Tuna Melt Bagels

I asked Steve to take a picture of both the tuna melts & chicken salad melts. I was going to post it but he made a comment about them being on paper plates and I sorta agreed with him. Anyway, yes, I made two types of melts last night. Tuna (albacore, red onion (finely chopped), celery seed, worchestshire sauce and s&p.) American cheese on top. For the chicken salad (Pulled cooked chicken, parsley, mayo, s&p) with provolone cheese. These were both served atop onion bagels. Some pieces had tomato on top of them. They looked pretty.

I baked up the bagels. Then I did a not so good of a job splitting them in half. At this point, I should've thrown on the broiler and toasted both sides. I had fears of over cooking them and drying them out too much. Anyway, I placed about 3/4" worth tuna & chicken salad on one bagel at a time. Yes, they were piled pretty high. The tuna salad was them covered with american cheese and the chicken salad was covered in the provolone cheese. I threw them under the broiler. Afterwards, again concerned about the texture of the bagel and the temperature of the salad, I set the oven to bake.

So, the melts. They were pretty good, not great. Usually, they hit the spot but we made the error of using Ray's frozen bagels. Can you believe they're not pre-sliced? Who wants the extra labor of cutting it in half? Anyway, the first one I had was the chicken salad melt. The cheese looked like it'd been bubbling and there were little burnt spots on it. It was pretty good. Then the tuna, that too, was pretty good. The yellow american cheese was burnt (dark, dark brown and very, very edible) on one little side. The edge. The problem with this dish is that these bagels weren't as light as say Lender's frozen bagels. Or I didn't toast them up enough which could've really been the problem. That's what sorta undid the greatness of the melts. The bagels.

Sidebar: I forgot something critical in yesterday's blog about Dottie's Zucchini, Chicken & Rice Casserole. I goofed. I forgot to mention one of the main ingredients: the cubed, cooked chicken. I'd made the chicken the previous night for our salad greens with baked chicken. When I looked in the 'fridge for the salad bag, I discovered that there wasn't one. Darnit! Now what?

So I made it into chicken salad and once again, pulled the meat apart with two forks. Steve said it was light. And it was very juicy. He said it tasted like it was from a fine, hotel restaurant. I was flattered. So that's the chicken I used for Dottie's casserole. I'm sure it imparted its own flavors into the dish. I used olive oil, salt-free McCormicks seasoning mix, dried tarragon, s&p.

I nuked some leftover casserole for Steve the day after and he loved it. It'd thickened up quite a bit. Makes one think twice about this dish. Oh, I almost forgot and this is important. The chicken in the casserole became a little too well done (slightly overcooked). Probably because it was already cooked and then got baked again for an hour. Thank goodness Steve made them into small pieces. Okay, here are some stupid words. I forgot. Oh well, Eat Something Good!