If I knew you were coming, I'd have baked a cake...

It's almost 1 pm and I am still in my jammies. hey, gimme a break, I rarely get the chance to relax so I decided today was a relax day...at least for 30 more minutes. I wanted to try something different the other day so I took my crabcake recipe and substituted tuna canned in olive oil for the crabmeat. It was actually really good. Wife wanted to have "tuna melt burgers" (her idea that I was supposed to figure out how to make) so this is what I came up with. I just combined them with bread crumbs, onion, red pepper, jalps, s &p,and an egg. I then shallow fried them in olive oil and melted jack cheese on them in the broiler (on a butter bun from the bakery). Pretty tasty. I think a mini version would make a great snack for a cocktail party. The soup is a veggie soup with beans made for wife's sister. her and her squeeze were passing through and we made this for a speedy veg-tastic dinner. The salad was lunch yesterday that we had before mom and dad dish left. I used a brown sugar rub on the chicken and combined it with greens and sunflower shoots from shadowbrook farms. Also had made some croutons from the seeded pain de campagne that we started making at the bakery. Pick some up, sesame and flax seeds toasted to nirvana creating a crunchy, nutty crust on an intensely flavorful country bread...yes please!

Also, went to the market for the first time this year. I hadn't been in 2 years, It's getting huge! I couldn't believe the number of new booths that were there. If you live lincoln, you have to go check it out. I am thinking about making another trip next week since my lettuce has finally quit (time to plant again!)

Alms...Alms for the pork.

Nothing gets me more excited than the thought of slow cooking a bunch of pork. Well, ok, maybe slow cooking a bunch of pork that is marinated overnight and then wrapped in banana leaves does get me more excited, but come on! who wouldn't be? I know that I have posted this before, but that was a while ago and I had really been craving it lately. I usually only make this when I find pork butt on sale. I'm talking mega-sale here...like 98 cents a pound. That's also when I load up on sausage-making supplies. I usually find it about 4 times a year at super saver on 48th. ok, back to the meat...Does this dish take a little bit of time to prep? yes. Does it require a special trip to a mexican grocery? probably. But listen, it's worth it. It's a very different combination of spices that leads to a really complex flavor. I usually serve it with some rice and beans, tortillas, but you would be totally fine just serving it with some tortillas and eating it taco style (uhhh...i don't remember dressing up like a taco?!?). It's very versatile, I've even used the meat in mole (not the yard-ruining rodent) sauce. give this one a try on a weekend night.

Other newsicals: For the past month, wifeshow has been studying for the leed commercial interiors exam. basically, she has worked more than full time hours and has then come home and spent hours upon hours studying for this thing. it paid off, she passed with high marks (only missing 9 out of 200 questions!) and we are all breathing a little easier around here. Mom and Dad dish were in town and we went out to celebrate at a local restaurant called, Dish. Since this place shares my name, I wish I could say that I had a glorious experience and was wowed by the complex food and outstanding service. Not to say that the food was bad, it was above average, but one thing that was a huge turn-off was the bread. Usually, Dish serves bread from LeQ, but they had run out and we ended up with some crappy sysco wonder bread loaf thing. It was awful beyond awful. My Mom wasn't afraid to tell them it was crap. It was really hard to rebound from there. I left feeling underwhelmed and wished I had just made dinner myself. I definitely had a better time being there and spending time with family than I had eating the food. Not trying to be a downer, just being honest... I expect a little bit more (not portion size, quality) when my food gets above the 15 dollar range.

DISH recommends:

pickled brussels sprouts! ok, stop right there. quit making that face...I mean it. I picked these up yesterday at the store out of curiosity and I am hooked. I can't imagine a more tasty, piquant snack. They have a lot more crunch than I thought that they would and they would be a great addition to an olive plate or something of the sort. Can't wait to try and can my own.

