Panini is the plural form of panino which means small bread roll or sandwich in Italian.  It is a hot sandwich made from a panini grill.  When you put the sandwich in the grill and press down, you cook the sandwich twice as fast and make attractive grill marks on both sides.

Best panini sandwich recipes use ingredients that can definitely be appetizing to everyone.  There are cheeses, sliced meats, veggies and perhaps even fresh fruits.  For parties, you can set aside variety of meats, cheeses, green veggies together with choice of breads.  You can have thick slices of Italian or French breads, ciabatta style or rolls.  Generally, there are no condiments on the best panini sandwich recipes.  Instead, you can use a pastry brush to coat the bread with a high quality olive oil.  Let your friends do the preparation of their own sandwiches according to their preferred tastes.

When your guests have been busy placing together their sandwiches, start heating the panini grill.  Once it is heated, call your guests over and ask them to put their sandwiches inside.  The heating time will depend on the size of the bread or rolls; usually it’s about 3-6 minutes.

At parties like these, the fun part is the preparation and eating time.  Do not thing about everyone sitting down to eat at the same time.  Get your drinks and let everyone enjoy their sandwiches that they’ve prepared.  They may even want seconds because they’re having so much fun.  The best panini sandwich recipes will save you from worrying about the menu for your party.  Just have a recipe book or several loose recipes available for your guests to choose.  Better yet, allow them to use their imaginations and get creative.

Panini can also be dessert sandwiches.  They have recipes that will surely make you crave for more.  You can purchase a panini recipe book or browse through web sites that have best panini sandwich recipes, they are very easy to make.  You can get ideas from there and start to experiment on your own.  This can be helpful in suggesting new variety to your guests when making their panini later on.

Panini grills are not limited to heating panini sandwiches.  You can even use it to grill veggies, hamburgers and steaks.  Try getting some of your favorite green veggies and place them on the grill with a little olive oil.  Grill them for a few minutes and there you have it, nice grilled veggies that you will surely love.
So when you plan to invite your family over for dinner, gather them to make their own panini sandwiches.  Everyone will surely have a great time with it.  It’s a great alternative to a formal dinner party or a fondue party!

Panini Party, Healthy Panini, easy panini recipes, panini sandwich, meals for kids

Sabrina Rocca
Author: Easy Panini Recipes
Visit http://www.easypaninirecipes.com for free gifts and recipes.  For more great panini recipes and tips, visit http://www.easypaninirecipes.com.  Easy Panini Recipes contains over 50 easy to follow, step-by-step panini recipes that will make anyone look like a gourmet chef!Best Panini Recipes:  Great for your Parties

The next time you have people over for dinner; try turning the food preparation into the party.   Panini parties are one great way to let your guests be involved in making their own food.

Panini is the plural form of panino which means small bread roll or sandwich in Italian.  It is a hot sandwich made from a panini grill.  When you put the sandwich in the grill and press down, you cook the sandwich twice as fast and make attractive grill marks on both sides.

Best panini sandwich recipes use ingredients that can definitely be appetizing to everyone.  There are cheeses, sliced meats, veggies and perhaps even fresh fruits.  For parties, you can set aside variety of meats, cheeses, green veggies together with choice of breads.  You can have thick slices of Italian or French breads, ciabatta style or rolls.  Generally, there are no condiments on the best panini sandwich recipes.  Instead, you can use a pastry brush to coat the bread with a high quality olive oil.  Let your friends do the preparation of their own sandwiches according to their preferred tastes.

When your guests have been busy placing together their sandwiches, start heating the panini grill.  Once it is heated, call your guests over and ask them to put their sandwiches inside.  The heating time will depend on the size of the bread or rolls; usually it’s about 3-6 minutes.

