Those of us who love to cook know how it is. Nothing makes us happier than to pour our hearts into preparing a special meal and see delight on the faces of our guests as they enjoy it. I spent a good chunk of last week chopping, slow cooking, baking and caramelizing to pull off a lunch party for the staff of our preschool last Friday.
In conjunction with their National Sandwich Day Challenge, Arnold/Oroweat asked me to host a sandwich party featuring their Health-full bread (see the giveaway at the end of this post). I saw it as the perfect opportunity to show my appreciation for all of the teachers and aides at our school by treating them to a special lunch just before their weekly staff meeting. After much frantic scrambling that morning and some last minute packing help from my babysitter (thanks again, Jo!) I managed to get all of my trays and bowls transported to the school and set up under the big tree in the play yard.
I served three types of sandwiches:
Caramelized onion, fig preserves and goat cheese tartines…
Steak, roasted bell peppers and goat cheese tartines…
…and Mini Black Forest Ham and Gruyère Panini over little bowls of warm butternut squash soup.
My salad was Tyler Florence’s Fall Salad, with fresh pears, frisée and radicchio tossed in a maple balsamic vinaigrette with candied pecans and shaved parmigiano-reggiano on top.
For dessert, I baked the New York Times chocolate chip cookies, which is pretty much my prevailing favorite recipe at the moment. The teachers transferred this whole plate over to their dining table.
We have a few teachers who are gluten-free so I made them a special plate with the same sandwiches prepared on gluten-free bread. I also baked them a plate of gluten-free chocolate chip cookies (which are actually rather good!).
The staff has let me know that they would be very willing to help me out the next time I’m looking to cook for a group. 🙂
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GIVEAWAY
Arnold/Oroweat would like to give 10 Panini Happy readers the opportunity to try their Health-full bread for free.
- To enter, simply leave a comment on this post. [THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED]
I’ll choose 10 winners at random to receive free coupons. The giveaway will close on Monday, October 24 at noon PDT and is open to those with U.S. addresses only.
**UPDATED 10/26/11 – Congratulations to the winners!
- #17 – Kristi
- #7 – Elisa B
- #13 – Sami
- #15 – Robbi H
- #30 – Sharon Clifton
- #4 – Robin Sue
- #26 – Jacqui
- #36 – Roxana Payton
- # 3 – Nelly Rodriguez
- #23 – Debbie
* * * * *
This post is one in a series sponsored by Arnold/Oroweat Bread, for which I have received compensation, but my opinions are always my own.
Panini Happy, online since 2008, is more than just a sandwich blog. Here, you'll find hundreds of my original 
That was very sweet of you! I would love to try the bread too!
Looks so delish! I’m sure blessings are coming your way because what goes around, comes around!
Very fun party! I haven’t tried this bread, so hoping I get to soon!
Makes me want to be a teacher again. So much work went into this lunch Kathy- such a beautiful job, so colorful and creative!
Very Im-PRESS-ive;-)
Fun! I love doing stuff for the teachers. What a delicious spread!
Looks insanely good! Extra props for the GF options too! 🙂
Thanks! Made sure the broth in the butternut squash soup was GF too. 🙂
What a wonderful event! It all looks delicious.
We certainly didn’t get this type of food when I was teaching. I bet they just adore you!
those sandwiches look yummy!
What a wonderful celebration! Everything looks so delicious!
You had me at caramelized onions..and it just kept getting better! Great job!
It all looks delicious.
Dang, now I am hungry and can’t leave the office!
I enjoy eating this healthful bread often, and I would appreciate a
coupon for a free loaf very much.
Everything looked fantastic!
Steak, roasted bell peppers and goat cheese tartines, oh my! I LOVE this one!
All of that food looks amazing! I think I just decided on a panini & butternut squash soup for dinner, thanks 🙂
You must be the most popular Mom at the school! Everything looked-and I’m sure tasted- delicious.
Everything looked delicious! I love those chocolate chip cookies!
Oh, my goodness. Those little ham and gruyere triangles look so lovely, and I’ll bet they were killer dipped in the soup. What a wonderful thing for you to do! So generous with your time and effort.
Beautiful spread! Lucky teachers.
Those sandwiches look divine! And those cookies too – I’d love to transfer them to MY dining table, hehe 🙂
And thanks for the giveaway, I’d like to enter! I’m a fan of Arnold’s bread and would love to opportunity to try more of their bread!
That’s quite the spread! What you said at the beginning (Those of us who love to cook know how it is. Nothing makes us happier than to pour our hearts into preparing a special meal and see delight on the faces of our guests as they enjoy it.) is something that my husband just doesn’t get. I love to make special treats for my daughter’s teachers and everyone else in our lives. I don’t think I could come close to what you did. But now I have some new ideas for the next teacher appreciation lunch. 🙂
I love to eat arnold bread at all times of the day ! Breakfast sandwiches , peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, tuna melts for lunch, and spread with nutella for dessert !
OMG! What a feast! I didn’t know food could be this mouth watering! Now that I found a perfect panini website, can I get the name of a good plastic surgeon?
This also looks amazing – especially those chocolate chip cookies!! I have been dying to try out that NY Times recipe. Would love to try the Arnold bread!
Wow! How positively wonderful! Everything looks delicious!
What fun Kathy! My mouth is still watering when I think of our delicious lunch!
Delicious lunch! The gluten free bread and cookies were a real treat. Thank you Kathy 🙂
That bread sounds wonderful!
Oh Kathy! I am still smiling and thinking about the wonderful, yummy food that you so lovingly prepared for us! I have a cast iron panini press that (believe it or not!) was turned into the lost and found at the visitor’s center in Balboa Park where my daughter used to work. She gave it to me and now that I know about your blog, I know the correct way to cook with it and clean it! Thanks so much! XXXOOO
Dear Kathy,
That was an amazing treat! I LOVE sandwiches of all kinds anyway, but these ones were truly FANTASTIC! Thanks again, for doing this for us teachers, we so appreciated it!
Love, Eva
Hi. I would love to try the bread!
Wow! what a spread and everything looks so yummy. I tried that Arnold Real Jewish Rye with Seeds when I made your Cheddar Bacon Panini with Caramelized-Apple Onion Chutney (with turkey bacon). My husband and son loved it. That is definitely a recipe I will make quite often.
Those looked awesome. I am so hungry now!!!!!
I love the Oroweat Italian, so the healthy Oroweat would be nice to try. As a former teacher, Appreciation Weeks were really nice.
everything looks soo tasty! The last picture is awesome, it had me smiling!
Teachers earn every treat they get. Thank you for doing your part. I’d love to try the bread.
Wow, lucky teachers! That is some spread you made. Next time I am helping with the teachers lucheon I’ll have to get some ideas from you!
Wow, I’m sure the teachers really appreciated all the work you put into this spread!
We really like Arnold/Oroweat bread. It would be great to try their new product. And man, I wish I were one of your kids’ teachers! What a spread Kathy! Awesome!
Love to win this!
Thanks for giving your readers this fun opportunity!
The Black Forest ham and Butternut squash soup look delicious.
very fun idea! gotta love our teachers!
You did a beautiful job! Everything looks amazing!
These teacher are so lucky! The Black Forest Ham paninis with the little soups are so cute!
Oh my gosh! What an amazing, amazing spread. I think I would have a reallyyy hard time choosing a sandwich, they all look so good. Looks like it was all a big hit!