Name: Sweet and Spicy Ham and Cheese Panini
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 8 min
Yield: Serves 4 moderately hungry or 2 very hungry people
Ingredients: 4 slices Pepperidge Farm Farmhouse™ Hearty White sandwich bread; 8 slices Hillshire Farm® Thin-Sliced Honey Ham; 4 slices (or 4 ounces grated) Gouda cheese; 2 tablespoons Hellman's® Real Mayonnaise; 1/4 cup Jezebel sauce

Sweet and Spicy Ham and Cheese Panini

March 24, 2017

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This sweet and spicy ham and cheese panini is a tasty, quick, and easy dinner that only takes five ingredients. It’s great for weeknights!

Sometimes I feel like life is just a whirlwind and I am caught in the middle of it. Do you ever feel like that? I am sure that you do. One of the things that I have been working on in earnest this year (not a resolution – I don’t make resolutions – but a goal) is to be a little more mindful. I don’t want to turn 40 next year (!) and wonder where the last 20 years of my life went, and I certainly don’t want to be asking that question when I’m 50, or 60, or so on.

That’s a little bit easier said than done. We tend to live a “more is better” kind of life here in the States, right? More stuff, more activities, more jobs (ahem, that finger is pointing right back at me). I am learning that it’s okay to let go of some things. I’ve cleaned a lot of stuff out of my house (just trying to have some empty surfaces can be a challenge at times) and , as I’ve added a few things to my plate (who’s interested in a cooking class???), I’ve taken a few things off (like paying my sister to do Pinterest for me…might I mention that she’s way better at it than me?).

Another thing that I’ve let go of is the need to make fancy and intricate meals. With Philip’s job we’re often eating dinner at 9 p.m. and I do not need the stress of a dinner that takes about 35 steps and every pan in my kitchen. We ate sandwiches for dinner three nights last week, but my sandwiches have to be special sandwiches. This sweet and spicy ham and cheese panini fits the bill. With Pepperidge Farm®, Hillshire Farm® Thin Sliced Honey Ham, and Hellman’s® Real Mayonnaise, it’s pretty easy to throw together a sandwich that’s a little (well, a lot) more special than your standard lunchbox fare.

I picked up my ingredients for my ham and cheese panini at the Walmart Neighborhood Market near our house (I’ve been regularly getting my groceries through their grocery pickup, which is ??? by the way). Pepperidge Farm Farmhouse™ Hearty White has been my go-to sandwich bread ever since I heard America’s Test Kitchen talk about how awesome it is, and this bread, crafted from small-batch ingredients, tastes every bit as good as what I bake at home – and it’s sturdy enough to build a great sandwich but still soft and fresh. Hillshire Farm® Thin-sliced Honey Ham is slow roasted so it always tastes great, and it has no artificial flavors or by-products. And, of course, Hellman’s® Real Mayonnaise is just the best…who doesn’t love it (hush, you mayo-haters). The squeeze bottle makes it simple and mess-free.

Now, I used my new panini press (I bought it to use for my classes) to throw this together, but it would be just as easy to make using two cast iron skillets. I piled my Hillshire Farm® Thin Sliced Honey Ham on to the Pepperidge Farm® bread with some sliced Gouda cheese, then instead of brushing my bread with olive oil or melted butter, I spread some Hellman’s® Real Mayonnaise on it to make it crispy and brown. After pressing the sandwich, I spread on some Jezebel sauce (which if you guys will recall, I baked on some Brie last week) to add that sweet and spicy flair (if you don’t have Jezebel sauce, just whisk some prepared horseradish or brown or Dijon mustard with some apple jelly or pineapple preserves). It was so good!

I could eat this sweet and spicy ham and cheese panini at least once a week! I hope you’ll try it out!

Check out Sandwich with the Best for more great sandwich ideas using these products!

