Eating Dinner With My Family

Christmas evening, it was just the four of us.  We had my husband's side of the family last night, and my side of the family tomorrow, so dinner will just be leftovers, but since we still had my inlaws  this morning, we made this yummy ham and cheese strata for breakfast.  It could even be made the evening before, but then it would take longer as it will go in the oven much colder.  It isn't that much work, and it bakes in 20 minutes!  (well mine took a bit longer than that.)   Ham & Cheese Strata   8 large eggs 1 1/2 cups milk 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper 4 cups Italian bread cubes (1 inch) 6 ounces Virginia ham, cut into 1/2-inch dice (1 1/2 cups) 6 ounces Gouda cheese, cut into 3/4-inch dice (1 1/2 cups) 1/2 cup julienned sun-dried tomatoes, drained 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon snipped chives 1 cup coarsely grated Cheddar cheese (about 4 ounces) 1. Preheat the oven to 450°. In a large bowl...

This throwback meal is arguably one of my husbands favorites.  Whenever he thinks of it, gets this kind of dreamy look in his eyes and says something along the lines of "oooh that is a good one!"  We all like it, but it holds a special place in his heart.  It is also one of the easiest meals ever.  It takes less than 10 minutes start to finish.  (If you can cook all sandwiches at once otherwise you will need about 5 minutes more)  I cooked two sandwiches at a time and I spent about 15 minutes.  The pickles are not optional for us but I left that in the instructions in case it was a deal breaker for some of you.  You need to try this sandwich!  Serve it with a salad and you have a great meal!  Cut it in to small wedges and you have an excellent appetizer.  It is fast enough for any meal, with any time constraints, but delicious enough to be a wonderful dinner. Inside-Out Grilled Ham-And-Cheese Sandwiches 4 Tbl unsalte...

It was one of those moments where you think the universe is telling you to do something!  I had on deck for this week, and indeed scheduled for today, this grilled ham and cheese sandwich with a mustard/ apricot jam dipping sauce that I saw on an article of grown up grilled cheeses on Yahoo. Yesterday, I got my latest issue of Food and Wine, and under the heading '7 minute dinners' here was this recipe for the inside out grilled ham and cheese. It also had an apricot/mustard sauce but the main difference was that you press a layer of grated Parmesan cheese in to the buttered bread before grilling. Brilliant!  Genius!  The result, even without all the other tasty ingredients, was this crispy perfect, ultra thin Parmesan frico. Now figure in the apricot/Dijon sauce and the pickles and you have one heck of an awesome sandwich. I don't know why I don't want to give it a 5 star rating, but I'm going with 4.5. Perhaps it was my son not digging it quite as much as we did. ...

I liked this sandwich, but I did think that the apples were a bit superfluous.  There were bites I never noticed them, there were bites where they were overwhelming, and there were bites were perfect.  I know that is pretty useless critique, but it is the truth.  I would make it again, and I would probably include the apples.  I tried it with out the apples and only the mustard and it wasn't as good.  It was a nice and different sandwich, and because it is warm and filling, it makes a great fast dinner. Oven-Toasted Ham, Brie And Apple Sandwiches 1    large baguette (about 1 lb.),cut into 4 pieces 7 oz brie,most of the rind trimmed off and thinly 2    Tbs. unsalted butter 1    -1/2 medium Granny Smith apples,cored, and cut into 1/4-inch-thick 3/4 lb ham steak,thinly sliced on the diagonal 2    Tbs. whole-grain Dijon mustard 1    Tbs. honey 1 t  chopped fresh thyme Posit...

A great recipe for leftover ham and who couldn't use a salad the day after Thanksgiving;).  We have had this salad at the Columbia restaurant in St. Augustine and we loved it.  Then, some years later, we were in a cabin in North Carolina with some family and they had recreated the salad for dinner one night. It had become one of our family recipes and we all love it.  It is super easy and the dressing is wonderful on any salad.  If you have kids that require some extra calories or carbs, we add a baguette and butter for them.  Not only is is a great use of leftover Thanksgiving ham, but we had a lovely oriental salad mix from the Front Porch Picking basket.  Normally the salad is made with romaine, and it is great that way, but also wonderful with the mixed greens.  The recipe is a little vague because it was never written down properly and I hate to now assign an arbitrary measurement now, but for the sake of, some, clarity, I will throw out a m...

