I have two exciting updates, and I honestly spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to think through which I would share first. I could easily talk about both for quite a while, but I decided to do my homegrown one first.

As I have teased a few times now, my newest flavor bread has been tested, tried, toasted and tasted, and then tried, toasted and tasted again. It is ready! Cacio e Pepe bread, or cheese and pepper bread is now ready for primetime. It is ready for your grown-up grilled cheeses, your avocado toast (with a runny egg please!), it is ready to be toasted and buttered, or for a twist, drizzled with a bit of honey. It is ready for BLTs and turkey sandwiches. It is basically ready to meet you for, breakfast, second breakfast, elevenses, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner, and supper. Or maybe a few less meals if you aren’t a hobbit. It is so, so good. If you have ever had good cacio e pepe pasta, you understand the symphony that occurs between the simple ingredients of cheese and pepper. It is at once peppery, savory, creamy, and definitely better than the sum of its parts. I regularly make the pasta at home, but after featuring it in the dinner rotation a few too many times and a snarky 14-year-old made a few comments, I decided it needed to take a rest. However, I still craved the flavor, and there you have it. I had to come up with a carb swap so I could get my cacio e pepe fix sans teenage remark. I really can’t urge you enough to give this bread a try. To stir it together is the matter of minutes and since it is based on the no-knead peasant bread, it can be ready in as little as a few hours. Give it a try and let me know what you think! I used it for my last two giveaways, and it may be featured in the upcoming one as well.

Which brings me to my second culinary delight. As promised from our family American History vacation, I have one major culinary milestone to talk about. If the opening picture didn’t already give it away, yes, I am talking about Philly Cheesesteaks. Cheese + Steak. There is no doubt I totally geek out over regional food specialties. I am, at my heart, a food tourist and will desperately research local fare to seek out on any trip, big or small. My husband is either long-suffering on this front or a game co-pilot. Sometimes he is both within the same trip. So when I knew Philly was for sure on our agenda, I know I would have to investigate the cheesesteak. But here is the thing–I was desperately confused by cheese whiz on RIB EYE STEAK. That is the best cut of steak there is in my book. Why, why would it need cheese-product on top? Please don’t get me wrong, I am not a food snob all the time–I will buy processed foods (doritos anyone?) and enjoy them. I even like a high low pairing like brie cheese on a hamburger (see, meat and cheese!). But for the life of me, I couldn’t get my mind mentally around a cheesesteak sandwich.

So I did what I do, and I dove in to research mode. I will not say that I did as much research on Philly cheesesteaks as my husband did on battlefield minutia leading up to our trip, but it did take several sessions with the google to get some definitive detail and history on the famous sandwich. I won’t go into that detail here, because I would really rather talk about where I ended up, not where it all started. And here is the bottom line, cheesesteaks are flipping delicious. Not just okay, but dang it’s a good thing we don’t live in Philly, I would eat them on repeat no matter what snark was thrown at me by a resident teenager delicious. After researching several top lists of cheesesteaks I decided to forgo the original two shops of Pat’s and Geno’s and instead opted for the delight that is Joe’s Steaks and Soda Shop.

Joe’s original shop on Torresdale was a bit north of our hotel, and we hit it on our way into town. We were all hungry after the days drive and a skipped lunch (but heavy soft pretzel snacking in Amish country), and were more than ready to dig in. Joe’s had the bonus of offering shakes too, which is definitely a priority on vacation. Plus, and I will be honest, it seemed like a sit-down to order place from my research and all the stories about getting barked at if you order wrong, or worse sent to the back of the line was a better bet for our family. When we got out of our car the entire neighborhood smelled of grilled onions, and I knew we chose well. The waitress helped us figure out what shakes to order and confirmed that what we were really after was an “American wit,” which means a cheesesteak with American cheese and the “wit” means with onions. In Philly apparently, American is a white cheese, not the kraft single orange that I was expecting. This switch to American cheese matched my research that said cheesewhiz was more of a later invention/addition because it sped up the sandwich making process and while some still strongly stand by it, others shun it. We were in no hurry and wanted the best we could get, so we went with the house recommendation. And here is where things got cooler, Joe himself was legit cooking at the flat top at the front of the shop, and they were totally chill about a California middle-aged mom going all fangirl like a teenager who had just seen Beiber (is that even cool anymore? Taylor Swift? A YouTube Influencer? I can’t even keep up!). Anyway, I came up to the front and watched Joe slap the steak down on the flat top, while his charming assistant grilled onions like it was her job…which I guess it was. And his deft hand grilled and then lightly chopped the steak with the side of the spatula, then he threw down the American cheese on top while the bun was lightly steaming off to the side, then it was a slow slide with a long spatula on the open bun while the onions were placed on top, boom. Four simple ingredients and dinner transcendence. For those still in doubt, let me say this, the cheese coats the meat similar to the work an egg yolk does for other things. It provides savory creaminess to go with the sweet onions and the steak. All held together by a just right roll that holds the yummy mess in but is somehow soft and not hard or chewy.

The story doesn’t end there, because two short days later, on our way to the airport, we made a stop for a cheesesteak as we hit the road. Yes, it was in the opposite direction of the airport, and yes, it was definitely out of our way and may seem silly, but I stand by that very solid decision. Nobody complained and if we are talking family trips, that right there proves that these are something special. There is no doubt I am gonna have to try to tackle perfecting those rolls so we can recreate the whole sandwich at home, so you may not have heard the last of cheesesteaks from me. All the zeal of a convert I tell you!

PS, I have a good little video of Joe grilling and me geeking out on Instagram @living_proofed. Head over there if you aren’t already drooling enough!