Mary

Yield: Serves 4 moderately hungry or 2 very hungry people

Sweet and Spicy Ham and Cheese Panini

10 minPrep Time:

8 minCook Time:

18 minTotal Time:

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Ingredients

4 slices Pepperidge Farm Farmhouse™ Hearty White sandwich bread
8 slices Hillshire Farm® Thin-Sliced Honey Ham
4 slices (or 4 ounces grated) Gouda cheese
2 tablespoons Hellman's® Real Mayonnaise
1/4 cup Jezebel sauce

Instructions

If using a panini press, preheat the press to 350 degrees. If using cast iron skillets, heat and 8-inch and 10-inch or two 10-inch skillets over medium-high heat.
Divide half of the cheese between two slices of bread. Follow by dividing the ham between the two slices of bread, and top with the remaining cheese. Top with the remaining slices of bread.
Spread the top of each sandwich with 1 1/2 teaspoons of the mayonnaise, then flip and spread the remaining mayonnaise on the other side.
Press the sandwich on the panini press for 7-8 minutes or until light golden brown, or reduce the heat under the 10-inch skillet to medium-low then place the sandwiches in the skillet and top with the other skillet, pressing down using an oven mitt, and grill for 5-8 minutes, until golden brown.
Remove the sandwiches from the heat. Remove the top slice of bread and spread 2 tablespoons of Jezebel sauce on each sandwich. Replace the tops and cut the sandwiches. Serve immediately.

Notes

If you do not have Jezebel sauce, whisk 3 1/2 tablespoons of apple jelly or pineapple preserves with 1 1/2 teaspoons of prepared horseradish or Dijon or spicy mustard.

https://chattavore.com/sweet-spicy-ham-and-cheese-panini/

This sweet and spicy ham and cheese panini is a tasty, quick, and easy dinner that only takes five ingredients. It's great for weeknights! #SandwichWithTheBest #CollectiveBias #ad | recipe from Chattavore.com

Buffalo Chicken Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

March 6, 2017

This Buffalo chicken grilled cheese is easy, delicious, and just a little bit indulgent. It’s a great simple weeknight dinner!

Do you ever get in a food jag? You know, where you only ever want to eat one thing and you want to eat that thing all the time? Lately, I’ve been in a food jag of my own of sorts. Not really so much that I just want to eat one thing over and over, but I’ve definitely been craving a few specific types of food lately.

I love all kinds of food. Vegetables, fruits, cheese, meat, snack food, you name it…I’ll eat it. I work hard to keep myself from getting stuck in a “you can’t eat that” mentality. It works for me, because if I tried to restrict certain foods from my diet I would definitely turn into a dietary rebel…you know, someone who eats all the things that they’re “not supposed to eat”. So while I try to cook from scratch whenever possible, I’m cool with Doritos when they’re the only thing that will do (because it happens) and I don’t deny myself a Buffalo chicken grilled cheese.

This is a recipe that I published for the first time several years ago. Actually, 2012, right after my precious niece was born. I included a picture of her in the original post, so now you can compare a picture of her then to a picture of her now. She’s the best!

The idea for this Buffalo chicken grilled cheese originally came from Closet Cooking, but this is my own recipe. I shredded up a batch of my dry-brined chicken and mixed it with some cream cheese and hot sauce (I stick with the basics and use Frank’s). All four pieces of bread get some shredded cheddar then the chicken gets sandwiched between the cheese. Butter makes the bread crisp when you toast it in the oven, and there’s no flipping, which helps you avoid the danger of the sandwich falling apart on you.

These Buffalo chicken grilled cheese sandwiches are a super-simple dinner for when you need to indulge yourself a little bit!

Shared on The Weekend Potluck on Served Up With Love!

Mary

Yield: serves 4 moderately hungry or 2 very hungry people

Buffalo Chicken Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

This recipe was inspired by Closet Cooking.