I made one deviation from this recipe, I used burger patties made from 1/2 ground chuck and 1/2 ground pork. Why? Well because I had some ground beef & pork leftover from the last time I made meatballs. We mixed those meats and made patties and froze them in vacuum bags. We didn't have enough meat to make patties from one type of meat but we had enough for 3 if we mixed them together. What was I going to do with them? I turned to the burger master, Bobby Flay, and the cookbook I got free on iBooks (Called Bobby Flay's Bold Flavors).  This is like a Cuban sandwich and a burger had a baby and those are two of my favorite sandwiches.  All I have to say is DANG it was good.  We all devoured our burgers.  I think we had patties that were a bit bigger than the 1/4 pound called for and that was my only issue with the burger; I thought the patty was a bit big, but that's my fault:).  We all were really pleased with the whole  meal.  A solid 4.5. Miam...

Well first of all, I know what you are thinking.  It is meatless Monday yet you can see, clear as day, the word 'ham' in the title of the recipe.  It's true, I have relented on keeping this Monday meatless.  I have a good reason.  My husband is on vacation starting today and I asked him to pick out 7 recipes from the to try file since he will be here for dinner all week.  Only after he chose did I realize that there were no meatless recipes.  Rather than have him look again, I figured vacation week we could splurge.  I picked this one for today since it has very little meat.  On to the dinner... Tonight's dinner was truly a family meal.  My son chopped parsley (among other things) under the supervision and tutelage of my husband, while I let the 2 yr old drop ears of corn into the pot of boiling water using some very long tongs and me directing.  She was actually really good at it.  She even did a few by herself....

I was really tired today, and wanted nothing more than to skip feeding my family and go to bed.  Instead, I wracked my tired brain and browsed my many recipes saved on pinterest to see if I could find one that would be fast, easy and tasty and didn't involve a crock pot. (it was already after 4)  I thought these looked really tasty and decided to make them.  I did alter it a bit.  First of all, and not intentionally, I left out the poppy seeds.  I didn't have them.  I was sure I did and didn't even check before I ran to the store for the rolls and ham.  I still believe that there are some in there.  I have celery seeds, sesame seeds (white and black) mustard seeds, and two (2 really?) jars of fennel seeds.  Oh and huge bags of coriander and fenugreek too.  So really, no poppy?  I just don't believe it but they were left off.  I also used 3/4 pound of meat and cheese each.  I still thought it was a bit much.  I was pr...

Hey all you regular readers of my blog!  (Crickets....) Awkward:).  Well if there is anyone keeping track of my no repeat policy on dinners and this blog, you may see that this is the second bahn mi burger.  The first one, Vietnamese-Style Banh Mi Burgers , were good but these were much better. They had several differences which I say count as different dinners. (the biggest difference is this burger is pork and the other was beef)  I can't even begin to describe how good they are!  Even without the few changes I would make for next time, these are a family favorite.  They were devoured!  The changes I think need to be made: slightly less meat per burger, more of all the veggies and a little less mayonnaise.  Why?  The traditional bahn mi has very little meat on it, and more is less in this instance.  The extra veggies may have only been a result of the extra meat, but why not add more veggies if you can.  They added ...

I have no idea where this came from and I'm sorry about that because the recipe leads me to believe it was from a blog.  If I ever find out, I will link to there, however I did change it a bit.  The idea was solid, but the amounts were somewhat vague, I had to wing it a bit.  The recipe below is what I copied from somewhere, and the stuff in parentheses is what I actually did.  I really liked it.  It was smoky, tasty and a bit different.  It is certainly economical and fast. Smoky Pizza 1  Pizza Dough,Unbaked    (1 LB) 1/4 c  Ricotta,Fluffy           (3/4 cup mixed with 3-4 dashed of liquid smoke) 3/4 c  Mozzarella,Smoked  (couldn't find smoked so used regular and added smoke to the ricotta) Ham                             ...

