What's for Dinner, Neighbor?

I've been wanting to blog about my dinner arrangement with my awesome neighbor, Candace. As I began making dinner tonight, I thought this sounded like a good night to share with you what we were having for dinner. I think it's been around 3 years since Candace asked me if I would want to share meals with each other once a week. We had already had meals together a few times and knew that we liked how each other cooked. And I don't care what you say, it matters if you like the food your neighbor makes you.

So ever since then, I double my family's meal once a week, and she does the same thing for me. Lately my night is Monday and her night to make me a meal is Wednesday. This works great for me, since we have gymnastics on Wednesdays and I don't get home until 5. So I come home at 5 with my kids and have a delicious hot meal waiting for me!

We both know some of each other's families' favorite meals. This is one of all of our favorite meals. Grinder sandwich with homemade fries. I buy a loaf of french bread (one for each family) and slice it down the middle. I top it with whatever lunch meat I feel like - tonight it was turkey pastrami and black forest ham. Next comes bell peppers sliced and then tomatoes. On top of the tomatoes I spread a mixture of olive oil, vinegar, basil, oregano, and thyme. After that I put whatever cheese I want, my favorite is pepper jack. Tonight I had cheddar. That whole bit goes in the oven under "broil" (without the top piece of bread) until everything looks hot and the cheese is melted - just 5-7 minutes.

Here's my homemade fries. Simply slice the potatoes, drizzle some oil on them, season with seasoned salt and pepper, and place them on a sprayed baking sheet and cook for about 40 minutes under 425 degrees.

Oh, and tonight I made some homemade guacamole and topped the hot sandwich with it before I put the top of the bread on.

And here's my plate! Yum! I wonder what Candace is making for me on Wednesday???

Here's Allie. She wanted me to take a picture of her, too. And yes, she wore her helmet for the whole dinner...