Obsessive Rhenna and Her French Dip Fetish

I’ve been on a French Dip kick lately. Not just a drive-by-Arby’s-to-get-one-every-now-and-then thing, but a I’m-gonna-make-one-every-damned-night thing. It’s so bad, I thought about starting this blog as, “Hello, my name is Rhenna, and I’m a compulsive French Dip eater.”

It started over the holidays. A do-over turkey routine didn’t sound all that good after the massive Thanksgiving feast, so we tossed around a few ideas and decided we’d either go the super easy route with fillets and baked potatoes, or go fancy with a nice prime rib.

Now, everyone knows one of the best parts of a home cooked holiday meal are the left overs. (Well, at my house it’s a big deal. Maybe we’re just weird.) In my humble opinion, steaks make for yucky left overs. So, I considered the possibilities with left over prime rib…

…and the French Dip fetish was born.

The leftovers have been gone since December 28^th, but my mania is still in full swing. I’ve even sucked my husband into the swirling vortex of roast beef terror, and got awfully close to luring T.D. Hart to the dark side at our writer’s retreat this weekend.

Here’s what I do:

• Get a bag of those cute little hoagie rolls at the grocery store. I think there are about eight in a bag. (170 calories if you’re interested.)
• Buy a pound of thin sliced roast beef at the deli counter. (I gave up on half pound increments. Gotta have at least a full pound to feed my habit.)
• Snag some Swiss cheese—low fat if you’re feeling guilty.
• Cheat on the au jus by swinging down the spice isle and snatching one of those au jus packets. $99 cents, 3 cups of water, and voila! You’re set.
• Slice that hoagie in half and lay it open-face on a baking sheet.
• Layer up one side with however much roast beef suits you plus the Swiss cheese.
• Slide that bad boy in the oven. Broiling works as I learned in the cabin oven at our writer’s retreat, but at home I use my handy-dandy Breville toaster oven.
• While it’s getting all roasty-toasty, I either:
  • Make the au jus fresh, spoon out what I need for my immediate fix, then store the rest away for later, or,
  • Snatch my back-up broth from the fridge, spoon out what I need, and nuke it for 30 seconds.
  • When one side of the roll is pretty and brown and the other is gooey and warm, I tug out the baking sheet, slap it all together, and slice it at pretty angle.

Then I gorge.

I’m telling you, it’s fantabulous. T.D. took one look at the one I made on our retreat and, I shit you not, she nearly drooled. I gotta give her props. She’s on this clean eating thing (whatever the hell that is) and passed up on my offer to make her one, but I could tell by the gleam in her eye, she almost caved.

Seriously. You should try it. I could use a little company on the dark side. We can huddle around the oven together and chat between bites.

Do you ever have food obsessions? Find a particular treat you just have to have and then gorge yourself until you hate it and swear you’ll never eat another one? If you do, fork over the details. I may need something new to help me kick my newest habit.