15 minPrep Time:

14 minCook Time:

29 minTotal Time:

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Ingredients

1 recipe dry-brined chicken thighs, shredded
2 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup hot sauce
4 slices sturdy sandwich bread (I used Pepperidge Farm Farmhouse Hearty White)
4 ounces Cheddar cheese, shredded
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Blue Cheese dressing (homemade or store-bought - I've included a recipe in the notes)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400°.
Place the shredded chicken in a medium pan and set over medium heat. Add the cream cheese and the hot sauce and stir until the cream cheese is completely melted and all of the ingredients are completely combined.
Divide half of the cheese between two slices of bread. Top with the chicken (you may have a little bit of chicken left over) then top with remaining cheese and the remaining bread.
Brush the tops of the bread with half of the butter then flip the sandwiches and brush the other side with the remaining butter.
Place the sandwiches on a baking sheet and bake for seven minutes. Flip and bake for another seven minutes or until golden brown. Serve immediately with blue cheese dressing for dipping.

Notes

To make blue cheese dressing, combine 1/2 cup buttermilk, 1/2 cup mayonnaise, and 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese in a food processor or blender until well combined. Transfer to a jar or bowl and stir in another 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese. This recipe is adapted from The Food Lab by Kenji Lopez-Alt .

https://chattavore.com/buffalo-chicken-grilled-cheese-sandwiches/

This Buffalo chicken grilled cheese is easy, delicious, and just a little bit indulgent. It's a great simple weeknight dinner! | recipe from Chattavore.com

Pan Fried Honey BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger

February 15, 2017

This honey BBQ bacon cheeseburger is perfectly pan-fried in cast iron and topped with bacon and creamy bbq sauce. It’s hard to beat!

Summer won’t start officially for another few weeks now, but everyone knows that Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start to summer. School’s out and, here in the South at least, it definitely feels like summer. Summer is cookout season, and I can’t even imagine how many burgers will be grilled over the next three months or so. Everyone who reads this blog regularly knows that burgers are kind of my “thing”. I’ve made lots of burgers over the years, and while they were edible, the perfect burger has eluded me. I’ve been eating a lot of burgers lately in preparation for updating my top burgers list, and with a more strategic approach to choosing my favorites I’ve learned a few things about just what makes the “perfect” burger.

I always thought that grilled burgers were the pinnacle of burger perfection, until I discovered that this was not the case. That’s right…this bacon cheeseburger here does not bode well for your summer cookouts. The best burgers? Pan fried over high heat. Preferably in a cast iron skillet. My 12-inch Lodge skillet is just perfect for that. I made them thin (double patties = greater surface area = more crispy bits = yaaaaaasssss) and cooked them hot till they were crusty on the outside and juicy on the inside.

The meat has to be just right. I like to grind my own, and I’ve found that a blend of skirt steak and boneless short ribs provide just the right fat content and texture for my liking (by the way, you can grind your meat in a food processor if you don’t have a grinder-I use a KitchenAid attachment). If grinding your own meat isn’t your thing, buy 80/20 meat at the store…this is not the time to worry about fat content…especially considering what I’m about to tell you. I add butter to my burgers. Yep, butter. The extra fat amps up the flavor. I also season the meat before forming the burgers so you can taste the seasoning throughout.

Another thing-the perfect burger (in my house, anyway) always has cheese-melted cheese. You have to find a good melting cheese, and in this case, a good quality American cheese (i.e. not the kind that is individually wrapped in plastic) is perfect for melting and doesn’t distract from the flavor of the burger. Sometimes, a strong cheese is a good thing, and I do love a good Cheddar, Gruyere, blue, or Gouda. But it must.be.melted.

I have also discovered that minimal toppings make the best burger. I’ve done something I never thought I’d do and started requesting my burgers without lettuce and tomato. I love lettuce and tomato (and kind of feel like a picky toddler when I ask for them to be left off) but often I think they cause a breakdown in “structural integrity”-i.e. how well the burger holds together. In this case, a creamy honey BBQ sauce (which is really just my Chick-Fil-A sauce copycat recipe), caramelized onions, and bacon (crumbled and tucked under the melted cheese) work together for a pretty heavenly bbq bacon cheeseburger.

