Coconut & Lime is firing up the panini press for a series of recipes this week, and taking some beautiful pictures along the way.  Rachel Rappaport’s mouthwatering recipes are making us hungry for crispy pressed sandwiches like Sesame-Ginger Pork and Prosciutto di Parma with Capicola.  We will be checking back throughout the week to see the tasty combinations that Coconut & Lime is sure to put between grilled bread.

We caught up with Coconut & Lime’s creator Rachel Rappaport:

Unbreaded: Can you give us a little background about C&L?
Rachel Rappaport: I started Coconut & Lime back in 2004 as a place to share my recipes with friends. It slowly grew until the point where I now do it full time. I really enjoy creating my own recipes for food and sharing them with my readers. It is a lot of work but worth it when I see how well my recipes are received by people who make them in their own kitchens!

UB: You’ve made a lot of sandwiches.  Can you give us some lessons learned?
RR: While I enjoy buying fancy meats and cheeses to make my own gourmet sandwiches, I really love making sandwiches out of leftovers from other meals. It makes the idea of eating leftovers much more palatable; it is almost as if you weren’t eating leftovers at all.

UB: If you could eat any sandwich in the world right now, what would it be, and from where?
RR: Luckily my favorite sandwich is easily obtained at our local Italian deli. It is called the Old World Italian and has great Italian meats and cheese and an olive spread that is truly divine.

UB: What’s your favorite sandwich to throw together in the middle of the night?
RR: Grilled cheese! Made with sharp Cabot cheddar and occasionally some Canadian bacon or tomato.

Via [Coconut & Lime]

Over at Coconut & Lime, recipe blogger extraordinaire Rachel Rappaport has great step by step directions for making Homemade Corned Beef. The instructions call for brining a beef brisket; a process which entails marinating the meat in sodium nitrite and spices for 12 days to make it melt in your mouth tender. Rachel does admit that at times she questioned her sanity but all in all the process was quite easy and produced delicious results.

Now with this easy and detailed recipe, we feel confident enough to start pumping out some homemade corned beef sandwiches from the Unbreaded test kitchen.

[Via: Coconut & Lime]