The Sandwich Generation - A Rant, a Classic Cuban Sandwich Recipe, and a Giveaway

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The term, "sandwich generation" is used to describe those adults who are caring for aging parents while still actively parenting their kids. 

While I'm grateful that my sisters and I share the load of caring for my 97 year old mom, Luza, I still feel the push-pull of having teenagers in the house and helping my mom with her needs. 

Jonathan is a sophomore in high school and even though I'm not his primary teacher, I'm still overseeing much of his schoolwork and am still very present in his life. He does not yet drive and so I'm also schlepping him around from event to event. But I still get phone calls from my mom when she needs bananas or bread or because her prescription ran out. 

And so I feel squished at times between his needs and her wants and sometimes there doesn't seem to be enough hours in my day. 

I'm ashamed to admit that I sometimes feel sorry for myself. What about me? I wonder. What about what I want? I don't say it out loud, of course, but I sure think it enough. (I'll deny it if you tell anybody, but that's not important right now.)

I guess if my life is to be defined by being sandwiched between two generations, I'm grateful it's a Cuban Sandwich. ;-)

Luza, me, & jon

Speaking of Cuban Sandwiches, you know there are rules to what you put in a Classic Cuban, right?

Ingredients for Cuban sandwich

 Classic Cuban Sandwich Recipe

  • Long loaf of bread (preferably Cuban, but French will do.)
  • Softened butter (to spread on the outside of the bread)
  • Yellow mustard
  • Swiss cheese
  • Dill pickles (Clausen Bread and Butter Sandwich Pickles make all the difference here)
  • Roast Pork
  • Sliced Ham

1) Coat the bread lightly with mustard.
2) Make the sandwich with the ingredients in this order: Swiss cheese, pickles, roast pork, and sliced ham.
3) Butter the bread on the outside.
4) Grill. A sandwich press is ideal for this.

The goal is to get the sandwich nice and toasty and melt the cheese.

Serve hot, with an ice cold Materva and some authentic Cuban plantain chips.

Cuban sandwich with materva

Follow with a sweet, hot cafesito (with KILLER Espuma®, of course).

Like so.....

Of course, to make the perfect Cuban sandwich, you definitely need a Cuban sandwich maker.  I'd like to thank the kind folks at IMUSA USA who are generously sponsoring today's giveaway:

A beautiful sandwich maker (A Plancha!) and a Cuban coffee maker. Soo classically Cuban, right?

IMUSA sandwich maker

To enter the drawing for a chance to win both the sandwich maker and the coffee maker, please leave a comment on this post and answer one or both of the following questions:

  • Are you part of the Sandwich Generation? Tell me.
  • What goes into a Classic Cuban Sandwich?
  • What's your favorite sandwich?

I'll do a random drawing on Sunday, October 30th at 5 pm Pacific Time.