Croque-Monsieur

Directly translated, the words croque monsieur become “crispy mister.” Essentially, it’s a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. But don’t let the seeming simplicity of this bore you. It is so much more than that. This simple grilled ham and cheese sandwich is also topped with a rich and creamy béchamel, additional freshly grated cheese (in this case Gruyere), and then put under the broiler until it gets hot, brown, and beautifully bubbly. This is like no grilled cheese sandwich you have ever had. Yes, it’s a little more effort than just slapping some cheese between two pieces of bread and shoving it into your toaster oven, but the extra work is well worth the sinfully delicious taste. Make this once, and you will never be satisfied with a plain old grilled cheese sandwich again. 

Croque-Monsieur

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1 cup whole milk

Pinch of freshly ground nutmeg

1 bay leaf

4 slices firm white sandwich bread

4 ounces thinly sliced Black Forest ham

4 ounces sliced Gruyère cheese

1 tablespoon melted butter

1/4 cup grated Gruyère cheese

2 teaspoons chopped fresh chives

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in small saucepan over medium heat. Add flour and stir 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk. Add nutmeg and bay leaf. Increase heat to medium-high and boil until sauce thickens, whisking constantly, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Preheat broiler. Place 2 bread slices on work surface. Top each with half of ham and sliced Gruyère. Top with remaining bread. Heat heavy large skillet over low heat. Brush sandwiches with 1 tablespoon melted butter. Add to skillet and cook until deep golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to small baking sheet. Spoon sauce, then grated cheese over sandwiches. Broil until cheese begins to brown, about 2 minutes.

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Looking for something to feed the family? Try this Croque-Monsieur Pie!

This post is linked to:

Happiness is Homemade Sunday

What’s for Dinner Sunday

Dishing It & Digging It

Wonderful Wednesday

Whimsical Wednesdays

O My Heartsie Girls Wonderful Wednesday
 Wine’d Down Wednesday

Full Plate Thursday

Thursday Favorite Things

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Easter Linguini

I came up with the idea for this dish, believe it or not, while sitting in the dentist’s chair. I had an appointment to get my teeth cleaned, and because I find it so tedious, I generally just lie back, close my eyes, and take my mental leave. When I did, I started thinking about all of the Easter leftovers that I had in the fridge, and thus this recipe was born. This dish uses both ham and peas from my Easter dinner, and can be on the table in 30 minutes. So intrigued was I with the general idea, that as soon as I got home from the dentist, I dirtied up my clean teeth by eating a bowl of this. It is so good!

I decided to call this dish Easter Linguine because it makes use of leftover Easter ham and peas. Initially I had considered Easter Leftovers Linguine, but then I thought, who would want to eat that? :-)

Easter Linguini

8 ounces linguine
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup ham, cut into strips
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup peas
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Freshly ground black pepper
Lemon zest, a few gratings

Cook linguini according to package directions. During the last two minutes of cooking, toss in peas. Drain peas and pasta, reserving 1/2 cup pasta water. Return peas and pasta to pan.

While pasta is cooking, melt butter in a 9-inch sauté pan. Gently sauté ham. Stir in garlic, cook for one minute. Stir in heavy cream, allow to simmer until thickened.

Pour cream sauce over linguini and peas, add parsley, Parmesan cheese, freshly ground pepper, and the lemon zest. Toss to coat. If sauce needs thinning, add pasta water a tablespoon at a time, until it reaches desired thickness. Serve immediately.

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If you like linguini as much as I do, you may also enjoy Linguine in Broccoli Cream Sauce.

This post is linked to:

Cooking & Crafting with J&J

Amaze Me Monday

Busy Mondays

Merry Monday

Over the Moon

Make it Pretty Monday

Celebrate Your Story

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Deviled Ham Spread

It's February! Time to start thinking about Valentine's Day. Whether you have a sweetheart or not, there's no excuse not to do something special on Valentine's Day if only for yourself. Life is too short to not celebrate every single day. 

