bottom piece and back into the jar and then hope for the best when I flipped the bottom half of the sandwich onto the top and then flipped the whole thing. Don't worry, I only dropped one pickle and I shoved it back in. :)

Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

OR realize you have no plastic wrap and use aluminum foil, hoping for the best. I think that if you were going to refrigerate overnight, the plastic wrap would keep it from drying out better, but we ate this one two hours later w/ no problems. P.S. It looked like the world's largest baked potato...

Slice and serve.

...and ENJOY! You can thank me later. For now, you can thank your lucky stars that you can follow a recipe without feeling like your brain turned into Jello. :)

Happy Eating!