There’s a place here in town where we frequently go for lunch with the kids and grandkids. It has delicious hamburgers and crispy fries. But the thing I always order is their vegetarian Philly. It is like a Philly cheesesteak except without the steak part. Mushrooms make a great substitute.

It has been unrelentingly hot here so a sandwich and a salad seems like a good choice for dinner. Our Philly consists of sauteed crimini mushrooms, onions, zucchini, poblano chiles, and red bell pepper. The cheese is ultra thin Swiss. We bought a baguette for our shrimp dinner on Thursday and use that for our sandwich roll. A little basil finishes it off.

Vegetarian Philly wth a cucumber and tomato salad

I always pull out some of the bread in the center of a roll. It gives a place for the fixings to go, the dressings to soak into, and makes the whole sandwich taste more of its components rather than just bread.

Our daughter’s tomatoes have begun to ripen and they are delicious. I add some Italian dressing to a combination of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and feta cheese. It is the essence of summer!