A soft bun is paramount…I like Martin’s potato rolls (which I buy at Publix) most of the time, but for this sweet and savory burgerI used a King’s Hawaiian bun. The bun should be sturdy enough to hold up to the toppings (you don’t want your burger to fall apart halfway through like one I ate in a restaurant a couple of months back) but soft enough to not cause you to choke when you try to swallow.

And now…I never have to leave my house for the perfect bbq bacon cheeseburger (but I will anyway).

Shared on Meal Plan Monday on Southern Bite!

Yield: 4 servings

Pan Fried Honey BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger

35 minPrep Time:

10 minCook Time:

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Ingredients

For the creamy honey barbecue sauce

1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons dijon mustard
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
dash paprika (smoked if you have it!)
dash cayenne pepper

For the burgers

1 pound skirt steak
8 ounces boneless short ribs
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon vegetable or canola oil
4 Hawaiian rolls
4 slices good quality American cheese or 4 ounces grated cheddar
4 sliced cooked bacon, crumbled
caramelized onions or Oven Fried Onion Rings , for topping (optional but highly recommended)

Instructions

To make the sauce, whisk all the ingredients together in a small bowl. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Cut the skirt steak and short ribs into large chunks. Freeze for 15 minutes. Grind using a meat grinder or in batches in a food processor.
Melt one tablespoon of the butter. Spread the ground meat onto a sheet pan and sprinkle evenly with the melted butter, 1 teaspoon of the salt, and the pepper. Divide the meat into 4 piles then divide each pile into 2 smaller piles. Carefully pack each pile of meat into a ball then press into a thin patty. BE CAREFUL NOT TO OVERWORK THE MEAT! I would rather have a slightly "loose" patty than overwork it and have a tough patty!
Melt 1/2 tablespoon of butter in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Split two buns and brown the insides. Remove to a plate and repeat with the other two buns.
Heat 1/2 teaspoon of the oil in the 12-inch skillet (cast iron is my favorite) over high heat. Place four patties in the pan and cook for 2 minutes on each side. Make two stacks and top each with a crumbled slice of bacon and a slice of cheese or an ounce of grated cheese. Cover the pan and cook until the cheese has melted. Remove from the pan and repeat the process with the four remaining patties.
Open each bun and spread the top and bottom bun with a thin layer of the barbecue sauce. Top each burger with caramelized onions or a couple of onion rings, if using. Place the top bun and serve immediately.

Notes

If you prefer not to grind your own meat, use 1 1/2 pounds 80/20 ground beef.

https://chattavore.com/pan-fried-honey-bbq-bacon-cheeseburger/

This honey BBQ bacon cheeseburger is perfectly pan-fried in cast iron and topped with bacon and creamy bbq sauce. It's hard to beat! | Recipe from Chattavore.com

Slow Cooker Beer Chicken

February 3, 2017

Slow cooker beer chicken is probably the best version of pulled chicken I could think of. It’s delicious on its own or piled on a sandwich (or fries)!

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my disclosure statement.
There is nothing quite as comforting as a slow cooker meal. Some require more steps than others…the best, at least as far as slow cooker simplicity goes, are the ones that require little more than dumping some ingredients into your stoneware before leaving for work. If, like me, you park in a garage, you are rewarded the second you open your car door by the scent of an already cooked dinner. It’s almost enough to make me want to cook something in my slow cooker every day, but that’s not going to happen. The truth is, I work better in the evening and if I had to make dinner every morning we’d eat a lot of take-out.

For that reason, Sundays are a great slow cooker day for me. If I want something slow cooked for lunch, I’ll set the slow cooker to high; for dinner I’ll set it to low. Voilá…dinner’s ready. If I plan really well (and I usually do) I’ll have enough leftovers for at least one or maybe even two more meals. It’s some sort of magic, I’ll tell you.

This slow cooker beer pulled chicken was born of a couple of different ideas….a jalapeño popper chicken sandwich and a different beer chicken recipe that I didn’t even reference when making this recipe but that was my original inspiration. I decided that I wanted the flavor of the beer to shine through-I don’t drink the stuff but I love the flavor it imparts to cooked foods-so I decided not to add anything that might make this more of a “barbecue” sort of dish. A little brown sugar took the edge off of the bitterness of the pale ale and smoked paprika and fresh onions and jalapeños added a flavor zing.

