I love sauerkraut

I can remember as a child my mom's friend Mary Gerard (who was living with us) eating it straight. she'd put some in a bowl and eat it plain, no bread or anything with it. I used to think "how gross!" because why would any kid like to eat sauerkraut. Even a weird kid like me who hated peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (that's a long story).

Well it is a taste that I grew to love. the crunchy sour-ness.
so I had this jar of it in my fridge:

and friday I was at my local HEB grocery store, puttering around the bakery (they have a pretty decent bakery) and saw this lovely 1/2 loaf of marbled rye bread, which i can hardly ever find around here. I'd consider making it myself, but you know how I feel about baking...

Anyway I was inspired. Grabbed the package (it was the last one) and headed over to the deli, which (THANK GOD!) sells wonderful boar's head meats and cheeses. got my self some oven roasted turkey (thinly sliced) and some baby swiss (thinly sliced as well) got the few other things i needed and headed to the checkout line.

I had the intention of making myself a turkey ruben sandwich. (I am not a big fan of the corned beef variety) So this afternoon I assemble my ingredients to make the sandwich, only to realize that I indeed have no dressing for the sandwich. and am missing a few key ingredients to make it from scratch. In no mood to travel back to the supermarket I decide to do without.

anyway, here is the finished product:

And here is the recipe (if you could call it that)

2 slices of Jewish rye bread (marbled if you can find it)

some butter

little mayo or if you have 1000 island/Russian dressing use instead

thinly sliced roasted turkey breast (don't use honey baked, hickory smoked or any other funky flavors) I used the Boar's head Ovengold roasted turkey

2 slices of baby swiss (I used Boar's head here too)

handful of sauerkraut, give it a good squeeze over the sink.

butter one side of the bread, and lay that side down on a hot griddle. on the side facing up put your mayo, or dressing. then assembe the rest of the ingredients, swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and then turkey. take your other piece of bread and spread some dressing and butter on the sides & put the bread butter side up on the sandwich. let it cook for a couple minutes then flip it over, i give it a little press here, when you see the cheese start to melt around the sides and the bread is golden and a little crunchy it's done!

Enjoy!