Grilled Ham & Swiss Cheese Sandwich with Honey and Djon Mustard

One of my favorite things in life is cheese.  It makes absolutely everything you add it to 10 times better, be it sandwiches, salads, pasta dishes or even pancakes, believe it or not.  I tend to gravitate towards recipes with cheese in them and if cheese isn't in a recipe, I will even typically add it.  It should come as no surprise that one of my favorite sandwiches is grilled cheese.  It is definitely a comfort food for me, one I have been eating and enjoying since childhood.  It is also a great sandwich to experiment with, adding different cheeses, meats or sauces.  You really can't go wrong with it, unless you let it burn.  Don't do this as there is nothing worse then a burnt grilled cheese sandwich, lol!

The grilled ham & swiss cheese sandwich was one I can remember seeing on Emeril a while back.  At the time I watched the episode, adding honey to a grilled cheese sandwich sounded kind of strange to me so I tucked the recipe neatly in my brain somewhere safe and proceeded to forgot about it until a couple of weeks ago when I was getting ready to make a grilled ham and swiss sandwich and happened to see some honey sitting on the counter.  Emeril's recipe came flooding back to me and  I thought I would go ahead and give it a whirl.  Thank goodness I did.  Trust me, you will want to make this one.  It is super yummy.  The tangyness of the djon mustard with the sweetness of the honey makes for a perfect flavor combination.   My husband and I enjoyed it so much, I've made it 4 different times over the past two weeks. 

Grilled Ham & Swiss Cheese Sandwich with Honey and Djon Mustard - recipe adapted from Emeril

Ingredients (makes 2 sandwiches):
4 slices of bread
6 slices of deli sliced ham
2 slices of swiss cheese
butter, spreadable
honey
djon mustard

Directions:
1.  Spread butter evenly all over one side of each bread slice.  (This part does get a bit messy, but remember, it's worth it)
2.  On the other side of the buttered bread, spread with honey on two slices and djon mustard on the other two slices. 
3.  Sandwich three slices of ham and 1 slice of swiss between the honey and djon side of your bread slices.  Keeping the butter side on the top and bottom.
4.  Fry the sandwhich in a skillet under medium heat, about 5 minutes per side, until golden brown.  Serve warm.

Old School Oatmeal Honey Cake

Today is my hubby's birthday.  His favorite cake is Oatmeal cake which I have, of course, made for him many, many times throughout our marriage already.  I like this cake, too, but I decided to be a bit daring and make him something just slightly different then his standard favorite. Although, I am really not that daring because I am still planning on making his favorite for this weekend when the family comes over to celebrate his birthday.  I mean it is his favorite, so I can't cheat him out of it now can I?  

I actually made this cake for him on Sunday.  I have been putting my blog update off a few days.  I would like to say it is because I have just been so overwhelmingly busy that I just had not a lick of time to give to my blog.  The reality is that I have just been really, really lazy.   

I noticed last night that we were just down to two slices of cake left (yes, it is that good of a cake that we have devoured it in only four days) so I made sure that we would save those for today, so Andy would have some birthday cake on his actual birthday.  He also requested I make spaghetti and meatballs for dinner.  I used my meatball recipe from a few weeks ago for this dish as it is now his favorite dish! 

I didn't have a toothpick so I used a knife, hence the big hole in the center, lol!!

Old School Oatmeal Honey Cake modified from a recipe found on myrecipes.com

Cake Ingredients:

1 cup Quaker Oats (quick cooking)

1 cup boiling water

1 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 1/3 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup applesauce

1/3 cup honey

2 large eggs

Topping Ingredients:

1/4 cup salted butter

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup honey

Directions:
1.  Add boiling water to oats and set aside for 10 minutes.
2.  In medium bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, salt and baking soda and set aside.
3.  In large bowl, beat the sugar, applesauce, honey and eggs about 1 minute on high speed.
4.  Beat the oatmeal mixture in on low speed until combined.
5.  Beat the dry ingredients, a little at a time, until well combined.

6.  Pour the cake mixture into a sprayed 9x13 baking pan and bake at 350F for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes clean. 

7.  Allow to cool a bit, while preparing the topping.  Turn the broiler on in the oven. 

8. Melt butter on the stove over medium heat in a small saucepan

9.  Add the sugar and honey cook until bubbly, stirring constantly. 

10. Pour over the top of the cake, spreading evenly.

12. Put the cake back in the oven, under the broiler, until the topping is nice bubbly and golden. 

13.  Allow the cake to cool before eating. 

Yummy, this was really good cake!

My two sweeties, actually getting along!  I had to snap a picture for proof that it does happen on occasion!!

Baked Apple Pancakes

Back in my college days, I like many students, would use student loan money to go on fun trips with my friends.  Although I am still currently paying those trips off on my thirty year loan, all in all they were well worth it. 

One trip we took was to Chicago. My friend Shannon had a cousin who lived there and agreed to have four of us out to her place for an extended weekend. We went shopping on Michigan Ave, went to the top of the Sears Tower, hung out at Oktoberfest on the Navy Pier, checked out the Aquarium, the Life & Science Museum and, of course, went club/bar hopping every night. 

