Preparing for Fat Tuesday

I've mentioned before that I am no Pioneer Woman.  Ree has is all going on.  She blows Martha Stewart out of the water.  (check her out at www.thepioneerwoman.com) Anyway, she comes up with these incredible recipes and illustrates the making of them with beautiful photographs.

This is my VERY feeble attempt at the same, including someone else's recipe for a muffuletta sandwich, and my lackluster photos.

Being a New Orleans traditional dish, said muffuletta sandwich is for Fat Tuesday.  But wait.  This is Sunday.  Ahhh...  The dressing for the sandwich has to be made one or two days ahead of time.  This encourages the ingredients to mingle...  to say, "Hey.  How you doin?"  Then sure enough, 24 to 48 hours later, they give birth to a lovely burst of flavor.

That being said, this is what you start with, sans the kalamata olives that I forgot to purchase.  I am anxiously awaiting Hannah with said olives, so I can introduce them to the group.

I also have a couple new gadgets that I have share.  If you like garlic the way I like garlic, these are pretty cool.

The garlic cloves are rolled around in the round tubey looking thing.  It take all the papery stuff off of the cloves.  Then you place the cloves in the divided thing, put the top on it and spin.  The divided thing has two tiny razors at the bottom that slices the garlic into delightful, paper-thin pieces.  Yum.

But I digress...

This is the dressing, in progress.

Oh Hannah....   Where are you with my missing ingredient?  While we wait, let's take a look at who is keeping me company while cooking today.

Caz, in her usual spot my the heating vent.

Lilly, in hers.

The squirrel outside the window.  Lots of people would move a birdfeeder so squirrels couldn't reach it, but these little grey rodents are just as entertaining as the birds.

What bird will do this for your enjoyment?!

I decided to chop up the rest of the celery while I wait.  Every time the dogs have an inkling there is a possibility of food hitting the floor, this is where they are:

Back to the sandwich.  Here is a photo of the bread wheel for the sandwich.  I placed it next to a gallon a milk so you could determine just how freaking huge this thing is going to be.

So the finished product won't be put together for a couple days, but it should look like this:

Yum.