One Ham, Two Dinners, Part 2: Ham and Cheese Quiche

Posted on May 10, 2016 by jacky grace

Tuesdays are worse than Mondays.

I don’t know why. They just are. Mondays at least you can talk to your coworkers about what you did over the weekend, and somehow in retelling the weekend fun, you can kind of extend it beyond the two days. But Tuesday? Tuesday is like okay for real now, you have to work. No excuses.

So I’m even more excited about the ham we made Sunday being in the fridge and ready to be transformed into a super easy super yummy dinner than I was yesterday.

Yesterday was all about the Croque Monsieur. Today, we’re going to take the same ingredients (minus the bread) and make a ham and cheese crustless quiche!

So easy. If you made the Croque Monsieur yesterday, you’ll have all the ingredients on hand. If not, the shopping list is still super simple.

ham, cut into one inch cubes
cheese, shredded (any kind works- mozzarella, swiss, cheddar- whatever you have)
five eggs
splash of milk
butter, for greasing the pan (you can use cooking spray too)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and butter a pie pan.

To the buttered pie pan, add your chunks of ham in an even layer.

Then sprinkle over your shredded cheese.

In a bowl, crack five eggs

Add a splash of milk

And whisk until combined.

Pour your milk and egg mixture over your ham and cheese.

Bake for about 30-45 minutes, until the center is firm.

Slice and enjoy.

To continue the French theme, serve with a salad of greens topped with a mustardy vinaigrette. It will cut through the richness of the eggs, ham and cheese, like it did yesterday with the Croque Monsieur.

And there you have two meals from a few simple ingredients- eggs, milk, ham, cheese, butter and bread.

That’s two itty bitty city kitchen friendly meals from 6 ingredients!

One Ham, Two Dinners Part 1: Croque Monsieur

Posted on May 9, 2016 by jacky grace

So my favorite thing in the world is when I can cook one thing and get more than one meal out of it.

Okay it’s not my favorite thing in the world, but it makes me really really happy.

I had a ham in my freezer from an Omaha Steaks order from my aunt. I had kind of forgotten about it. Then I saw it tucked in the back and the wheels immediately started turning.

If I cooked that one ham on Sunday, we could have Croque Monsieurs on Monday and a Ham and Cheese Quiche on a Tuesday. Even better? All of the ingredients for both meals are essentially the same, so less to buy at the store. Score!

Croque Monsieur is basically the best ham and cheese sandwich you will ever eat. When we were in Paris, my meals largely consisted of Croissants, Croque Monsieurs and Steak Frites. Croque Monsieur is sort of like a ham and cheese, meets grilled cheese meets savory stuffed French toast.

The ingredients are super simple, like a lot of French cuisine. It’s really just about the execution.

You will need:

bread (any kind you prefer)
ham, sliced
swiss cheese, sliced
butter
eggs
milk

I cooked the ham on Sunday, let it cool, sliced it and popped it in the fridge. This way, Monday after work I only had to assemble the sandwiches and cook them until the cheese melted. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Start by placing a few slices of ham on one slice of bread.

Add the cheese and then add the other slice of bread.

In a shallow dish, add two eggs and a splash of milk

and whisk until combined (see, kind of like French toast.)

Next, carefully take the whole sandwich and place it in the egg and milk batter.

Press it down so it is fully coated and then flip so the other side is coated as well.

Repeat with your other sandwich.

Melt some butter on a skillet and place your sandwiches in the melted butter.

Cook on the first side until golden brown (maybe 5 minutes over medium heat) and then flip and cook on the other side.

The bread will be all golden and custardy and the cheese will be melting into the ham.

For a very French touch, and to cut the richness of the ham and the cheese, serve with a salad with a mustardy vinaigrette. The mustard and the vinegar is the perfect balance to the richness of the sandwich.

Enjoy your sandwich, and store the leftover ham and cheese in the fridge for tomorrow’s dinner. We’ll keep it French again with a ham and cheese quiche.