Puerco Pibil:

5 lbs pork butt, cubed into 2 inch pieces

5tbs annato seeds (also called achiote seeds)*

1 tbs cumin seed

1 tbs coriander seed

1 tbs peppercorns

10 allspice berries

1/2 tsp cloves

2 habanero chiles, de-veined, de-seeded

1/2 c orange juice

1/2 cup white vinegar

2 tbs kosher salt

8 cloves garlic

juice of 5 lemons

splash of good quality tequila (don't skimp!)

1 pkg banana leaves*

large ziploc bags

Prep your pork butt, and place into two large ziplocs. I use gallon size. Add the achiote seeds, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, peppercorns, allspice berries, and cloves into a spice grinder and pulverize them into oblivion. set aside. In a blender, combine the habaneros, garlic, orange juice, vinegar, lemon juice, and tequila. add your spice mixture and salt and blend for about 30 seconds or until incorporated. Pour into ziploc bags, distributing evenly as possible. Let marinate in fridge overnight. Preheat oven to 300F. In a large casserole, place your banana leaves so they hang over the edges quite a bit. you'll probably have to use two and overlap them (It'll look like your pan has wings!). Pour in the pork mixture, marinade and all, and fold the excess banana leaves over to enclose the pork. Cover the top with foil very tightly, and then put in the oven for four hours. Serve with rice and beans, or just tortillas, or just eat it with your hands, The possibilities abound!

* Items available at a mexican specialty foods store (in L-town, they are at La Mexicana)

ps. Don't try this with other cuts of pork, they don't work out. You need the fat because of the long roasting time. And don't trim much of the fat off, it melts into the meat. gurgle... gurgle...

Went to a garden party...

I'm usually wicked tired on fridays and don't feel like cooking before I have to go back in to work, so I try and keep it simple. this friday, I made some noodles and just sauteed some garden veg to go in there with them. I steeped some aromatics in chicken stock, and then cooked the noodles in that broth before I combined everything. Brocolli, sugar snaps, snow peas, onions, and carrots (not garden). Pretty tasty...pretty easy.

The baguette picture is from the farmer's market bake. I lowered the temperature of the water that I used in the white-yeasted dough, and it made for an excellent end-product. The "ears" of the baguette really popped up and we had some amazing bread that day. Of course, I must credit Marth's baguette-shaping skills, those definitely helped. Anyway, just thought I would share a pic of what I do, hope you all are getting to the market and getting some great bread, if not, you really need to. Better yet, stop in at the bakery and pick some up. Super fresh, super tasty. If you stop in early, say hi to the dish (nerdy guy, dark glasses, covered in flour) There is no excuse to eat crappy bread.

other photo is of some banana nut muffins we made yesterday. It was wifeshow's mama's recipe. they are really, really good. Would love to share the recipe with you cats, but don't know if it's a family only thing, have to ask. Or you could marry the last reitz girl...but she has a boyfriend, so the odds aren't in your favor.

I like to think that I use every part of the mammoth

Tomato soup sounds like it should be the easiest thing in the world to make. However, like many other things, I find that it is one thing that is very hard to make well. Usually, I hate tomato soup, for the main reason that it hardly ever really tastes like tomatoes. Some versions are so acidic that they taste like you are sucking on a handful of duracells, other versions have so much cream in them that you lose the tomato taste.

I stumbled on a recipe for tomato soup a while ago that used bread to give it the illusion of creaminess. I thought that it sounded like a good idea, but kind of filed it away under the category of "maybe I'll try that later", which, if you are anything like me, sometimes turns into the category of "maybe I'll try that never." Well, by some stroke of fate/luck, I finally decided to make this and was pretty pleased with the results. I tweaked it a little here and there, adding vermouth where it called for brandy and substituting pain de campagne for white sandwich bread. It really does taste (and even looks like) like there was some sort of dairy added to it, but not in an obnoxious way. The clear flavor of tomatoes is really pronounced without being acidic, and the creaminess is a nice compliment without being heavy or stodgy.

