Ham and provolone with savory spiced pears reduced in clarified honey butter.

I hope you'll forgive me for my absence. Mommyhood was calling and I had to heed the call. This weekend was meant to be a catch up on my blogging and cooking, etc. Well Ally put a big kaboosh on these plans. She is having some really bad stomach pain as of late and so bad that I had to take her into the ER. I have next weekend to myself so I am def planning on catching up!

I do have a lovely Key Lime Pie baking in the oven as I type. That will be up tomorrow, the time depends on if I am able to make the whipped cream in time before classes.

This sandwich was a pure experiment, I had no idea how it'd turn out and I was surprised at how good it was and how the flavor melded so well. I knew that citrus pairs well with ham but I felt that in a sandwich it would over power the ham. Apples seemed to be an easy pair and I didn't want easy. Ha! So I picked out a lovely D'Janour pear. When it was nearly ripped and softened, I thought about how I was going to meld the ham and pears together. I got to thinking about what spices were typically used with ham and baked pears, they had a common thread. Spices. Cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon! I felt that these were key to this sandwich but I knew it'd be missing something, a slight sweetness to pair with the salty-ness of the ham. Brown sugar and white sugars, too sweet. Honey! Perfect. I melted some pre-made clarified butter (look in the Indian section of your store) and it lead to this spectacular arrangement of flavors!

Ingredients:

Sliced ham lunch meat. Don't skimp, get the good stuff.

Provolone cheese. Only get the good stuff.

1 tsp honey

1 tsp water

1 tsp of clarified butter

1/8 ground cloves

1/8 ground nutmeg

1/8 ground cinnamon

1/2 of a palm sized nearly ripe pear, peeled and sliced.

Vienna bread

Butter

Directions:

1- In a small frying pan, melt butter and add in honey, water and spices, let this cook for about five minutes. Making sure not to burn your spices. Let mixture reduce and thicken. Shouldn't take very long.

2- Add in pears and cook until still slightly firm, you do not want to cook for too long or you will have mushed pears instead of sliced pears. Remove from heat and allow to thicken some.

3- Slice your bread about an inch thick(thicker = less soggy bread) with a serrated knife and butter your slices on one side. Place into another pan. As the bread is browning and toasting, take your ham and place it in the pan to warm up. This allows some of the fluids in the ham to cook off and helps speed up the cheese melting process.

4- Take the ham and place it on top of your bread. Followed by a couple slices of pears (make sure most of the liquids are drained off) and then top with a slice provolone, top with remaining slice of buttered bread and flip.

5- Allow to stand for a minute or two and then cut and serve!

6- Enjoy!

French Onion Soup.

They say this is a poor man's soup. History states that this was common in the Roman Empire and then became more popular in the 18th century and was upgrade with the addition of toasted bread and cheese. It then again became popular in the 60's when French cooking became trendy. I say that this soup is well worth the effort! It was cheap but a bit time consuming. Most of all, I was surprised my two year old Leta loved it! She just couldn't get enough!

There isn't a whole lot of ingredients and you can always sub what you like. I made mine vegetarian. But you are welcome to use beef or veal broth. The only thing I didn't have on hand was the Vienna bread and Thyme. Not too bad on the wallet.

Ingredients:

Three large yellow or Spanish onions, peeled and sliced

1 stick of unsalted butter

1 teaspoon of salt

2 tablespoons of EVOO

1 1/2 quarts of broth (veg, chicken, beef or veal.)

2 teaspoons of minced garlic

1 teaspoon of dried parsley

1 teaspoon of dried thyme (or one sprig of fresh thyme)

1 bay leaf

1 tablespoon of worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar

Vienna bread toasted

Provolone or swiss cheese (If you buy the prepackage by the faux cheeses, I swear I will hunt your ISP down and slap you silly! Get the real stuff!)

Directions:

1) In your pan melt the butter and add in the oil, garlic, thyme, parsley and bay leaf.

2) Watch this video, it will explain caramelized onions far better then I could. Just add the onions to the melted butter in step one.

3) After the onions are done, add into a larger pan the broth, onions, worcestershire sauce and balsamic vinegar. Cook on medium high for twenty to thirty minutes. This would be the time to taste and add seasons as needed.

4) Cut your bread to fit what your cooking in, butter and toast like you would grilled cheese. Until it's golden brown.

5) Ladle soup into a oven proof bowl, cup or ramekin. Leave enough room for the bread, top with cheese and place cheese on top.

6) Place on a pan and under your broiler until golden brown.

7) Enjoy!

It's vent day.

Oh boy, I can tell it's middle of the week. I am kapoot on the energy level. Drained. Not to mention a little irritated. Would it be wrong of me to keep my ear bud in and pretend that my four and two year olds aren't running around like crazed little minions?

Tomorrow can not get here quick enough.

Today's top five vents are:

5) Dear clothing manufacturers: I work out and thusly in the midst of my weight lost endeavors, I am in between clothing sizes. I am sure my peers in the gym would appreciate it if you made half sizes. Considering the full moon was last week, I am sure they don't want a daily reminder.

4) Dear lady in the over sized SUV, what are you over compensating for? I just wanted a root beer from Mc Dondals, not a five minute wait and a neck cramp to make a right turn. Just because you had to make a left turn and make it IMPOSSIBLE for me to see oncoming traffic.

3) Dear Michiganders, quit complaining about the rain! It's RAIN! Not SNOW!

2) Dear Body, what part of FIVE day period do you not understand?!

1) Dear Max, you have become our new pet. You sure know how to win over your new owners affection by eating the last ten dollars I had to my name. Guess I will get it back in a day or so? Does money digest? Crap...

King's Royal Icing.

It was national "Pi" day and what better way to celebrate it then with royal frosting? In reality, I am part dork and Pi has always mystified me. What can I say? Ironically, I am horrible at math. I am not at all joking.

I really needed to test frostings for Hannah's upcoming birthday and I am making a flower cake for her and I need to do a dry run with this recipe because I didn't want to wait til the night before and get a dud. I wouldn't of had to do this if I had the ability to hold onto recipes. I really need to keep track of them. And after much googling and reading through the various versions of royal frosting. I found the most basic stripped down version and tweaked and low and behold it worked out great!

Ingredients:

3 cups of powdered sugar
7 teaspoons of corn syrup
7 teaspoons of milk
4 teaspoons of Almond extract
Food coloring

Directions:

1- Simple blend all ingredients until smooth and dip base color if you want and allow to dry and pipe decorations if wanted. Just make sure you set aside un-colored frosting for this prior adding the base color.

Enjoy!