Perhaps I've mentioned this, but Neel and Callum love their hoagies. For those of you who aren't as Neel would say, "from around here," a hoagie is a sandwich. Neel would say it's the sandwich. The only sandwich, really. I reluctantly send you to Wikipedia for the definition. Reluctant because they call hoagies "submarines," and, as Erin knows: that's just wrong.

So each weekend, when I'm doing the grocery shopping, I get Callum and Neel a hoagie from the deli to spilt for lunch. If Neel manages to see my list, he'll add "hoagie" to it, in pretty ink and draw stars and hearts and balloons around it. Like I need reminding. "A whole ham and cheese on white with provolone, mayo, lettuce, tomato, black olives, banana peppers, pickles, salt and pepper, sliced in half." Every. Single. Weekend.

I've been into the idea of chopped salads lately. I love the scoopableness of them. They feel so substantial. I'm hoping to add more and more chopped salads to our rotation as we move deeper into summer, at least one a week. Anyhoo, at the wine tasting a few weeks ago, we had a salad with chopped ham and cheese, and Neel said immediately that it reminded him of a hoagie.

Lightbulb.

It's easy enough. Chop some romaine. Chop some tomatoes. I used some sweet peppers and some banana peppers (also chopped). Slice some olives, and chop some ham and provolone. Layer delightfully. Because we're in the South, ya'll, we use Duke's mayonnaise. I combined some mayo with a little vinegar and some Italian seasoning, and tossed it with the salad.

It was a paper plate kind of meal, and I couldn't not put little mini hoagie rolls on the side. They were sweet Hawaiian rolls, though. We fancied the stuff up. Rave reviews from all involved, and let me say, these hoagie eaters are hard to please.