 I have no idea where I got this recipe.  I'm pretty sure it came in one of my recipe of the day emails, but when I googled the recipe, none were quite like this one.  I thought the idea of whipping the whites and then nestling a yolk in them was intriguing and my whole family is a huge fan of a runny yolk! I honestly don't see how anyone can't be but I'm sure there are some out there.  The dish is pretty good and we all liked it, but it could have been a great dish with some changes.  The most important change would be a sauce.  We suggested, hollandaise, cheese, and even just a compound butter would have helped.  I also would have cooked it less than 15 minutes; the yolks were almost completely set.  The only thing that was a bit odd, and that can't be changed unless you change the whole dish, was the texture of some of the whites.  My son hated it at first, but the inside part wasn't so bad and he declared he liked it better once he got u...

I have been wanting to make Arroz con Pollo for a while.  It takes me back to my childhood in Miami.  I had a couple of recipes for it.  When it comes to a popular, iconic, dish, I like to try several recipes to see what I like and what works.  This one is from Food & Wine.  I was sure it would be tasty, as F & W rarely disappoints, but it in no way resembles the dish of my childhood.  The rice isn't yellow. (I was tempted to add food coloring;)  It also didn't have peas!   I think arroz con pollo needs peas.  However, I choose this recipe tonight since I had most of the ingredients.  The recipe from 3 guys from Miami had more that I needed to buy, but I think it will be a better version.  This recipe wasn't particularly hard to make, so that was nice.  As to the taste, I thought it was all right.  My husband liked it more and more as he ate it.  I don't like meat on a bone, so I might be letting my issue...

Today we had our 'dinner' at lunchtime since my husband will be away at dinner time.  I had always wanted to try a croque madam but have never made it before.  It was very good but very rich!  I had bread which had very large slices of bread so we all had too much to eat since it was so rich.  Half sandwiches for everyone next time;). Croque-Madame Sandwiches  5    Tbs. unsalted butter 2    -1/2 Tbs. all-purpose flour 1    -3/4 cup milk (whole or low-fat) 2    Tbs. brandy 2 t  Worcestershire sauce 1/4 t  fresh thyme 1/4 t  grated nutmeg Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 8 sl country-style white sandwich bread 4 t  Dijon mustard 4 oz Gruyère,grated (1 cup) 12 oz leftover roasted fresh ham sliced (or substitute sliced roast pork 1/2 oz Parmigiano-Reggiano,finely grated (1/2 cup) 4    large eggs,at room temperature Melt 2 Tbs. of the butter in ...

So I saw a snippet of a recipe for  chicken cordon bleu sandwich.  Intrigued, I decided to create my own,  I believe the original sandwich was more like the original dish with a chicken breast fried and then the ham, cheese and dijon added to the sandwich.  I wanted to do more of a panini than a fried chicken sandwich.  Other than hamburgers, I prefer a thinner sandwich and thinly sliced meats.  You could just make it like a grilled cheese, but I like the panini pan for the appearance and crispiness it gives the sandwich.  It was a super fast, and delicious dinner.  In fact my son declared it was this third favorite dish of all time!  I was totally loving it but I don't know if I would go that far.  The measurements for the sandwich depend on the size of your bread and on your personal preferences. Start with the bread.  Give it a thin coating of dijon mustard evenly over the e...

Now I really adore Alton Brown and I totally want to try this recipe with the homemade "English muffins," but I just didn't have the time today but I was having a craving so I only put the eggs and hollandaise recipes as the main body of the post.  However, if you are like me and just crazy enough to try, I have included the "muffin" recipe at the bottom.  Now on to the meal we did eat.  As I was making the hollandaise, I was getting worried.  It was very thin and very lemony.  Oops, I had only cut up one stick of butter; ok feeling better because that would solve above problems.  Once the second and final stick of butter was incorporated, I still felt that an entire tablespoon of lemon juice would be too much so I only put in a 1/2 tablespoon.  Now while this hollandaise tasted really great with the eggs, bread and ham, it was not the kind you just want to eat by the spoonful.  (ok thinking on that it may be a GREAT thing because who needs to eat...