At parties like these, the fun part is the preparation and eating time.  Do not thing about everyone sitting down to eat at the same time.  Get your drinks and let everyone enjoy their sandwiches that they’ve prepared.  They may even want seconds because they’re having so much fun.  The best panini sandwich recipes will save you from worrying about the menu for your party.  Just have a recipe book or several loose recipes available for your guests to choose.  Better yet, allow them to use their imaginations and get creative.

Panini can also be dessert sandwiches.  They have recipes that will surely make you crave for more.  You can purchase a panini recipe book or browse through web sites that have best panini sandwich recipes, they are very easy to make.  You can get ideas from there and start to experiment on your own.  This can be helpful in suggesting new variety to your guests when making their panini later on.

Panini grills are not limited to heating panini sandwiches.  You can even use it to grill veggies, hamburgers and steaks.  Try getting some of your favorite green veggies and place them on the grill with a little olive oil.  Grill them for a few minutes and there you have it, nice grilled veggies that you will surely love.
So when you plan to invite your family over for dinner, gather them to make their own panini sandwiches.  Everyone will surely have a great time with it.  It’s a great alternative to a formal dinner party or a fondue party!

Whether you decide to use a charcoal or gas grill, having the right accessories on hand makes for easy and safe grilling-and even easier cleanup. A wide spatula, extra-long tongs, a long-handled brush and a spray bottle with water are the benchmark of a great griller’s tool kit.

Direct-heat grilling is best for thin cuts of meat that cook quickly. It gets them nicely browned on the outside in the short time they take to get done in the middle. Below is a great recipe for using the direct-heat grilling technique…

How to Make: Flank Steak with Green Olive-Jalapeño Tapenade

About this Dish: A Mediterranean-inspired tapenade is a flavorful addition to this tender flank steak. This is the perfect dish for a great Tailgate party.

Prep time: Aproximately 20 minutes

Grill time: 13 to 17 minutes, plus 5 minutes to rest off the grill

Makes: 4 servings

The Ingredients:

1 jar (4.5 oz.) Stuffed Jalapeño Olives, drained

2 garlic cloves, peeled

1 cup coarsely chopped Italian parsley

2 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves

1 tablespoon grated lemon peel

1/4 cup Olive Oil

1 Flank Steak (about 11/2 lb.)

How to Cook it:

1. Prepare barbecue grill and preheat for direct-heat cooking. For charcoal grill, before you put the grill over the hot coals, brush it with a medium coat of oil; for gas grill, when hot, brush grill with a medium coat of oil.

2. Rinse olives and drain well. Combine olives, garlic, parsley, rosemary, lemon peel and oil in a food processor and pulse until mixture forms a fine paste. Set aside 1/2 cup of the tapenade mixture for seasoning meat; reserve remainder for serving or another use.

3. Rinse flank steak and pat dry. With the tip of a sharp knife, make shallow diagonal cuts about 1 inch apart over one side of steak, then make cuts perpendicular to the first to create a diamond pattern. Repeat on other side of steak.

4. Spread 1/2 cup of the olive mixture on both sides of steak to coat evenly.

5. Lay steak on oiled grill over a solid bed of hot coals or high heat on a gas grill. Keep charcoal grill uncovered; close lid on gas grill. Cook steak until browned on the bottom (lift edge with tongs to check), 8 to 10 minutes. With tongs or a wide spatula, turn steak and continue to cook until done as desired, about 2 minutes longer for rare (red in center; cut to test) or 4 minutes longer for medium-rare (pink in center).

6. Transfer steak to a clean platter or rimmed carving board and let rest about 5 minutes, then cut in thin, slanting slices across the grain to serve. Offer remaining tapenade to add to the meat to taste.

Recommended Tools: Grater (for peel), strainer or colander, measuring cups and spoons, food processor, paper towels, sharp knife, spatula for spreading, heatproof brush for oiling grill, tongs or wide spatula, platter or rimmed carving board.

