50 States Sandwich Challenge: Colorado

 Known for its idyllic mountains, beer cans that turn blue, and legalized marijuana; Colorado is the most popular of the "continental divide" states leading to the West.  Why? No, it wasn't the perfect snowboarding conditions or the Rocky Mountain oysters that did it.  It was the transcontinental railroad from Chicago to San Francisco, which ran right through Colorado, that originally brought settlers, not only from the midwest/east but from the west as well.  And that is where their iconic sandwich, "The Denver Sandwich" was born. The ingredients seem simple; a western omelet on toast, but where did this derive?  Denver restaurateur Albert McVittie claims ownership of the Denver Sandwich in 1907 but many historians believe the sandwich predates that to railroad workers constructing our great link between the coasts.  Many Chinese immigrants arriving in San Francisco searching for work found it in building the railroad from the west, connecting with the railroad already being built from the east.  These two met in Colorado.  The western omelet is said to likely been derived from the Chinese dish egg foo young, a recipe from Guangdong.  The dish is prepared with beaten eggs with minced ham and various vegetables; the "western" version of this being green peppers (likely from Mexican migrants from neighboring New Mexico) and onions.  Following the American tradition of putting everything on toast (and copying the Asian student's work), the Denver Sandwich was brought to diners across Denver, and eventually the entire country as the Western Omelette.  The more you know.  Anyway, I know I keep sounding like a broken record every week but this was yet another very easy sandwich to make.

Ingredients:

6 eggs

2 tablespoon of butter

1/2 cup of cubed ham, cooked

2 green onions, minced

1 green pepper, minced

4 slices of toast

1. Cut up your cooked ham, green onions, and green pepper.

2. Beat the eggs (you can add some milk and melted butter here), and add the ham, pepper, and onions.

3. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter on a frying pan and pour the egg mixture into the pan.

4. Make an omelet how you like it, and then put it on toast. Voila!