Mr. X had a brilliant Sunday morning breakfast idea for the leftover ham: Miniature Croques-Monsieur! Despite being a relentless francophile and ham lover, I had never actually had a croque-monsieur before. Now I am fully ready to acknowledge that this might be the most brilliant sandwich idea ever. My internet searching tells me that the croque-monsieur isn’t much different from the monte carlo, which I thought was the most disgusting sandwich I’d ever had, but maybe that’s only because I ate it at Bennigan’s.
Mr. X’s version was simple and perfect. And miniaturized, because everyone loves tiny food. Despite their tinyness, they certainly filled me up for the rest of the day. And convinced me that I shouldn’t eat anything but soup and carrot sticks for the rest of the week (which hasn’t been hard because I literally have $0 in my bank account until tomorrow). If you’re feeling indulgent some weekend morning, though, break out the baguette and cook yourself up some croques-monsieur. Then, walk around for the rest of the day with a bad french accent.
Mini Croques-Monsieur
- 12 slices cut from a thin baquette
- 6 small slices of ham
- 3/4 c. grated cheese (we used mild cheddar, but I bet gruyere would be better and way more french)
- 3 eggs
- butter
- salt and pepper
- we should have used mustard, but we didn’t. Don’t know why.
This is really simple, and instructions seem ridiculous. Just assemble the little tiny sandwiches (with mustard, if you remember, which we didn’t). Whisk the eggs up with some salt and pepper, dip the mini sandwiches in and get ’em nice and soaked, and then let them sit in a baking pan to drink up the egg. You should flip them over in the pan once, so both sides get good and eggy. Then melt the butter in the skillet, and fry the sandwiches, about 4 to 5 minutes on each side, so the cheese gets nice and melted and the ham gets warm. Here are pictures:
Put them together as shown above.
Whisk up some eggs, with salt and pepper. You don’t need milk or anything.
Dip the sandwiches in the eggs. You’ll get all messy. Thankfully, Mr. X was the one cooking, so I didn’t have to get all messy. I hate getting messy.
Let them soak in a baking sheet (this one is lined with plastic).
Cook them in a pan, with lots and lots of butter.
Cook some potatoes if you want to. I made Mr. X burn these, because I like them that way.
Now you have breakfast, and it is good and easy.
I love it when the boy cooks for me.