best ever tuna melt.

boy do i love a good tuna melt.

i remember the first time i had tuna melts with my neighbor growing up (hi katy!)…except i thought she called them “tuna boats.” maybe she did. i thought they were called tuna boats for a long time. her family would make them open-face on bagels with tuna and cheddar.

i think this might have been some of my first experiences using a big oven, besides chocolate chip cookies. i think we attempted making tuna melts in the microwave and we quickly learned that that was disgusting.

we’d make a lot of other microwaved delicacies like tortillas with refried beans and cheese, marshmallows on graham crackers, hot pockets…all the classics. then we’d do weird stuff like set the microwave for 30 seconds and see how many times we could run around the living room and back down the hall to the kitchen before it beeped. this is what pre-internet 90’s kids did for fun!

i’m sure once our tuna boats made it safely out of the oven, we’d plop down to watch full house or one of the other greats of our childhood. gooooooood times.

my grown up tuna melt is so very delicious.

adding the right mixture of ingredients to the tuna is key. plain tuna with mayo is fine, but i highly encourage you to make your tuna with mayo, black pepper and a pinch of salt, pepperoncini juice and sliced green onions.

i don’t know how to spell pepperoncini and i don’t think the internet does either. it either has 1 P or 2 P’s and an N in the middle or no N, and nobody seems to know what’s right. the jar says “peperoncini.” anyhoo…

the green onion and pepperoncini juice and black pepper really do it for me on a tuna melt.

if i’m making plain tuna sandwiches, peter likes chopped up dill pickles and a splash of pickle juice, but on a tuna melt i personally just want the flavor of the green onion instead. and the pepperoncini juice gives it that acidic kick. pete and i have strong, strong opinions against sweet pickles in tuna sandwiches and/or fried chicken sandwiches orrrr anywhere, lol. we’ve come across so many restaurants that use sweet pickles in these items and we are plum confused by it. dill pickles or nothing! in this case, pepperoncini juice.

pepperoncinis remind me of quizno’s. another throwback delicacy of my late youth. it’s not so great anymore, but in the early 2000’s quizno’s was the jam. that honey bacon clubbbbbb of 2001…mmmmm. “they got a peppa barrrrrr!”

this particular size of tuna melt could be cut in two and shared - buuut if you’re really really hungry you could eat the whole thing :)

it’s my favorite combo of all the things and it’s tuna melt perfection in my eyes. i hope you try it!

Best Ever Tuna Melt

Serves 1-2, Easily Multiplied

Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

  • (1) 7-ounce can tuna fish, drained well (I use Albacore in water)

  • 2 TB mayonnaise

  • 1/2 tsp. black pepper

  • big pinch of salt

  • 1-2 TB pepperoncini juice, or dill pickle juice

  • 3 green onion shoots

  • 2-3 slices sharp cheddar cheese

  • 1/2 a large avocado

  • handful of fresh arugula

  • (1) 1” thick slice of good sourdough bread

Instructions-

Slice the sourdough bread and toast it in a pan on medium heat with a tablespoon of olive oil until golden. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F, or use the broiler.

Drain the tuna fish in the can and add the tuna to a bowl with the mayonnaise, salt & pepper, green onions and pepperoncini or dill pickle juice. Mash everything with a fork until well combined. If too dry, add extra pepperoncini juice or mayo.

With the grilled bread on a baking sheet, top it with the tuna mixture. Place the slices of sharp cheddar cheese on top. Place the baking sheet in the oven or broiler for about 3-5 minutes, until the cheese is super melty.

Remove from oven and top with sliced avocado, extra chopped green onion, and fresh arugula.

Enjoy immediately!

qp

mallow cookie creme pies.

meee want cooookieeee.

hey there, cute stack of cookie sammiches! you are (/were) mighty delightful.

so i had a buttload of extra marshmallow fluff leftover from when i made these s'mores donuts. what else to do with leftover mallow fluff but make MALLOW COOKIE CREME PIES.

oatmeal chocolate chip (my absolute favorite favorite) and fluffernutter aka peanut butter + marshmallow!

here's a dramatic pic of butter softening in the sunshine: 

(a great method for softening cold butter! we don't have a microwave anymore - which i love. i don't miss that thing at all. but anyhoo, the sun-softened butter method works well. if the sun is shining. if not, i carefully soften it over the gas stove, or the ol' classic method of simply getting it out a couple hours early and just letting it sit.

having a bright school bus yellow kitchen is no bueno for taking photos of food. especially in the late summer afternoon like this day that i shot these cookie sammiches. ^^^ eeek.

yellow kitchen! you're cute and happy. but sometimes make pictures look displeasing.

it's a love/dislike relationship with these yellow walls.

the oatmeal chocolate chippers are just to die for. i enjoy the fluffernutter ones a lot too, but c'manng. i could eat homemade chocolate chip cookies every day for the rest of my life.

its the texture that gets me! you can easily share one of these creme pies, by the way...they are richhh. i just love the soft, buttery, chewy cookies with a creamy marshmallowy fluffy filling. the oats and choco chips take the crunch factor to the next level. let these chill in the fridge or freezer, and jaheeeez you've got quite the magical treat.

alternatively, plop a scoop of your favorite ice cream between two of these cookies and freeze it. oh wow. 

Marshmallow Cookie Creme Pies

Makes 12 creme pies - 6 Oatmeal Chocolate Chip & 6 Peanut Butter/Fluffernutter

Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

Cookies

  • 1 cup softened butter
  • 1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
    • {DIVIDE INTO TWO BOWLS after combining all these ingredients above!}
  • 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 3/4 cup oats

Marshmallow Fluff Frosting (recipe makes a LOT o' mallow - store in airtight container in the fridge) - follow mallow fluff instructions from my S'mores Donuts recipe here

  • 3 egg whites
  • 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
  • 3/4 cup light corn syrup
  • 2/3 cup white sugar
  • 1/3 cup water
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • pinch of salt

Instructions-

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a stand mixer (with paddle attachment) or large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs & vanilla and mix until combined. Add baking powder & soda, salt, and slowly add flour, mixing in between additions to avoid a big ol' flour cloud. 

At this point, move half of the dough into a separate bowl. In one bowl, add the 1/2 cup peanut butter and mix until well incorporated. In the other bowl of dough, add the oats and chocolate chips and mix until combined.

Spray two cookie sheets with cooking spray or lightly grease them. Spoon out golfball sized amounts of dough evenly spaced on the cookie sheets. 

Bake the peanut butter cookies first (they need more time to cool and firm up - mine were super duper soft and crumbly when they came out of the oven) for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to fully cool.

Bake the chocolate chip cookies for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Spread a small dollop of cool marshmallow fluff onto one cookie and sandwich the other cookie on top. Wrap each creme pie cookie sandwich in tin foil and store in an airtight freezer bag in the fridge or freezer. Store for up to 2 weeks.

enjoy!!!!!!!!!!

i sure did.

 

qp