Monte Christo Lite

I have come up with a superb, lower-calorie alternative to the amazing Monte Christo sandwich. I've only eaten 1.5 Monte Christos in my lifetime, because if I'm going to throw caution to the wind and chow down on a single 1500-calorie food, it's going to involve some sort of cheesecake.

Sorry, fried sandwich.

The original Monte Christo is a ham and cheese sandwich (frequently club-style with a completely superfluous third piece of bread coming into play), battered and deep fried, then covered in powdered sugar and served with a side of jelly for dipping. Oh man, is it good.

My recipe is as follows:

Bread
Jelly of your choice (I prefer blackberry)
Ham slices
Cheddar cheese (or whatever cheese you like... Gruyere would be heavenly)

Toast the bread. While it's toasting, put your ham on a small plate and top with cheese. Heat it up in the microwave. Smear both pieces of of toast with jelly. Throw the hot ham and cheese onto the bread and make your sandwich. Ta-da!!

Now, it's quite possible that one could make this like a standard hot ham and cheese, putting together the sandwich and heating it up in a pan. I imagine the jelly would get a very molten-lava quality to it, and also the bread might get soggy, which gives me the screaming heebie-jeebies. But if you wanna try it, go for it!

In the end, the thing that makes the Monte Christo great is the combination of salty and sweet elements. This version still gives you those flavors. It's really good.

~

I've never been a big country music fan, but there are many country songs I love. They typically have a crossover vibe and very little in the way of twangy steel guitar. Lately, I've taken a shine to two country songs. (And I've evidently started using the phrase "taken a shine to...")

"Someone Else Callin' You Baby" by Luke Bryan (SUPERtwangy- egads) and especially "(Kissed You) Good Night" by Gloriana



...I should have kissed you
I should have pushed you up against the wall
I should have kissed you
Just like I wasn't scared at all

I turned off the car
Ran through the yard
Back to your front door
Before I could knock
You turned the lock
And met me on the front porch
And I kissed you
Goodnight
And now that I’ve kissed you
It’s a good night good night baby goodnight...

Gah. This one's going in the sidebar----->