For more Great Tailgating recipes check out…

Stadium Seating Chart

This basic method to making a beefburger that is juicy and succulent but that doesn’t fall apart on the barbeque or under the grill is this: place the lean beef steak mince in a large mixing bowl and season well with salt and pepper, add any other ingredients (making sure that the ingredients which need chopping have been chopped before adding them as there is no blending in this method) and mix and knead the whole lot thoroughly with your hands before adding a raw egg and mixing again. The beauty of making beefburgers is that they are so quick and easy to prepare but can be the star of any barbeque with very little effort. A top tip is to break off a little piece of the mixture, roll it into a ball and press flat, place this in a pre-heating frying pan or griddle and cook for a couple of minutes on each side, once cooked, you can taste this and see if the overall mixture needs more seasoning.

Try mixing up the ingredients you use and add more of everything than you initially think as a lot of flavour can be lost during the cooking process. Bold flavours such as chilli, ginger, coriander and cumin hold up very well whereas peppers and tomatoes tend to get a bit lost as their water content is very high. If you’re going to include potentially chunky ingredients such as red onion or bell pepper make sure you chop them quite small or they can cause the meat to break up and fall apart when cooking.

Other great ingredients to try out are chunks of a cheese that holds up well under heat, the most obvious of these is Haloumi, which has a mild but distinctive salty flavour that works well with any red meat. If you’re not confident in mixing this in with the beefburgers themselves, slice and barbeque separately until charred and then serve on the top in a delicious bread roll. If you do want to mix them in, cut into cm² cubes and make sure they’re not sticking out when you shape the mixture into patties.

The final tip to making delicious beefburgers fit for the barbeque connoisseur is to make the patties at least two centimetres larger in diameter than you wish them to end up when cooked as the moisture content in the beef mince will cause the beefburger to shrink when cooking. Adding a little bit of plain flour to the meat mixture can help to counteract this too. It’s not just beefburgers that are easy to make and which will impress the guests, why not try something a bit different and throw a tuna steak on the barbeque? There are some seriously simple tuna steak recipes available so you don’t have to be a professional to offer your guests something a little bit different.

Go online for some delicious recipes for beefburgers and wow your friends at the next barbeque and if you want to go a step further, why not attempt some tuna steak recipes and bring a touch of class to the British summer!

You might not know how to select the best tasting tuna steaks that are available at your local super market. To start off you should make sure that the tuna steaks that you buy are dolphin friendly and are not frozen. If you purchase the non frozen ethical tuna steak then you can be certain that it will have the best flavour after you cook it. Marinated tuna steak recipes are the best recipe option since the marinade will be soaked in the steak which will make it taste better as well. Here is a great tasting tuna steak marinade recipe that you and your guests would enjoy eating.

The first thing that you will need is a glass baking dish. Put your tuna steaks inside the dish after you have rinsed them off and add salt and pepper to them. Rub the salt and pepper on the steaks before you pour the marinade over them. After you have done that, next you will need to pour the marinade of your selection over the tuna steaks and make sure that they are thickly coated. Use a cling film to cover the dish and put into the refrigerator so that it can marinate overnight. Make sure you don’t leave it in there any longer than one night because tuna needs to be consumed within 24 hours of putting it inside the refrigerator. If you don’t have any great ideas on what kind of marinade you would like to use, then here are a few suggestions that you might want to try:

• Chili Marinade • Lemon • Sun Dried Tomato dressing • Ginger

There are other options that you can choose as well; you can pretty much experiment on your own and add any marinade that you think might taste great on your tuna steaks.

When you are ready to cook then, take the tuna steaks out of the fridge and drain the excessive marinade. Cook them on the stove on medium heat for about three minutes per side in a griddle pan. Check to make sure they are cooked as you like them and then serve the steaks to your guests and family with a nice side salad of some steamed green beans.

Check out the great tuna steak recipes that are available online and while you’re there, why not see if there are any recipes for beef burgers that take your fancy?