Also made some shrimp and salmon with a brown sugar/paprika rub. Marth gave me some beet tops from her momma's garden that I sauteed with some broccoli stems and caramelized onion. If you haven't tried beet tops, you really need to. We've been eating them on pizza at the bakery...kind of like spinach , but with more flavor. I heart them.

The last pic is some rosemary/lemonzest/garlic pork paillards with some honey glazed roasted carrots. cutting the meat into thin medallions is a great way to save cooking time and also to fool your stomach into thinking that you are eating more than you actually are.

DISH recommends:

34 Degree flatcrisp crackers. OH...JACKPOT! For those of you who have a crispy/crunchy/cracker tooth, welcome to nirvana. Had some of these over at iske's a couple of weeks ago and I can't get enough of them. Super thin. the texture is what gets me...I love crunchy. Great for dips or spready cheese. I picked mine up at leons.

"creamy" tomato soup: (serves about 4, or three hungrys)

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 bay leaf

1 can 28 0z tomatoes, whole in juice (tomato juice that is!)

1 tbs brown sugar

3 large slices quality country bread (like pain de campagne or sourdough), crusts reserved

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes, or more if you're a spicy

2 cups chicken stock (or vegetable if you want to make it vegetarian)

2 tbs vermouth

salt and peps

scallions or chives and cherry tomatoes/crust croutons to garnish

heat 2 tbs of the oil in a dutch oven, or heavy pot over med heat and then add onion, garlic, red pepper, and bay leaf. stir and cook for about 4-5 minutes. put in the tomates, juice and all and smash them up with a wooden spoon or potato masher until they are pretty smashy, no big pieces left. Stir in the sugar and bread, bring to a boil and then turn down to med-low and cook until bread starts to break down, another 4 or so minutes. remove from heat and throw out bay leaf. Working in batches (about 2 batches), transfer the soup to a blender. cover with a towel and pulse until smooth. Once it is smooth and the threat of hot exploding soup has subsided, turn it on and slowly drizzle in one of the remaining tablespoons of olive oil. transfer soup to large bowl. Repeat with other half of the soup. Rinse out the pot and add all of soup back to pot. Stir in your chicken broth and vermouth. season with salt and peps. Garnish with some minced scallions, small dice cherry tomatoes, and croutons you made out of the bread crusts.

Brown sugar rub:

2 packed tbs brown sugar

1 rounded tbs paprika

1 tsp blk pepper

1/2 tsp salt

put everything in a bowl and stir it up until incorporated. I like to use this on whole roasted chickens and also on seafood. piece

Some more garden pics...

Just a few more pics that wouldn't fit on my last post. looks like it's going to be a hot week, might have to turn on the ac. well, gotta run, much to do and all. piece.

Dumpster Diver...or Junk Spelunk!

Thought that I would post a pic of the garden. things are going really well. I just picked another giant head of broccoli and am starting to get peas of both varieties (snow and sugar snap). It should only be a matter of time before we are in full swing here and able to rely mostly on garden goods. How is everyone else's garden doing? I'm curious...very curious...

Saturday night we made some kebabs on the webster. I don't know if I've ever told the story about my beloved weber charcoal grill. anyway, it was given to me by a friend that found it next to somebody's garbage, ready to be taken away. He also told me that if you ever want a charcoal grill, to just drive around, apparently, people throw them away all the time. I didn't believe him, but sure enough, I still see them today. I guess a lot of people are converting to gas grills; I guess a lot of people are crazy.

anyway, back to the babs, I used a north african spice paste on these. For the meat, I used lamb and beef, and accompanied them with some pineapple, onion, orange bell pepper, and cherry tomatoes. A while back, I had read an article in Cook's Illustrated about butterflying the kebab meat before you put it on so that more flavor would get in there. but after doing it both ways, I'm calling shenanigans on them. Their way tends to make the meat tough and it's not worth the extra effort. We also had some corn that we soaked in water and then roasted directly on the coals, turning once. Not quite in season yet, but the good stuff is coming...