A Valentine's Day tea is but one fun way to celebrate. There's something about hearts and flowers that just lend themselves to afternoon tea. In the upcoming weeks, I'm going to be sharing recipes for easy Valentine's Day teatime goodies, as well as a tablescape to get your creative juices flowing.

First up is this very easy recipe for Deviled Ham Spread that I served on toasted heart-shaped cutouts of bread. It occurred to me, not long ago, that I didn't have any heart-shaped cookie cutters. Imagine! I remedied that with this darling set. Once I got it, I started cutting everything into heart shapes. Somehow, cute food always seems to taste better than food that's not so cute. Maybe it's just me.

Whether you make this delicious Deviled Ham Spread or not, your friends and family are going to get a kick out of seeing whatever sandwich spread you use served up in such a romantic style. Consider not just cutting the bread into heart shapes, but slices of deli meat, cheese, and roasted red peppers, and layering them. How cute would that be?

Deviled Ham Spread
​Adapted from Allrecipes.com

1 1/2 cups cubed cooked ham
​3 tablespoons mayonnaise​
​ 2 teaspoons spicy brown mustard ​
​1 teaspoon Frank’s Hot Pepper Sauce
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder​
​1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped celery​

​Toss all ingredients into a food processor and process until desired texture is reached.​

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Deviled Ham Spread

If you're not familiar with the Tiny Book series, stop what you're doing, and head to your local bookstore or library immediately. This is a series of, so far, four books that are just too good to pass up. The series that includes Tiny Book of Teatime Treats, Tiny Book of Christmas Joy, Tiny Book of Pies, and the one I'm going to talk to you about today, Tiny Book of Mason Jar Recipes, is produced by the same wonderful people who bring you the Cottage Journal, Teatime, and Celebrate magazines. These books are absolutely not to be missed. 

The series is new to me, and I stumbled upon these books quite by accident. Every time I go to the library, you just know that I have to look at the latest cookbooks. This one jumped out at me not only because of its cute small size, but also because it deals with food in mason jars, and I love food in mason jars, and think I must have every book published on this darling way of presenting food. 

This book differs from a lot of them, however, in that it doesn't deal with just one subject, but with the general premise, and I like that. This book has beverages in mason jars, dips and sauces, salad and entrées, desserts, preserves, and gifts to make and give to people for the holidays. What a great idea that is. Not only does your recipient get a wonderful mason jar, but also the yummy contents within. As an added gift, including a copy of this book would certainly make the recipient over-the-moon happy.

I found a lot of recipes in this book that I want to try, but the first one that I did was one for deviled ham. As a little girl my mother used to give me deviled ham on crackers. Those of you who go back as far as I do (Horrors!) will probably remember deviled ham in those little packages with the little devil on them. Remember those? So trying the recipe for deviled ham spread was a no-brainer. This delicious spread did not last long. I'm just going to reproduce the page from the book here so that you can see the recipe and leave it at that. I cannot recommend this recipe or the book enough.

I served it on wheat rounds with some pickled cherries. Super yum!

This post is linked to: Wow Us Wednesday, Work It Wednesday, Wine’d Down Wednesday, Wake up Wednesday, Full Plate Thursday,  Thursday Favorite Things, Share Your Style, Coffee and Conversation, and Foodie Friday & Everything Else

Slow Cooker French Brown Sugar Ham

As I mentioned on Sunday, we did not celebrate Easter this year, and by that, I meant that we neither hosted nor attended any type of culinary gathering. This did not mean, however, that good and traditional food was lacking. I am not one to let any type of special day pass without celebrating it in a traditional way, no matter how small.

This year I baked a half of a boneless ham, served it with Potatoes au Gratin with Chanterelles, and broiled tomatoes topped with fresh basil from the Aerogarden. This was the easiest meal ever, and the ham was sublime! It was juicy, flavorful, delicious, and crockpot easy, in what is rapidly becoming one of my favorite cooking utensils.