For increased flavor and a very soft steak, there is one thing you could use for red meat in general. Before actually cooking steaks, leave the cuts in a vessel where you’ve prepared a mixture of red wine, water and a little oil. High quality apple vinegar could successfully replace wine, and seasonings are an absolute must: pepper, garlic and basil will give a subtle aroma to the mixture. Afterwards, keep the meat in this mixture for at least two hours before cooking steaks.

Another great recipe for cooking steaks uses a special marinade to prepare beef for grill. This time you will need some marinated artichokes heats, Dijon mustard and basil. Use the marinade resulted from draining the artichokes hearts, mix it with the Dijon mustard and the seasonings and add the the beef. This time, the marination period is a bit longer going from six to even eight hours. Therefore, it is much easier to prepare the combination and leave the meat overnight to tenderize and get a great flavor.

A good tip for cooking steaks is to make small stabs in the meat before seasoning; the spices will get inside these channels created in the fiber and when the internal juices get to the surface the taste will be truly delicious. Depending on the way you choose to prepare the steaks there are several ways of making sure that it is tender enough; for instance you can rely on steam effects for instance, making sure that the dish you want to serve is not rare.

When cooking steaks for friends or relatives, it is good to know what their preference are, since most people don’t like too well-done steak. In order not to overcook, you could use a very quick fire and keep an eye on the watch to make sure you the grilling or broiling period is not too extended. Furthermore, the thickness of the meat also influences the cooking speed enabling to make great rarer steaks in a shorter period of time. Bon appetit!

1. You can make your own peanut butter or any other nut butter that you like in your processor. Cashews make wonderful nut butter too.

2. Speaking of peanut butter, peanut butter cookies are the easiest recipe in the world: 1 cup sugar, 1 egg, 1 cup peanut butter, and a teaspoon of vanilla if desired.
For more details go to: www.cooking-groundbeef.com Toss them into your processor; give it a whirl for a few seconds until well mixed. Scoop out a tablespoon of dough and scrap it on the side of the bowl to even the spoon, drop onto a cookie sheet and smash it down with a fork to make the cross hatch design. Bake at 350 degrees for 7 to 9 minutes and you have fabulous, gluten free peanut butter cookies.

3. Make steak sandwiches by chilling, but not freezing, leftover steak in the freezer until firm but not frozen. Slice with your processor and then add to a skillet in which you have been sautéing bell peppers and onions. Put it all on a sandwich bun, top with jack cheese, and enjoy. I know, who has leftover steak? Plan for this and throw an extra steak or two on the grill next time.

4. Specialty butters are definitely a favorite of mine. In fact, I get ideas from many restaurants, constantly seeking new flavors to spread across bread. Armed with my food processor, making specialty butter has never been so easy. My favorite is basil-garlic butter. By processing a stick of butter with a couple cloves of garlic, I can then add some crushed basil leaves and let it sit in the fridge for a week or so in an air-tight container. Then, it’s French bread and wine for dinner. Sometimes I even use it on grilled cheese with mozzarella, sliced tomatoes, and bacon. So delicious!

5. For fresh lemon sherbet, mix equal amounts sugar, milk, and half-and-half with freshly grated lemon rind and some lemon juice.
For help visit: www.cat-head-biscuit.com then pours into a pan and freezes it, covering it for at least two hours. After frozen, use your food processor to blend it until smooth. Four hours in the freezer later, you have a wonderful dessert to go with anything you can cook up!

6. Another great idea is to take blackberries and sugar, blending them with your food processor until they’re smooth. Then, pour the mixture through a strainer into a pan and stir in some buttermilk. When frozen, break into chucks and beat with an electric mixer until smooth again, and then pour it back into a pan and cover it until firm. This is a great way to make a cold, berry concoction that the whole family will love, especially on hot summer days. And you can substitute blueberries or raspberries as well.