Croque Madame

Posted on April 22, 2015 by jacky grace

The very first meal we ate in Paris was croque madames while the hotel got our room ready.

That was when I learned about the French way- your room being ready upon arrival really means your room being ready after the maid has had her nap.

So, tired after the train ride from London, we took our bags to the closest cafe and ordered two pernods and two croque madames.

A croque monsieur is essentially french ham and cheese sandwich. It becomes a croque madame when you add a fried egg.

You will find these sandwiches on the menus of every cafe lining Paris’s streets, and, if you have one you’ll know why. They’re so simple, yet so incredibly delicious with the toasted bread, the buttery, melted cheese and the salty ham. The runny egg yolk is la piece de resistance.

I’ve had a travel itch lately, so when that happens, I tend to recreate meals we had on our travels, to give myself the illusion of being elsewhere.

For the croque madame you will need

Bread
ham
cheese (traditionally gruyere but anything that melts well will work)
butter (because what’s a French dish without butter?)
eggs

A traditional croque monsieur or madame is made with a beschamel. That’s lovely when you’re on holiday, but a little too heavy for everyday eating. So I eliminated the sauce and made something a bit more akin to a grilled cheese.

Start by using a biscuit cutter or a glass to cut a whole in two slices of your bread.

Butter a skillet and toss the two slices with holes and two more slices into the melted butter. Cook over medium heat until browned.

Once browned, flip the bread and carefully crack an egg into each hole- sort of like when you make egg in the holes. Okay, exactly like when you make egg in the hole.

Once the egg is cooked but still runny, top the non-egg bread with slices of ham.

Remove the ham side from the skillet and place on a foil-lined cookie sheet. Top the ham with shredded cheese and pop under the broiler to melt the cheese.

It only takes a minute or two to get the melty gooey perfection, so don’t go anywhere.

If you want to be extra decadent, you can also top the egg-bread with cheese and pop under the broiler.

So that when you make your sandwich, you have two doses of cheese.

Egg-in-the-hole-meets-grilled-cheese-meets-taylor-ham-sandwich.

My version of a croque madame.

C’est Magnifique.

Chili Cheese Dip

Posted on August 15, 2013 by jacky grace

This little creation comes to you from my Aunt Tina.

For the longest time I couldn’t make this anywhere but the beach because that’s where we always had it. But now that my fiance has had it too it’s in the normal rotation in our itty bitty city kitchen.

This is a fantastic dip for watching a football game. Or a hockey game. Fall’s in the air so it has me thinking of lazy Sundays cooking and eating while watching the game.

But this is also a fantastic summer side dish. All wet and sandy from the beach and starving after a day of swimming and playing bag-o but dinner still so far away.

This takes two ingredients and two minutes And will satisfy hunger pangs until dinner is on the table.

You will need pepper jack cheese and a can of hormel chili with no beans.

Cut up half the block of cheese into cubes. You’ll only need half for each dip, so if you have a lot of people, buy two cans of chili and one block of cheese for two bowls of it.

Place the cubes of cheese in a microwave safe bowl. Pour out the chili into another, larger, microwave safe bowl.

Microwave the chili for about a minute. I suggest covering the bowl with a paper towel so you don’t have a mess.

Take the chili out and microwave the cheese for about 30 seconds to a minute, until the cheese is melted. I’d start on the low end of the time because you don’t want to burn the cheese and all microwaves are different.

Pour the molten cheese into the chili and stir. You can zap it in the microwave again if you feel it isn’t hot enough .

There you have it. Two ingredients. And a fantastic dip. Dig in with some tortilla chips.

Or, if you’re feeling especially indulgent, top hot dogs with the dip for a chili cheese dog night. Perfect meal for catching a Yankees game.

Itty Bitty City Kitchen

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Tag Archives: cheese

One Ham, Two Dinners, Part 2: Ham and Cheese Quiche

One Ham, Two Dinners Part 1: Croque Monsieur

Croque Madame

Chili Cheese Dip