I had a few nights this week where it was just me for dinner!  Wow. Not used to cooking for one.  I had some ham so both nights ended making ham paninis with various fixings and a simple green salad with tomatoes from the garden.

Ham Panini with Roasted Red Peppers and Cheddar Cheese

First up was a Panini sandwich with some thinly sliced ham, roasted red peppers, mustard, and cheddar cheese. I think that was all but this was a few days ago. Unlike most of my posts, I didn’t note the recipe but DID take a picture! I was just rooting through the frig to see what would taste good.

I just used sweet French bread rolls, not a ciabatta loaf as usually called for in Paninis. And I made these in my very simple George Foreman Grill, Black.

When the sandwich is done. unplug the grill and then put a wet paper towel or washable cloth on it and close the lid. The steam will clean that grill in no time!

Ham Panini with Basil and Jack Cheese

Next up was the same ham, but this time with a honey mustard, some balsamic vinegar on one side, some jack cheese and some fresh basil from the garden. I was going to put some sweet pickled peppers on it but I couldn’t find them in the pantry  so opted for the last of the roasted red peppers again. Different with the basil and jack cheese, more mild and sweet somehow.

Both made a great simple meal with a simple tossed salad. I usually think of sandwiches as lunchtime affairs but don’t really want to cook at lunch, so these were a nice treat.

White Bean and Ham Soup

This is from The Supper Book: 10th Anniversary Edition by Marion Cunningham. Kind of funny–you can buy a hardcover of this on Amazon (used) for $3 (plus shipping) but the paperback version, that I have is $8 (still a deal!). This is so simple, but so delicious. Certainly frugal, let’s see $1 for the beans, two onions for 50 cents maybe. The ham is the expensive part and that’s only because I actually did buy a small piece of ham just to make this. Normally I would have cooked a ham and used a ham bone but that’s hard to do with just the two of us! So I used about $2.50 of ham. Her recipe says 4 servings but I know we’ll get at least 6, likely 8. I’ll likely serve with a small sandwich, like a tuna melt.  So $1 / serving or less.  You’d pay more for a can of ham and bean soup and it wouldn’t be half as good and you’d get two small servings.

• 1 pound white navy beans or Great Norther beans
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 cups or so of chopped ham or smoked pork butt or a leftover ham bone with some meat on it
• water to cover
• salt and pepper to taste

Soak the beans, either overnight or by the quick soak method: cover with water, bring to a boil, cover, turn the stove off, and let the beans sit in the hot water for an hour or so. Then drain and use.

Put the beans, onion and ham in a large stockpot. Cover with water by 1 1/2″ . Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer, cover partially and simmer 2 hours or so, until the beans are tender. Watch the water level and add a bit more if needed. Taste and add salt and pepper as desired.

This is ham and bean soup at its simplest and it’s delicious. If you want more in it, you could think about adding some carrots and celery (I would saute first in a bit of oil with the chopped onion then add the other ingredients.)  You could also use chicken broth if you wanted. But I think you will be surprised at how delicious this is in its most simple form.

I made some macaroni and cheese tonight for dinner but felt like we needed a bit more as well, plus I was bringing dinner over to my broken-leg neighbor. I decided on a small panini and brought him some vegetable soup from last night as well.  I had some ham and cheddar cheese as the base for the Panini and added some apple slices, arugula and a dab of maple syrup as well. I made them on English muffins as I just wanted something small.

Each sandwich consisted of:

• one English muffin
• 1 slice of ham, folded over
• a few very thin slices of apple
• thin slices of Cheddar cheese
• a small puddle of maple syrup
• a few leaves of arugula

Layer all this in the English muffin while you’re preheating the grill. Butter the outsides of the English muffin and cook in the Panini grill until warmed through and the cheese is melted.

It came out quite nice! I really liked the crunch of the apple and the arugula kept it from being overly sweet somehow.

My sister is a wonder. She manages to host a fantastic Christmas dinner for our extended family AND send me home with some leftover ham and turkey.

In addition to making our traditional turkey sandwich spread, I made a turkey pot pie with the turkey.

With the ham, I did a few breakfasts of scrambled eggs with diced ham, and then made a delicious ham, leek, and potato soup. I served it with grilled cheese sandwiches the first night.

Tonight we had the leftover turkey pot pie with the leftover soup.

Tomorrow will be an appetizer and nibbly kind of meal. What do you all serve for New Year’s Eve?

Got some leftover ham? Here’s a great easy soup. Nothing complicated. Sometimes simple is good.

1 pound white beans (Great Northern or small white ones)
water
1 onion, diced
2 cups ham, chopped or diced
salt and pepper to taste

Soak the beans overnight or just cook a bit longer. Or you could do the “quick soak” method, which seems an awful lot like cooking a bit longer to me. (Cover the beans with water, bring to a boil, cover, turn off the heat and let sit for an hour.)

Cover the beans with about 1 1/2″ of water. I also used the leftover potato water (from boiling potatoes for mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving).

Add the onions and ham and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook the beans for about 2 hours. Salt and pepper to taste.