On the other hand, if you want the meat well done, then thinner steak cuts are used and the time of cooking is increased, until the meat feels firm when pressed with the back of the fork. Since red beef and pork raise the issue of tenderizing, it goes without saying that some special steak cuts are required for the matter. There are special cuts like the T-bone that includes a loin section which is a lot tenderer than any other. Considered high quality specialties, this kind of steak will be a lot more expensive whether you serve it at the restaurant or prepare it at home.

Besides T-bone steak cuts, one other super piece of meat is the tenderloin or the beef filet mignon. How can one recognize such quality beef by a mere look? Well, the fiber has a very delicate appearance, with fine marble textures in the structure. This is the type of beef that makes the best choice for preparing Porterhouse steak. Club and ribs are other possible steak cuts praised for making truly delicious meals. For instance, rib steaks are a little fatter than the clubs and a bit different in texture and taste due to the flavor coming from the rib section.

The sirloin steak cuts are the largest you can find on the market, serving well for parties and large family dinners. There is a small amount of wedge bone also included in it, but that only adds flavor to the steak; generally the sirloin is available in various shapes also depending on the bone size. Such steak cuts are usually available with a thickness between one and three inches depending on how well you want to cook it. A good suggestion for preparing the thinner cuts is pan broiling with spices and garlic sauce, but there are other great recipes that also work very well.

PORK BURGERS WITH PEPPERS AND MUSHROOMS

1 small red bell pepper
1 small green bell pepper
1 banana or jalapeno* pepper, seeded and chopped
1 lb ground pork (do not use sausage)
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
8-oz fresh sliced mushrooms
4 flat breads
1/2 cup mayonnaise

Slice half the peppers into rings and set aside. Chop the remaining peppers into small pieces.

In a bowl, combine the chopped peppers, pork, 2 teaspoons of the Worcestershire sauce, and 2 teaspoons fresh ground pepper. Shape mixture into 4 equal patties.

In a large hot skillet that has been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, cook the patties over medium high heat for about 12 minutes, turning once. (Internal temperature should reach 160 degrees.) Transfer to a plate and cover.

In the same skillet you cooked the patties in, cook the pepper rings and mushrooms for 3 minutes. Lightly sprinkle with salt or garlic powder, if desired.

Wrap breads in paper towels and cook in the microwave on high for about 30 seconds. For the sauce, combine the mayonnaise, the remaining one teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce, and some black pepper, if desired. Place the burgers on the breads and top with the pepper mushroom mixture. Pass the sauce for each individual to add the amount they prefer.

Enjoy!

PIZZA BURGERS

1 lb lean ground beef

1 large onion, diced

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp celery salt

1/2 tsp basil

1/8 tps pepper

8 oz can tomato sauce OR pizza sauce

1 cup diced mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook ground beef and onion over medium high heat until meat is browned.  Drain meat mixture, rinse with hot water and allow to drain well.  Add spices and mix in thoroughly.  Add sauce and cheese.  Put into 12 whole-wheat hamber buns and wrap individually in foil.  Bake at 350 degrees for 18 minutes. 

Note:  These burgers can be frozen and reheated individually as needed.

EASY STROMBOLI SANDWICHES

1 lb ground beef

1 lb bulk sausage

6 oz tomato sauce

1 cup chopped onion

4 tbsp chopped green bell pepper

3/4 tsp salt, optional

2/3 cup water

1/4 tsp oregano

4 tbsp Parmesan cheese

Shredded mozzarella cheese

French bread or French rolls

Brown meats until all red disappears and drain well.  Wipe pan with a paper towel to remove excess grease.  Return meats to pan and add tomato sauce, vegetables, salt and water.  Cook 10 minutes.  Remove from heat and add oregano and Parmesan cheese.  Scoop the center out of the bread so it will hold meat filling.  (You can put in a zip-lock type bag and save for another use.)  Add the fillling to the bread and top with the mozzarella cheese.  Wrap sandwiches in aluminum foil.  Bake at 400 degrees for a few minutes until bread is warmed and cheese is melted.

Enjoy!