Ham, Cheese and Pickle Quesadillas

I love ham, melted cheese and dill pickles.  I love quesadillas.  I thought I might try the two together.  I'm glad I did.  This was a quick, easy and tasty throw together lunch. 

I used ham, provolone, thinly sliced dill pickles and a bit of mayo on two flour tortillas ... toasted in our sandwich press.

Reuben - with Crock Pot Ham

So, I made this ham in the crock pot the other day.
It made A LOT! 
I didn't really like the ham ... but there's no way I was throwing it out.
I put it in the freezer and have been thinking of creative ways to use it.  I didn't like it
because it tasted more like corned beef than ham.  I don't care for
corned beef.  But, I thought since that's what it tasted like,
maybe we could use the ham in a Reuben sandwich.
I did.  And it worked.  But not the
first time.




The first time, I did it like a regular sandwich.  You know, between two pieces of bread.  And toasted.
It didn't have much flavor.

The second time I did it as an open melt and drizzled the dressing on the top.
It was MUCH BETTER ... quick tasty ... that way!

Here's how I made it ..

Leftover crock pot ham that tastes like corned beef ... or you could use actual corned beef.
Saurkraut, out of a can
Jarlsburg cheese
Homemade Russian Dressing (recipe to follow)

Pile the first three ingredients onto the bread (I used a light Rye) and toast in the sandwich press, or under the griller (broiler).

Once cheese is melted, drizzle with dressing ...

Russian Dressing:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon (or a little more, I didn't measure) diced onion
salt and pepper to taste
Mix ingredients together.

Creamy Ham and Greens

 

So, last night was a bit of a scrounge around and see what I could find to make for dinner.  I need to go shopping but I'm really not motivated to do it because we have two late sporting nights ... tonight and tomorrow ... and then it's Friday ... and then we have another Christmas party ... and I'm waiting on the $250 food voucher that should be coming today ( it was part of the deal we got when we bought our new fridge last week )  And ... And ... And ... 

What I came up with was ... spanish tortilla ... potatoes baked like for spicy potatoes but without the spicy.

I had some ham in the freezer that needed using, I had silverbeet, rainbow chard and kale in the garden that needed picking, I had a bit of cream leftover from Rory's birthday carbonara and I always have garlic and onion on hand .... 

This is what came of those ingredients.

1.5 cups slivered ham, chopped ( I had a triple smoked one )
3 cups mixed greens, chopped
2 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 a red onion, diced
cream,  (I only had 1/4 of a cup and I think it was plenty !)

Start with a bit of olive oil in the bottom of your pan, add garlic and ham.  I started with the heat pretty hot and then turned it to medium pretty quick.  Once the garlic and ham have started to brown, add onion.  Cook a minute or two more than add the greens.  Cook a minute or two and then add the cream.  Cook a minute or two more ... or until the cream is no longer runny and seems to be coating the other ingredients.  Serve hot.  So yum !!

This served the four of us.

Rory's Rustic Ham Bone Soup

So, we had an amazing ham for Christmas dinner (I'll post that recipe later !) Rory wanted to do something with the ham bone so he searched on line, found a basic recipe and modified it ... Here is what he made. We loved it !

Ham Bone ... with about 1 cup of ham chunks that aren't good for sandwiches
½ pound (250g) dried red lentils
6 cups water
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 carrots, chopped
5 cloves garlic, a couple minced and a couple roughly chopped
1 red chili, diced
1 (420g) can of tomato puree
¼ cup canola oil
handful of roughly chopped fresh basil and parsley leaves
1 tsp garam masala
salt and pepper to taste

Rinse lentils thoroughly. Combine ingredients and bring to a boil. Then cover and simmer for 2 hours. Remove bone from soup. Pull ham off of bone and gather up big chunks that have fallen off ... chop it up and return to soup. Discard the bone.

That's it. Dead easy. You could also do it in the crock pot ... 8 to 10 hours on low.

We served it with buttered sour dough bread and Rory sprinkled a few chili flakes on top of his ...

Ham and Lentil Soup

I got a new crock pot this summer. One that actually works!! :) I love it.
I've been using it at least once a week on thursdays because we get home from cello lessons at FIVE and I need to have dinner ready and waiting. This week I made Ham and Lentil soup. I hesitate to post this picture. Lentils just aren't very pretty! But I LOVE to eat lentils. I have another lentil recipe that I love - curry lentils over rice. I'll have to post it sometime.


1 cup dry lentils
4 cups water
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup sliced carrots
1/2 cup chopped onions
2 tsp instant chicken bouillon granules
1 tsp bottled minced garlic or 2 cloves minced
1/2 tsp lemon peel finely shredded
1 cup cooked cubed ham
1/8 - 1/4 cayenne pepper
2 cups chopped fresh spinach

Sort, rinse and drain the lentils. Add everything to crock pot except for spinach and ham. Cook on low setting for about 4 hours. Stir in spinach and ham before serving. (I cooked it with the ham - it gave the ham more flavor!)
The only thing I didn't like about this soup is that there wasn't enough leftovers for lunch today :(

Tasty Toasted Treats

The Cast of Characters:

Lavash Bread
(or your favorite wrap)
ham
cheese - thinly sliced (or grated)
tomato - sliced
avocado
baby spinach
lime pickle
sandwich press






Scene One :

Layer wrap with desired filling
(this particular one was for the kids so I used BBQ sauce instead of lime pickle)








Scene Two :

Roll and put in sandwich press to toast.


The Finale :

Put onto plate.
Cut in half.
Put into mouth.

Say "yum" or similar expression of culinary pleasure.

These are the one I made for the kids. They love these.


And this is mine ...
Rory wasn't home. I did this for us during the day while Jono was home for a week of school holidays.

This lime pickle is the secret ingredient. SOOOOOO YUMMY !
It's a bit on the spicy side but it's a nice compliment to all the other flavors !!

Yum.
I think I have everything in the pantry/fridge to make this for lunch today. Makes me hungry thinking about it !!!