Because my ham was small (about four and a half pounds), it fit nicely into my medium-sized crockpot. I put about a cup of dark brown sugar into the bottom of the crockpot, slathered two tablespoons of Dijon mustard onto the cut side of the ham.  Placed the mustard-y cut side down into the brown sugar, and cooked it on low for four hours. After the four hours, I turned off the crockpot and just let the ham hang out there for another thirty minutes before removing and slicing it. After slicing, I drizzled it with some of the sauce that was left in the bottom – sumptuous! This is my new favorite way to make ham, and it couldn't be easier. It made fabulous sandwiches the next day, and this week what remained will be used to make Crunchy Ham Casserole and Open Faced Ham Sandwiches.

Because of the Dijon, I just had to call this –

Slow Cooker French Brown Sugar Ham

1 4-pound boneless ham

1 cup dark brown sugar

2 Tablespoons good Dijon mustard

Spray bottom and side of crock with vegetable spray. Sprinkle brown sugar over the bottom of the crock to cover. Unwrap ham, removing any mesh, and generously coat the cut side with Dijon mustard. Place the ham into the crockpot, mustard side down, top with lid, and cook on low for 4 hours. Turn off crockpot and allow ham to rest for 30 minutes before removing and slicing. Serve drizzled with warm juices.

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This post is linked to:

Five Star Frou-Frou

Simple and Sweet Fridays

Foodie Friday & Everything Else

What To Do Weekend 

Simple Saturdays

Saturday Sparks

Bouquet of Talent Saturday

Ham Steak with Redeye Gravy, and a GREAT Cookbook

You're going to need to be sitting down for this post because I have lots of great news. First of all, a delicious dinner that is both easy and quick, and second, a must have cookbook for your kitchen library (and doesn't that sound nice...a kitchen library!).

I recently received a review copy of Cooking with Coffee, Brewing Up Sweet and Savory Everyday Dishes by Brandi Evans. As you all know, I am a huge fan of both coffee and cooking with coffee. The addition of this wonderful beverage can do some amazing things to dishes. It truly enhances and brings out the flavor of nearly anything made with chocolate (case in point Creole Brownies), and makes a marvelous addition to meats as in these Coffee-Chipotle Pork Chops  and Coffee-Crusted Filet Mignon. So when I was paging through the book and saw the recipe for ham and redeye gravy, I had to make it. Wow. Was this good!

Let me set the scene. I had just come home from dad's where he and I had hauled boxes and boxes of mother's Christmas decorations down from the attic. It is less of a marvel that I did it than that he did it, but nonetheless it was done. The boxes were then hauled from the second floor of the house to the main floor, out to my car, and then unloaded when I got home. I was exhausted, hungry, and more interested in watching the football game than in cooking, so decided to glaze some carrots, make use of a tub of Bob Evan's mashed potatoes (Yes, I like them, so shoot me!), and fry up a slice of ham. Then I remembered the recipe for ham and redeye gravy from this book.

While the ham was frying I made a single cup of coffee (I have one of those Melitta one-cup pour-over filter things -- invaluable!), and was lucky to have just made chicken stock the day before. Dicing the onion was really all that I had to do to make this entire meal.

We could not believe how good it was. The ham was tender and flavorful, and the redeye gravy was so good we could have eaten it with a spoon. Next time there will be homemade biscuits for sopping up the tasty goodness.

Here is the recipe directly from the book (for all you grits lovers out there). I did notice an error in that there is no mention of placing the ham slice back into the gravy to heat through, I did that. I also preheated my saute pan and used no shortening at all when frying the ham (that I cooked for 5 minutes per side) in order to leave lots of great remnants in the pan to scrape up when deglazing.

You must buy this one! It is the best book that I have seen on the subject and is as much about savory as it is about sweet.  The coffee caramel ice cream topping is ambrosial, and the pork chops divine. In fact, every recipe that I have tried so far has been a winner.

Imagine the great gift basket you could make up and give for the holidays using this book, a bag of coffee beans, a small grinder, and coffee scoop. It's smaller in size than some of those weighty tomes (7-1/2” x 7-1/2”) so won't take up too much space on shelves, but it is indeed mighty in all that it holds.

This post is linked to:

Amaze Me Monday

Busy Mondays

Cooking & Crafting Monday

Making Memories Mondays

Melt In Your Mouth 

The Scoop