A Grand Experiment: the Ham Dinner Toasted Cheese

It is March Madness time, so my husband was glued to the TV, watching some unholy combination of college basketball, Charles Bronson movies, and . . . I Dream of Jeannie?!??? Yep, that's what it was. And I was in the kitchen, making us our lunch of toasted cheese (some call them grilled cheese) sandwiches.

My husband wanted a rather standard combination of three kinds of cheeses: Heluva Good sharp cheddar, a nice pepper jack, and American slices. At the very end of its cooking time, I opened it up and inserted a slice of tomato into the gooey cheese just before serving it. Yes, that's how he likes it!

For myself, I had this very strange idea. We had made a ham recently, and we still had some scalloped potatoes in the freezer from my first effort. So we got those out too. What I had in mind was a ham dinner toasted cheese sandwich, with both ham and scalloped potatoes inside!

I was using Italian bread, and I sliced it myself, and on two slices of bread, I placed American cheese on each side. Then ham on the right and a thin layer of scalloped potatoes on the left. I assembled that sucker and then fried it in a pan on top of the stove.

I made two sandwiches for my husband and one for myself, and above you may see a photo of my efforts. The front sandwich, cut in half, is mine. The one behind it is one of my husband's; he ate one and we saved one for later.

I'd have to say it was a respectable effort. It was tasty, and I would do it again. But the scalloped potatoes just didn't stand out quite as much as I'd have liked. I might try a slightly thicker layer next time. And I do wonder what MASHED potatoes would be like inside one of these. Or even a tiny, just-one-bite-sized pocket of cheesy asparagus. Hmm.

And here is another very happy part of this story. Later the same night, we were feeling peckish around 8 p.m., and I said, "I have a mind to EAT that leftover toasted cheese sandwich."  "Split it with you!" my husband replied.

And so we did. I heated it in the microwave for less than a minute, cut it in half, and we dipped it in horseradish mustard. Oh my goodness, it was LEGENDARY! Wow! Who knew toasted cheese would make such a great snack food!

So perhaps now I've given you some new ideas about toasted cheese!

Here is a soundtrack song for my exploratory toasted cheese efforts: INXS with New Sensation.