Ja cię kocham…

I have so much leftover ham from Christmas Dinner!  I could feed a family of 15 or 20 with the ham that I have left!  This means that it’s time to get creative.  Sure I could just reheat the ham and eat it, but that gets boring by the end of the second day.  I want to feel as if this is an entirely different meal and not just reheated leftovers.

The day after Christmas I made Jay and I homemade biscuits using left over ham.  Boy these were good.  I’m not exactly the best baker in the world, but I managed to bake biscuits while still throwing in ingredients allowing me to feel as if my personality shines through.  Normally when I do this with baking I end up with disastrous results, but not this time!  This time there was much success!!

Ham and Cheddar Biscuits with Lemon and Chives

Yields 12-14 biscuits

Mildly adapted from: Thibeault’s Table

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1 Tbs. baking powder
1 Tbs. paprika (I used smoked paprika)
1-2 Tbs. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
1 cup milk, cream, or buttermilk*
*if using buttermilk add 1/2 tsp. baking soda
zest of 1/4 lemon
handful chives, finely chopped
handful cooked ham, cubed

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450°F.

Mix the flour with the baking powder, paprika and salt. Cut in butter until it resembles coarse sand.

Add lemon zest, ham, cheese, and chives.  Stir milk or cream in to flour mixture.  Mix quickly with fork until dough comes together. Using hands gently pat the ingredients together. Do not over mix. Pat out to about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick on a lightly floured board. Cut with biscuit cutters and place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake for approximately 12 to 15 minutes.

Then you can make a delicious breakfast sandwich out of your biscuits using MORE leftover ham, cheese and eggs!

Egg McMuffins from Mickey D’s rock my world.  I can eat one in a matter of moments.  I TRY to savor the taste of each bite but it never works because no sooner I bite the sucker, it’s gone.  My excitement is over.

I try to make “Egg McMuffins” at home but they are always so dry – even with the cheese.  I’ve sprayed/slathered the English Muffin with butter to try to moisten it, but nooooo, the sandwich remained disgustingly dry.  After making my Blue Stilton Cheese Sauce, which is essentially blue cheese with milk, flour, and butter (simple), I decided to use it to alleviate the over-crustiness of my sandwich.  Over-crustiness?  You get my point.

Since I’m “off” from work this week to focus on my thesis for grad school – being “off” is a whole other story in itself – I’ve been making heartier breakfasts.  This particular sandwich is for Jay because it’s really spicy, but the heat can easily be turned down for a heat-sensitive palette.  All that I did was add XXX hot sauce to the cheese sauce recipe.  It was really good but my mouth was on FIRE.  Perfect for Jay.  Then I threw some hot peppers on top.  He loved it.  I should call the sandwich Jay’s Inferno or eat this and your tongue will fall out.  Like I said, don’t do the hot sauce or the hot peppers, and there is no heat.  You’ll survive.  And so will your tongue.

Bacon Egg, and Spicy Cheese Sandwich

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 english muffins
2 eggs
4 slices reduced sodium, bacon (I like center-cut)
Blue Stilton Cheese Sauce + hot sauce stirred in it (hot sauce optional)
hot peppers (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Cook bacon in a medium/large skillet.  When it’s almost done, push bacon to the side of the skillet and cook the eggs.  If you want to saute your peppers, throw them in the skillet as well.

While eggs are cooking, toast your english muffins.

Place your toasted english muffins on your serving plate and spread the top half with the cheese sauce.  On the bottom half add the egg, bacon, and peppers.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Close them, arrange them so they look pretty on your plate, and enjoy!

Today we had a heat index of 105 degrees F.  And I was outside pretty much allll day looooong.  Needless to say, I wasn’t about to have anything hot for dinner.  I needed something cool and refreshing.  It was a night for salad.  I did it a little differently.  Instead of throwing it all in a bowl, I decided to make a platter out of it and put the lettuce on the side.  So go ahead.  Make a salad platter.  It makes the simplest of meals look beautiful and fancy.

My platter from Left to Right:

Red bell peppers
Green hot peppers
Avocado
Bacon
Chicken
Eggs
Scallions
Mushrooms
Roma tomatoes

I used endive lettuce and ranch dressing.  I know I should have used blue cheese, but I just love ranch!

ENJOY!