I had some leftover sausages in the fridge that I had grilled (but not eaten, wait...that was obvious, huh...) and wanted to use them up, and simultaneously, get the most out of them. I ended up putting them into a risotto with some roasted tomatoes and kale, and it really added a lot to the dish (oh yeah, I almost forgot, I made a huge batch of chicken stock yesterday, perfect for risotto making!). the smokiness of the sausages cut through the creaminess of the rice and really made for a pleasant bite when you had a forkful of the rice, kale, and tomatoes. So, yeah, if you have some leftover grilled meats (i.e. sausages, chicken, pork, steaks, lamb, shrimp, you get the idea, just no hamburgers!) camping out in your icebox, throw them into a risotto, the smoky flavor really shines through, and it's always nice to give your leftovers a face-lift.

other newsbits: I rarely talk about non-food stuff on here, but most of you know that i like to geek-out on fitness, and most of you also know my love for product recommendation. so, with that said, for those of you who also work out and take a protein supplement, I highly recommend that you pick yourself up some "Muscle Milk." I was spending about twice as much when I was getting my stuff at aikin's and wasn't really happy with the results (not to mention the taste), so on a whim, i switched to this stuff and I really like it. It also comes in already mixed form (for the times that you cannot find a blender), which is decent and super convenient. I 've noticed some progression in lean muscle since I've started this, which is a big plus, since I felt stagnant when I was using the other. I picked mine up at target for under 15 clams, there's probably a website out there that has it cheaper. here is what I do for a post-workout shake:

1 cup skim milk

1 scoop muscle milk powder

1 banana

handful of berries ( I usually use frozen strawbs, unless I have fresh on hand)

1 scoop psyllium husk powder (for fiber, it offsets the boost in protein you are taking), optional

On lifting days, I also add 1 scoop creatine powder, but not on yoga or tai chi days.

blend it all up and chug it down, as soon as you can after your workout.

DISH recommends:

Oster Beehive classic blender: This blender is great! pretty much pulverizes anything you put in it, so mind your digits! I use mine at least 5 times a week.

North African Spice Paste (or wet rub, if you like:):

(you will need a grinder of some sort, I use an old coffee grinder, like this one: click me!)

(I said grinder! don't try this in a blender, or a food processor, however you can use a seasoned molcajete, or morter and pestel)

2 tsps chili flakes

2 tbs coriander seed

1 tbs cumin seed

1 tbs caraway seed

1 tbs black peppercorns

2 tsps kosher salt

2 cloves minced garlic

5 tbs olive oil

Place the chili flakes, coriander seed, cumin seed, caraway, and peppercorns into the grinder and blend into a med-fine powder. empty into a small bowl with the salt and garlic. add the olive oil and stir to combine. Goes great on chicken, lamb, beef, pork, and even veggies to be roasted. you can adjust the chili flakes to your liking, this is probably a milder version (wifeshow's german and russian for pete's sake!) so feel free to experiment. later.

ps. no comments about my shabby lawn, either! haters...

Re-use...Re-duce...Re-pose.

It happens to all of us, right? Maybe we overslept (obviously, my excuse. weird hours and all:) or didn't thaw out meat to be used in tonight's dinner or maybe we were just dead tired and cooking was the last thing that we wanted to be doing. Well, whatever the case, it has and will happen many times. for those times, it is always nice to have a few recipes in your back pocket (metaphor alert!! unless of course, you'd actually like to keep a healthy cache of quick dish ideas stowed away in your pants) that you can whip up in in a meager amount of time. one of these dishes that I like to make is called chilaquiles. It is a mexican dish that uses up stale corn tortilla chips and you could probably make it in your sleep. The chips are usually simmered in a mole or salsa until they begin to soften and are commonly paired with eggs or shredded chicken.

