Rye ask Rye?

Just eat it! And so we did. We ate it. We ate it so fast that I forgot to take pictures of it. I made my first loaf of rye bread today in my bread machine. It was a simple loaf. No over night starters, no specialized ingredients. If for no other reason than I didn't have them or couldn't get them and didn't feel like trying to make the starter. I'm in favor of convenience, but with flavor. Huh. The flavor of convenience! Sounds good to me.

Anyway. I made Reuben sandwiches with 'da works' - sauerkraut, swiss cheese, provolone, Boar's Head corned beef (the best we can get around here), Ken's Steak House Russian dressing (which seemed more like Thousand Island if you ask me). As a child I hated Reubens, mainly because of the Rye bread. It smelled awful to me, and I have discerned that the caraway seeds were the main culprit. My young, under developed palate had not come to appreciate the complexities of such intense spice combinations. And what's even more sad, is that I thought I was relegated to the taste bud penalty box when it came to anything put on rye. In fact, just a few weeks ago, I saw a sandwich that looked like it would be great and I was optimistic, until much to my chagrin I saw the words "served on rye bread". "Ptoo!", said my tongue to my brain. Le sigh.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. The fam wanted something tasty for dinner that we hadn't had in a while, but could never find anything good enough in this town to bother going out for, (or worth ponying up $40+ smackeroos). So I suggested we snag some bread from the local Panera Bread in town, everyone pick their fave and I'd make sandwiches. Once someone mentioned Reubens, everyone but me was in favor. But I agreed to make it for them anyway, and came up with something else for myself. Long story short, I was hungry, I was cooking, the sandwich..it was melty and crunchy and GBD, it was there, I was there, it didn't smell too bad, and so as lips met sandwich I became a Reuben and rye convert, ever more.

I'm sure we'll be having it again tomorrow; but I'll need to make a new loaf, as this one was small and went byebye in no time. If I can manage, I'll snap a few shots to attach to the blog for your viewing pleasure. If not, you'll just have to dream about it. ;P