Hoagie Sandwiches | Kids Can Cook Recipe Review

It is so fun to find a recipe that is fun and easy to make, delicious to eat, and has a great story. And this recipe for hoagie sandwiches from Where’s Mom Now That I Need Her is one of those recipes!

Did you know there are about a dozen explanations for why a hoagie is called a hoagie? I’m going to tell you my favorite one. More than a hundred years ago, people from Italy came [immigrated] to the United States, and many of them became dock workers at the shipping harbors. For lunch, they would bring leftover meat and cheese wrapped in big rolls called “hoggies.” But the other dock workers pronounced the name “hoagie.” The sandwich became so popular that restaurants started serving them, and used the name “Hoagie” so the dock workers would quickly recognize what kind of food they were talking about. And that’s one way the hoagie became called the hoagie!

Hoagie Sandwiches

Serves 2 – 4

What You Need:
  • 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
  • 2 tablespoons mustard
  • 2 hoagie buns
  • ¼ head of lettuce, torn into leaves
  • 4 slices cheese of your choice, like American, Swiss, or provolone
  • 4 slices luncheon meat of your choice, like ham, bologna, or turkey
  • 1 tomato, thinly sliced
  • 1 onion, thinly sliced and separated into rings
  • 1 large dill pickle, thinly sliced

What You Do:
Hoagie Sandwiches | Kids Can Cook Recipe Review
  1. In a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise and mustard and mix well.
  2. Ask your grownup helper to slice the buns open if they aren’t sliced already.
  3. Spread the mayo mustard mixture evenly over the sliced buns.
  4. Next, have your grownup helper slice the tomato, onion, and dill pickle.
  5. On the bottom halves of each bun, layer the lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickle, meat, and cheese. Put the top part of the bun on each sandwich.
  6. To make two big sandwiches into four regular-size sandwiches, ask your grownup helper to slice the sandwiches in half.

This sandwich makes a great lunch to pack up and take in a lunch box like the Italians did, or to eat in the backyard on a nice, sunny weekend. Be sure to ask your grown-up helper to do the slicing, and have fun making hoggie—oops! I mean, hoagie sandwiches! And Where’s Mom Now That I Need Her, by Kent P. Frandsen, is an awesome cookbook loaded with easy, familiar recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It’s one of the best-kept secrets in the cookbook section of the library. Check it out soon for yummy recipes. Ciao for now!

Review by Anne