This slow cooker beer chicken was delicious piled on sweet potatoes fries and drizzled with beer cheese. Oh, and topped with avocado, of course. Leftovers will go in tacos or on baked potatoes. This chicken would be just as good eaten with a fork. And this dish came together in less than ten minutes.

Why wouldn’t you make this slow cooker beer chicken?

Shared on Meal Plan Monday on Southern Plate!

Mary

Yield: 4-6 servings

Slow Cooker Beer Pulled Chicken

10 minPrep Time:

10 minTotal Time:

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Ingredients

1 1/2-2 pounds chicken thighs
1 large onion, chopped
1 large jalapeño, seeded and chopped
12 ounces beer (I used an American pale ale)
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Place all ingredients into the slow cooker. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.
Remove the chicken from the slow cooker. Pour the liquid into a large skillet and set over medium-high heat.
Shred the chicken and return to the slow cooker. Cook the liquid over medium-high heat until it is reduced and thickened to a syrupy consistency. Pour over the shredded chicken and stir to combine. Serve while hot.

Notes

Adapting this recipe for the Instant Pot is so easy! Just put all the ingredients in the Instant Pot and add the lid with the vent set to "sealing". Select Poultry and set time to 20 minutes. When the timer is up, quick release pressure then shred the chicken and serve!

https://chattavore.com/slow-cooker-beer-chicken/

Slow cooker beer chicken is probably the best version of pulled chicken I could think of. It's delicious on its own or piled on a sandwich (or fries)! | Recipe from Chattavore.com

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Party Sandwiches with Bacon and Cheese

January 30, 2017

Tiny party sandwiches with bacon, melted cheese, caramelized onions, and a buttery sauce will make all your guests smile-if you choose to share.

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my disclosure statement.

Bacon & cheese party sandwiches are a direct descendent of the ham and cheese party sandwiches (sliders) that I’ve been seeing blowing up everyone’s Facebook and Pinterest feeds over the past several weeks. I first had those sandwiches at a baby shower a few years back and thought they were great, but somehow the flavors weren’t as pronounced as I would have liked. I like strong flavors. I’m the kind of person who’ll triple the garlic in a recipe and my cheese philosophy is “you can never have too much”. As I pondered what to make these sandwiches with, bacon, smoked gouda (after asking for suggestions from my Facebook followers), and caramelized onions sounded like a perfect flavor combo to me.

I’ve noticed a disturbing trend lately: bacon hating. Or maybe not hating, per se, but a bacon backlash. For a good while, there was a big-time bacon trend…everyone was putting bacon on everything. And while I am certain that people are always going to love bacon, I’ve been seeing and hearing a lot of food-obsessed types making fun of the bacon trend and it is a little bit upsetting to me. Because, you guys, I was bacon when bacon wasn’t cool. So I will continue to put bacon on anything I can find an excuse to put bacon on, and I won’t apologize for it.

I definitely won’t apologize for these bacon & cheese party sandwiches. While you can use any type of cheese that you’d like, the combination of smoky bacon and smoked Gouda cheese with just a little bit from the caramelized onions and sweetness from maple syrup setting off the saltiness of the bacon and cheese makes these bacon & cheese sandwiches a pretty transcendent snack food experience. The original recipe calls for Hawaiian slider rolls, which I didn’t see at my grocery store, but I wanted to use potato rolls instead. If you use Hawaiian rolls, leave out the maple syrup…it will make the sandwiches too sweet.

Put these bacon & cheese party sandwiches on your table for the big game this year. Your guests will thank you.

Shared on Weekend Potluck on Served Up With Love!

(Also, check out my adorable custom cutting board! My friend and her husband made it for me. Check out their Facebook Page – Markums’ Wood ‘n’ Glass!)