as you can see in the middle pic, I made some veggie tacos the other night, composed of smashed pinto beans (previously dried, of course! and mixed with some green onion, garlic, cilantro, cumin, and chile powder), fried potatoes, and some squash and peas from the garden. Well, I had some of this mixture left over so I just combined it with some tomato sauce (also left over) and chicken broth, to make a really rough sort of sauce for the chips. dropped in some smashed chips and let them simmer until softening, and I also poured in an egg I had beaten and let if firm up a little, folding it into the mix as I went. So, yeah, this is a dish that can be made a million ways (I've even made it just by combining salsa and chicken stock and then throwing a heaping pile of chips in, super easy, and it was still tasty, I really don't think you can mess this one up.) and I'll bet that every one of those ways is delicious. Top with cheese of your liking (traditionally they use cotija, I used jack, I'll bet that feta would make a thrilling substitute, should have thought of that) and maybe some sour cream, avocado, and definitely some cilantro. Somebody should try this with doritos, seriously...

I also made some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I made a batch of dough and rolled it into balls and then froze them on a silpatted (yes! new dish word!), covered cookie sheet. once they were frozen, I just bagged them up, now I have cookies ready to bake whenever I want, booyah! I love thinking ahead, just wish I could apply it to other areas of my life:)

A little tip:

cutlery and more has a pretty wicked clearance sale going on right now, worth checking out, especially if you are into all-clad stuff. give it a gander: here (that all clad mc-2 stuff is soooo sweet! must save pennies...)

Also--going to hit up the berry farm with the iskes (holla!) this weekend, should be a jam- (sorry, couldn't resist) packed delight.

The seat of my pants has frequent flyer miles

Several times in my life, I've been asked the question, "If your kitchen was on fire, and you could only grab one thing, what would it be?" I usually say a fire extinguisher, but for the sake of this topic, I'll play along. For me, It would have to be my Staub dutch oven...and my main knife (MAC ultimate 10"). Yeah, I know, they say only ONE thing, but I don't care, I'll start on fire before I live without that knife. Pretty much all this week, I used a dutch oven to make dinner. With about 30 minutes (or less) of prep time, you can have a wonderful meal waiting for you by dinnertime.

The stew-type dish with pasta is a beef shank osso bucco. There is something so wonderful and beefy about shank meat. It is by no means tender, so you have to be patient, I like to think that the meat is just playing hard-to-get. One thing I did try differently here is a new trick with the marrow. traditionally, you leave it in the bones and simmer everything all together, scooping it out at the end and eating it on crusty bread. I wanted to try and give the entire dish as much flavor as I could so I soaked the bones (trimmed of the meat) in cold water for a while and then popped the marrow out. I made a garlic paste with a few garcloves and some kosh and then mashed the marrow in with all of that. After I had browned the meat and added my aromatics, I deglazed the pot with some wine and then added the marrow paste (along with a bit of tomato paste) and just kind of let the whole mixture dissolve and melt into itself as I scraped the bottom up with a wooden spoon. It was a really big payoff, the end result was a rich, velvety sauce that was bursting with beefy flavor and had a very glossy sheen.

I told you I was going to make cassoulet, right? Well, I did just that. I had made this before, but just used pork butt stewed in the dish from the beginning. This time, I wanted to smoke it first and then add it into the dish a couple of hours before it would be done. I really liked this method. Not only did it add a nice smoky flavor, but the texture was a lot better than the first time. ( Previously, I thought that the long braise kind of mushed up the pork a little, but that could obviously have been remedied by just adding the pork later). plus, I added quite a few "burnt ends" to the cassoulet. Man, I love those things! (don't worry, not actually "burnt", just a term used to describe the dark color and super smoky flavor.) A nice glug of fruity olive oil and a sprinkle of grey salt rounded out this dish nicely.

