Killer Ham and Cheese Melt

I am having the time of my life with this blog. The cooking, the baking, the writing, the photography, the social media aspect to it, you name it. However, I am only a few weeks in and it’s already become an obsession. That’s a good thing though, right? I mean, it keeps me constantly thinking. What will I make next? Will my wife and sons love it? What if it bombs? What, what, what. However, once I get past that and an idea pops in my head, I get hyper-focused and can’t wait to start. And that is certainly the case with this Killer Ham and Cheese Melt.

This was one of those days where the cabinets and the fridge were close to empty, or so it seemed anyway. So we went to the store with my idea of making a ham and cheese sandwich, baked in a croissant with cheese on top. Naomi insisted that what I wanted to make was called a croque-monsieur, to which I replied, “huh?”. Yeah, something with that name is not what I am shooting for with my blog, sounds way too sophisticated for a guy like me. My goal is always to make “real food” for my family. Besides, with that name, the boys wouldn’t be interested. So while she was right about the name, in the end, I simplified this amazing sandwich by skipping the bechamel sauce and used everyday ingredients that most of us love – Swiss cheese (inside and on top), Parmesan cheese, ham, regular mustard and some mayo.

It ended up being so incredibly good, dripping with cheese, and every bite of the croissant melting in our mouths. Pure perfection. And this killer bad boy was made in less than 10 minutes, which didn’t allow Cole enough time to even get cranky or continually hover over my shoulder in the kitchen. And as you can probably guess in the picture above, the one with the arugula and egg was for Naomi. And I learned something else, the egg added to this makes it a croque-madame! Come on, really?

So as I progress with my skills and new found love for cooking, perhaps names such as croque-monsieur and croque-madame won’t scare me. After all, it really is simply a ham and cheese sandwich! To me at least. And a darn good one.