I have many, many great memories of out Chicago Girl Trip, but I also have four amazing food memories I took back with me.  The first being I ate at the Cheesecake Factory, my absolutely favorite restaurant, for the very first time.  Second, we had this fried onion appetizer at one of the bars we went to that was in the shape of a brick and it was simply amazing, as well as extremely fattening.  Third, I had one the best deep dish pizza's ever at a place called Duo's Pizza.  The sauce was on the top layer, which was nothing short of brillant in my opinion! 

The fourth food memory is what inspired my dish for today. Shannon's cousin took us out to the 'burb's to get breakfast at a place that was known for it's baked apple pancakes.  I wish I could remember the name of this place but, alas, I can't.  All I can say was it was amazing.  The pancake was probably the size of a pie, I mean this sucker was huge, and I ate the entire thing in no time without thing twice.

Baked German Apple Pancake with Nutmeg & Ginger adapted from cookincanuck

Ingredients:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tbsp granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground ginger
2/3 cup half-and-half
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 1/4 lb (3 to 4 large) Gala or Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch slices
3 tbsp packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
Powdered sugar

Directions:
1.  Preheat the oven to 500 degrees, make sure the oven rack is in the upper-middle position.
2.  In a large bowl, combine the flour, granulated sugar, salt, nutmeg, and ground ginger.
3.  In a medium bowl, whisk together half-and-half, eggs, and vanilla extract.
4.  Pour the liquid mixture into the flour mixture and whisk until smooth.
5.  In a 10-inch cast iron skillet set over medium-high heat, melt in the butter.
6. Add the apples and brown sugar. Stir often until the apples are golden brown, about 10 minutes.
7. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in lemon juice.
8.  Pour the pancake batter around the edges of the pan and then over top of the apples.
9.  Place into the oven, turning the oven heat to 425 degrees. Bake until the pancake is brown and has risen above the edges, about 15 to 18 minutes.
10. Loosen up the edges of the pancake and place a serving plate on the skillet (be careful not to burn yourself) and turn the skillet upside down so the pancake falls out onto the plate. Sift a little powdered sugar over the top of the pancake and cut it into wedges. Serve while still hot.

This was super yummy. It is very similar to the dish I had in Chicago all those years ago. It was basically like eating an apple pie for breakfast, which is definitely not a bad thing at all! I think next time I will add some cinnamon to this dish as well.

I had one minor mishap while making my dish today.  I had just successfully flipped the pancake out of my cast iron skillet onto a plate when I noticed that there were a few bits of apple and pancake stuck on the skillet.  So I went to scrape the yummy bits out with my spatula, to nibble on, and instead I yelped in pain as I had very stupidly grabbed the piping hot handle on the skillet with my bare hands.  Rushing to the sink, I let the cold water run over my throbbing fingers when suddenly I recalled something I had read about once that was supposed to soothe burns.  Honey!  I drenched those suckers in ooey, gooey honey and to my amazement it actually worked.  My hand quit throbbing right away and after letting the honey sit on my fingers for about 20 minutes before I licked...er...washed the honey off, my fingers are as good as new.  No blisters or anything!!!

Tastes like Chicken!

I heart chicken!  It is my go to meat of choice, unless it is on the bone.  I have a insanely hard time eating any meat if it is still attached to the bone.  I am not sure how or why this all started but since as far back as I can remember I have been this way.  To be frank, I am fine with this craziness and have no plans to ever start gnawing on bones ever. 

Besides hamburger meat, and I won't eat that unless it is well done (no pink for this girl),  I really don't care much for red meat at all.  I am trying to keep an open mind though and give red meat more of a chance since my hubby loves a good steak and prime rib, the pinker the better for him to my utter dismay.  I want to keep his palate in mind too, since he is the one who is helping me eat my creations!  As you may recall, I did use red meat to make the Drip Beef sandwhiches and I thoroughly enjoyed that dish.  Tonight, though, I will stick with what I know and love...chicken!!!

Ages ago I entered a contest to win a trip or something like that from Woman's Day magazine.  Of course I didn't win, but I did get signed up to recieve email's from Woman's Day.  Now, normally I would hit the unsubscribe me button but these emails, I was pleasantly surprised to find out just aren't annoying.  I probably only get a few email's a week from this site and they always have some interesting recipes in them for me to browse over. I guess you can say that this week, my recipe found me!

Honey Orange Chicken adapted from Woman's Day
ingredients:

2 Tbsp flour
1⁄4 tsp salt
4 skinless, boneless chicken-breasts, pounded flat (I highly recommend pounding the heck out of chicken breasts with a mallet. It is one heck of an amazing stress reliever!)
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp freshly grated orange peel
1⁄2 cup fresh orange juice
1⁄2 cup canned 99% fat-free chicken broth
1 Tbsp honey
1 tsp minced garlic
1⁄4 cup chopped Italian flat leafed parsley


Directions:
1. Mix flour and salt in a plastic food bag. Shake the flattened chicken breasts to coat. 
2. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook, turning once, about 5 minutes or until golden and chicken is no longer pink in the center. Transfer cooked chicken breasts to a plate.
3. Add orange peel, juice, broth, honey and garlic to the skillet. Boil sauce for 4 minutes until slightly thickened.
4. Stir in the italian parsley and pour over the chicken breasts to serve.

I love, love, loved this dish!  The sweetness of the honey orange sauce added an amazing pop of flavor. I also liked that it was such a quick and easy dish to make that it wasn't even funny.  It was simply delightful!!!