I saved back some of the smoked pork to use in the last dish. I made some carnitas with the leftover meat that was slowly braised with onions, garlic, peppers,cilantro, and tomatoes (and a bit of oj). cumin and chili powder also showed up and we topped that mix with some more cilantro and some avacado. Pretty easy stuff, even better that we made it out of leftovers. Your leftovers want to be eaten. It's their life's ambition. Instead of letting them get fuzzy in your fridge, get creative and see what you can make out of something you've already made.

DISH recommends:

STAUB la cocotte french oven: I have the 8qt, but I will be the first to admit that it is a little on the overkill side, size-wise. I would recommend picking up a smaller, 5-6 qt size if you don't already have one, unless, of course, you have a very large, hungry family.

about the cassoulet:

I would love to post a recipe here, but I kind of flew by the seat of my pants on this one so I don't really know exactly. I can tell you what I did though, as most of you already know your way around the kitch.

small diced three onions, 3 celery ribs (and a handful celery leaves),

red and yellow bell peppers, and minced some garlic.

sauteed all of this in olive oil over med-low heat until the vegetables start to break down/get some color 10-12 minutes, and then added about a cup of white wine and a healthy glob of tomato paste, mixed it all up and let it simmer and reduce for 5 minutes. I then added some fresh parsley, salt and peps, thyme, sage, and savory (all dried...all eye-balled, but prob a couple tsps.), and some sausages (your choice). Let the sausages cook for another 5, and then added some dried beans (I used white beans about 2 cups, soaked (for about 4 hours) and drained), chicken stock to cover, and some of the shredded smoked pork butt. I put this into a 350F oven for a couple of hours and that was that. Sorry, I swear that I will start paying more attention soon...if anyone wants to make this, but is uncomfortable with the shoddy recipe, just let me know and I'll try to post a better one...maybe I'll just do that anyway...but later. piece

Let me take you down...sorry, couldn't resist

I'm convinced that until yesterday, I had never tasted a strawberry. I have no idea what the cardboardy, bland dull pink things I was eating were, I just know that they pale in comparison to the hoard I ate yesterday. Wifeshow and I went out to roca berry farm yesterday afternoon and picked strawbs for about an hour. We netted 10.5 pounds. we were so excited the whole way home, driving in our deliciously berry-scented saturn, until we realized, "uhh...what are we going to do with 10.5 pounds of strawberries. Besides eat them as is, of course. Well, so far we made some preserves (which are mind bending, I must say) and a pretty tasty vinaigrette, but I think that I will make some strawberry-rhubarb something or other later on in the day. I am also going to make some smoked pork butt and convert it into a cassoulet of sorts. Better get going, here are a few recipes to try out, but do yourself a favor and go to roca berry farm, you can buy already picked if you are a lazy sack:)

strawberry preserves.

4 pounds cleaned/stemmed/hulled strawbs

1 cup sugar

couple good squeezes lemon juice.

put the berries and sugar in a large mixing bowl, and squeeze them, mashing them up with your (clean) hands (think playing in the mud when you were little, except you can lick your fingers afterwards, even though I probably did anyway). Pour this mixture into a large saute pan with high sides and reduce over med-low heat for about 40 minutes, checking every 5 minutes to skim off foamy stuff. make sure it is not sticking to the bottom, you don't want to burn it. let cool completely and then store it in clean jars or whatever in the fridge. You can also can this stuff, just sterilize your jars and lids and then pour into those and following the directions here: canning tips

strawberry walnut vinaigrette:

1-2tbs balsamic vinegar

salt and peps (pinch or so)

3-4 strawbs

roasted walnut oil

in a medium mixing bowl, smash up the berries with a fork, or spoon, or your thumb, or whatever, add the balsamic, salt and peps, and sugar. give it a little mix. while whisking this mixture, slowly pour in your oil until it emulsifies, you'll know when...trust me. use on salad or grilled fish/chicken, or as a dip for bread.

