Barefoot Bloggers and CEiMB

Croque Monsieur anyone? Or "not just another ham sandwich."

This week Kathy of All Food Considered has chosen Croque Monsieur. I've never heard of this, but I'm open to new things and it sounded delicious. I just hoped and prayed from the title it did not have anything to do with crocodile meat. Lucky for me, it was a ham sandwich. I guess I need to study up on my French! First you mix up some milk and cheese for a nice sauce. I left out the parmesan because that is not my favorite cheese. I used all gruyere.

I sliced some fresh sourdough bread and toasted in the oven. Then you put the sandwich together with more cheese and some wonderful Virginia ham, thick sliced that I got from the deli.

Then you bake and broil and voila! Wonderful, tasty ham sandwich (or croque monsieur if you prefer). I must get some new dishes for my blogging. All my photos are beginning to look alike. White plates, brown placemats, wicker chargers, etc.
Speaking of purchases, I bought a new clothes dryer about six months ago. Now my washer has broken so I went to purchase the washer that matches my dryer. Wouldn't you know they no longer have that style. They've upgraded it. So now, once again, I will have a non-matching washer and dryer. Poop. They did offer to take back my dryer if I had the receipt (IF I had the receipt - little do they know I'm the receipt queen. I have receipts stored from when I was a teenager. HA). However, they would only take it back up to six months and wouldn't you know we bought it like six months and a day. Well maybe eight months, but who knew they would even do that! Good ole Lowes. I love that place. And. . you can negotiate with them. I just told the guy I wanted him to give me a discount and he smiled and said "I can give you 10 percent off." I told him that's what I'm talking about and I bought it!!! Yea, it is being delivered tomorrow. Now if it only matched my dryer.

For CEiMB this week, one of my favorite bloggers, Marthe of Culinary Delights chose Balsamic Chicken with Baby Spinach and Couscous.
I was excited about preparing this dish because I had my eye on it for a while. It turned out to be pretty easy to put together. But Ellie says you can cook this in fifteen minutes and honestly she must be superwoman if she can achieve that! Of course, my chicken was frozen so it did take some time to thaw. But even once it thawed, I think it took about a half an hour for me to make this. The yankee did not care for the spinach part of it, but he couldn't tell me exactly what he didn't like about it. Maybe it was the garlic taste. I absolutely loved the couscous and the spinach part of it. So much so that I could have left out the chicken and just had the rest of it. Who thinks up names for foods anyway? I mean where did the word couscous come from? Does one look at a food and say, "hmm. This looks like a couscous so we'll call it that." Just something I've always wondered.

Thanks Marthe for choosing this. I wouldn't say it was my favorite dish ever, but it was pretty darn good!!

Comments

Marthe said…
That croque-monsieur looks delicious and so does the chicken for CEiMB!! Thank you so much for cooking with me this week!

I'm seriously deliberating on whether I will join Barefoot Bloggers: it would be a great excuse to buy yet another cookbook ;)
Anonymous said…
The sauce was the best part. Looks great.
Audrey said…
I'm going to be oh so virtuous and insist that of course I would rather have the chicken than the melty, cheesey, warm, sweet, rich sandwich. It is always important to be honest when commenting on a blog, or what would the world be coming to! (I'd probably like the chicken actually...it certainly looks appealing!)
Aggie said…
Oh that sandwich looks unbelievable!! Yum!

And your chicken looks great...it was a nice recipe!
farah said…
It looks great, glad you liked it :)
Leslie said…
These both look amazing! It always tickles me when we post CEiMB and BB on the same day, talk about opposite ends of the calorie spectrum! You made me laugh out loud with the crocodile comment!
Everything looks wonderful. Glad you liked the chicken dish. We also enjoyed it, and it definitely took me more than 15 minutes to prepare.
Mary Ann said…
Both of your dishes look so good! I was intimidating by the Croque-monsieur, maybe it is the name.
I agree with you on the chicken, it is a good, solid dish.
Jennifer said…
The croque-monsieur looks delicious! I've had a croque-madame (fried egg on top) but never a monsieur!
As for the CEIMB recipe, there was just something missing! I did really like the couscous, spinach and tomatoes though.
spike. said…
that certainly isn't an ordinary ham sandwich! Both look great
chocolatechic said…
Ahhhh...your Croque Monsieur looks fabulous.

We just loved this sandwich.
Cathy said…
They both look great, Peggy! I have a mismatched washer & dryer too (same deal with the discontinued model thing) and it has bothered me from the beginning. It completely offends my sense of order and symmetry. Hubs thinks I am insane. Oh well - when it comes times to replace one of them, I know I will want a matching set and hubs will balk (assuming the other still works). I will have to try the energy savings angle.

So glad you enjoyed these, Peggy!
Lauren said…
i liked the sauce too, although i made mine a bit differently! "we'll call that a couscous." hilarious.
We really enjoyed this one too. Yours looks great.
Aaawww...thanks for the nice comments about my photos. I have been trying. I have a Canon Power Shot S2. Nothing too fancy. But I recently found out that there is a button for taking close ups of flowers, food, etc. Who knew?
Unknown said…
I'd take a cr. m. over chicken any day of the week (but then I guess I'd have to spend an extra hour at the gym).

Looking good all around!

--Nick
Anonymous said…
The croque-monsier looks wonderful! I liked the spinach, tomato and couscous too. I could have eaten them without the chicken. Couscous - very strange word indeed.
Jessica said…
Of course I'm completely taken in by the Croque Monsiuer. I'll take gooey cheese over spinach 6 days of the week and twice on Sundays. Your Croque (croc?) looks fantastic. Of course, the chicken looks great too and I enjoyed it, too.
Teanna DiMicco said…
You totally need to teach me how to negotiate things, because I am so bad at it!!! LOVE the croque monsieur... I've never had one and it looks like all sorts of cheesy goodness!
Pamela said…
First of all, good luck with the new washer! At least you got a little bit of a deal on it.

That sandwich looks so good. Melted cheese is a winner in my book on anything. :o)

I'm glad you liked the Ellie recipe, too. Sorry it wasn't the Yankee's favorite. I just finished the leftovers today!
Marthe said…
Guess what.... I just joined Barefoot Bloggers!!
The Blonde Duck said…
Hope you're having a good week!

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