     Before I started cooking this, which I did pick because of the leftovers I had from Friday night's meal, I figured the cost of the entire dinner.  Ham 1.65, Scallions .60, Kimchi 2.00, Rice, .51,  Eggs  .42 Total= $5.16 but kimchi and rice was leftover so they would have been wasted if not used so I almost don't want to count them.  Complete the meal with even a fancy bag of mixed salad greens $3.00 and make your own dressing. Oil, vinegar and salt and pepper are considered part of a stocked pantry.  Meal total $8.16.  I have a bit, not much mind you, of the pork left too.  I could have used it in place of the ham.  Instead I thought I would either serve as a lettuce bundle for each of us or mix it into the rice.  I decided to save it and eat it as lunch because it is just too darn good to throw in with something else.      The rice was good.  I had made it once before and didn't r...

This was a fairly easy recipe.  There was the prep work which involved chopping a lot of veggies, but it wasn't too bad.  The cooking time is like three hours, but largely unattended so that it nice.  We all weren't sure what we would think of it.  My husband and I were pleasantly surprised, my son was not a fan.  The liquid part he was ok with but the rest... He even didn't like the cheese toast.  Most likely he didn't like the soggy bottom nor the Swiss; I happened to love it.  It makes a huge portion; next time I will be halving the recipe. I had a large bit of ham on hand so I used it rather than go out and buy the ham hocks.  As a result, I think the broth was a little watery tasting, so I put a spoonful of ham bouillon in the stew at the beginning of the third hour. I think this dish would lend itself to using up all kinds of leftovers. White Bean and Ham Stew   4    meaty smoked ham hocks (about 3 1/2 pound...

Well while this was not a dish I think I will make again, it certainly was not a bad way to use up an entire extra ham we had from making stromboli on the 18th.  I served it with rice and a salad.  It was pretty quick; it certainly was fast since I didn't need to really cook a protein.  The sauce came together pretty quick and it could be made ahead of time.  A solid "c" meal:) Griddled Ham Steaks With Spring Onions And Mustard 3/4 lb pearl onions 1 T  unsalted butter 2 T  extra-virgin olive oil,plus more for frying 1 lb spring bulb onions,sliced 1/4 inch thick 2 t  chopped thyme 1    garlic clove,minced 1/2 c  dry white wine 3/4 c  low-sodium chicken broth 2 T  Dijon mustard 1/3 c  chopped parsley Salt and freshly ground pepper 4    eight ounce ham steaks about 1/3 inch thick 1. In a small saucepan of boiling salted water, cook the pearl onions until just tender, about 3 minutes. Drain ...

This Julia Child recipe immediately follows the Ham in Madeira sauce (10/25/11) that we made before and LOVED!  In the into to this recipe Julia says that "this famous recipe is the same idea as the preceding one, but with a richer, more delicate sauce."  Well it was indeed very similar, but I think that we all liked the first one better.  The main difference is that the first sauce had ham stock in it; it could be, however, that the ham we used this time was smokier in flavor which made it into the sauce.  Either way it was good, but next time we will make the first version. Tranches de Jambon a la Creme (Ham Slices in Fresh Cream Sauce) 3 lbs of cooked ham, sliced 1/4" thick 2 Tb butter 1 Tb oil 2 Tb shallots(or green onions), chopped 2/3 cup Madeira or Port 3 Tb cognac 2 cups whipping cream 2 Tb Dijon Mustard mixed with 1 Tb tomato paste and 2 Tb whipping cream Big Pinch of Black Pepper Trim off any excess fat on the ham and pat dry with paper t...

If you are thinking what I was thinking when I saw this recipe, you  are thinking mayonnaise in soup?! Well let me assure this is a recipe worth making.  It is really tasty! My son absolutely LOVED it.  So much so, my husband was getting annoyed with his slurping and shoveling!  I couldn't find Serrano ham, and while Prosciutto would be the more appropriate substitute, I had regular ham on hand, so I julienned some strips of it and threw that in.  Less Catalan but less waste for me. We had some of the mayonnaise left over, I think it would be delicious on sandwiches too. I think that the base could be prepared ahead of time, and just reheated then adding the raw fish and just do that part of the cooking at that time.  The grating of the tomatoes is a pretty ingenious way to get the tomatoes out of their skins without the annoying boiling and shocking. Catalan Fish Stew With Pimentón Mayonnaise 1 1/2 lb plum tomatoes,halved crosswise 3 T ...