(note) the "1-2" tbs, is just depending on how much you want to make. Obviously, the more vinegar you add, the more oil you'll have to whisk in to get an emulsification. I tend to make dressing in small batches. just my own pref.

DISH recommends:

Cuisinart saute pan w/cover, 5.5 qt. I used this to make my preserves. I use it for tons of stuff, if you don't have a high-sided saute pan, you really should invest in one. I would consider it essential in your kitch.

crepes of wrath

i'm starting to feel the beginnings of summer. The garden is just starting to produce tasty treats, we've managed to eat outside once and a while, and I am also starting to get produce from friends and neighbors. In fact, summer is quickly starting to compete with my longtime favsies, autumn. We'll see what happens, too early to tell.

Sometimes, I get intimidated very easily. Mostly over stupid things. I had it in my head that you had to possess eagle powers to make crepes (or blintze, or any variation of these thin little pancakes). so, naturally I had put it off...for years. You see, wifeshow has been trying to get me to make these for a very long time. I finally ran out of excuses and decided to give it a go. It was not that bad. ok, actually it was probably easier than pancakes. I was kicking myself for not trying it earlier. The best part about them is deciding what you want to put in them. We were eating ours for dinner, so we went with a savory filling of shredded chicken (leftover from chicken in a pot), homemade yogurt cheese, caramelized onion, spinach, and roasted grape tomatoes. All those ingredients (minus the cheese) were chucked into a saute pan for a couple of minutes so their flavors could duke it out. I also made a rhubarb-balsamic reduction to pour over the top. So, first try was actually pretty good. I will be way less reticent to make these again.

Let's see, second picture is a cheeseplate wifeshow whipped up. Notice the lily leaves? of course you did! I think that it was beecher's flagship with honey. We like that combination...hard.

Last pic is of some parmesan bread marth and I made at LeQ. It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing early last week because we ran out of blue cheese and I had some extra dough, but people seemed to like them so we made more for the markets. They are about the perfect size for a hotdog or sausage.

DISH recommends:

eating on china. If you have china, odds are that you only use it once or twice a year (if that). i say, you should use it as much as you can. It makes your dinner seem a little bit nicer, makes your food look better, and well, because it's really expensive and you are just letting it gather dust. So go ahead, dust those babies off and grab your ticket to fancytown.

oh yeah, promised Mia I would post this recipe:

Croque Madame: serves two

for the bechamel:

1.5 tbs butter

1.5 tbs flour

1 cup milk

pinch salt and peps

pinch grated nutmeg

pinch paprika

for the sandwich:

4 slices country bread (preferably pain de campagne from Lequartier:)

4 slices good quality ham (think black forest, sugar-cured, Virginia country, or even bacon)

some of your bechamel

1 cup grated cheese (I like gruyere, havarti, or some variation of swiss)

2 eggs, cooked to your preference

turn oven on to 400F

ok, make your bechamel by melting the butter over med heat in a small pot, and add the flour. stir for a minute or so until the flour is incorporated. slowly whisk in your milk and then add your spices. turn the heat to low and whisk every minute or so, until the sauce has thickened, about 5 minutes. check for seasoning. turn the heat back up for a couple of minutes so the flavors start to party.

ok sandwich action. Get a baking sheet and line it with some parch or silpat. Assemble two bread slices, spread some bechamel on them, then a hearty bit of shredded cheese, your ham, the other slice of bread, more cheese, and a bit more bechamel. pop into the oven, and bake for about 5 minutes or so, until everything goes all melty-like. While you are baking the sandwich, fry or poach two eggs to your liking (I prefer a soft-poached egg, so velvety, so creamy...).

Remove sandwiches from oven, put on plate, top with egg, and more bechamel. Garnish with some parsley chiffonade. Other things I like to add to this sandwich are: blanched asparagus, spinach, tomato slices, or roasted red peppers. I like to get a vegetable in there to break up the fat...sometimes...other times, I just want the fatwich. piece.