Monte Cristos

I've wanted to try a Monte Cristo for YEARS. An old boyfriend ordered them often, but I never tried one. The combination always sounded kinda weird... meat & cheese & French toast, but I was always very curious.



Aaron McCargo Jr made them on Big Daddy's House recently. And then Bob from Cooking Stuff was talking about a Monte Cristo-like sandwich over on BakeSpace in one of the Dinner Threads.

I decided it was time to take care of my curiosity.

I pretty much used Aaron McCargo Jr's recipe.

I made the sandwiches the same, but I changed up the Cranberry Syrup a little. I didn't want to put cold syrup on my hot sandwiches, so I heated it. I also used whole berry cranberry sauce for a little more texture.

Monte Cristo
4 eggs
1/4 C milk (approx)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch of sugar
pinch of salt
6 slices of bread
6 slices of swiss
sliced ham
sliced turkey
butter

Preheat oven to 350F
Whisk together eggs, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, sugar and salt.
Assemble sandwiches (make them to your liking - maybe you like more meat or less.. however you like it)

Melt butter in a skillet.

Dip entire assembled sandwich into egg mixture and place dipped sandwich in hot skillet.

Cook sandwiches until golden and flip. When the other side is golden, remove to a cookie sheet and bake in 350F oven until cheese is all melty and sandwich is heated through.

Serve with Maple Cranberry Sauce.

Maple Cranberry Sauce
1 16oz can whole berry cranberry sauce
1/4 C maple syrup
salt & pepper to taste

Heat all ingredients in small sauce pan until warmed through.

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Ok.... eggs


Plus milk, vanilla, cinnamon, sugar, and salt.


Whisk it up.


Assemble your sammies

Swiss


Ham


Smoked Turkey


More Swiss


Heat up the skillet and add butter


Dip your sandwiches into the egg mixture






And into the skillet


Turn when golden


And into the oven to ensure warm melty goodness!


Some warm yummy chunky Cranberry Maple Sauce


It's dinner time!!!!




So the verdict?

Tawny didn't like it. (I think she did eat the whole thing... or most of it... she tried disassembling it... definitely not a winner in her book)

Jon said, "I could eat it again" Which led to a discussion of....
So if you had to rate The Monte Cristo, which answer is most correct?

Would definitely recommend it to a friend.
Would probably recommend it to a friend.
May or May Not recommend it to a friend.
Would probably not recommend it to a friend.
Would definitely not recommend it to a friend.

He didn't really say which the answer was! But I think he would eat it without complaint if I made them again, but he would not actually 'request' them.

I enjoyed it. I did add Dijon mustard to mine and instead of dipping the sandwich, I added the Cranberry Maple Sauce to the inside. Next time, I'd add the Dijon while assembling.

I think this is something that I'll suddenly have a craving for and will end up making again, but probably not often, due to the lackluster response of my family.

Grilled Chicken Gyros with Cucumber Sauce

Last Friday as I was driving to work, I heard an ad on the radio that Aaron McCargo Jr from The Next Food Network Star, would be at a nearby Market District on Saturday morning. I decided that I definitely wanted to go! Big Daddy's House is one of my favorite new FoodTV shows. He makes food I would definitely cook for my family.

I got there a few minutes late, but was still able to get a pretty good seat. I was really excited to find out he was also doing a Food Demo! I thought it was just a meet and greet type thing. He was fun, funny and friendly. It was so much fun to see a live Food Demo. I have never been to one before and hope to go to many many more!

He made Chicken Gyros (again... he makes stuff I'd totally cook for my family!) I was pretty psyched. I figured, if they looked good, I'd make them for dinner that night. They looked great! Very easy. It was like watching his show, but you could smell everything! A few lucky spectators also got to taste! I wasn't one of them. But it was still so much fun. Market District had prepared a bunch of them, so when he was finishing up, we did all get to try his recipe. YUM!!

I really only got one good pic of him doing the demo (the lady in front of me kept standing up to take pics *grrr*)



Then he hung around and signed autographs and took pictures with anyone who wanted them. He was wicked nice!

Of course, I had my picture taken with Aaron. =)


Anyway! The Chicken Gyros rocked! I was going to make them Saturday night, but as usual, my dinner plans rarely happen on the day I plan! I made them last night.

Grilled Chicken Gyros with Cucumber Sauce
Courtesy of Aaron McCargo Jr.

Cucumber Sauce
1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced small
8 oz sour cream (I used light sour cream)
1 TBLS chopped garlic
1/2 TBLS fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp cracked black pepper

For Gyro
3 TBLS canola oil
1 TBLS chopped garlic
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 TBLS freshly chopped parsley leaves
1 TBLS fresh lemon juice
4 8oz chicken breasts, trimmed
4 pocketless pitas
tomatoes, onion, and lettuce for serving.

Cucumber Sauce:
In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly. Set aside.

For the Gyro:
In a medium blow, mix the canola oil, garlic, sea salt, black pepper, fresh parsley and lemon juice and whisk until combined. Add the chicken and marinate for 30 minutes.

Preheat grill to medium high heat.
Remove chicken from marinade and place on hot grill for 6 to 7 minutes on each side.
Remove from grill and let rest for 5 minutes. Cut into medium-sized strips. Brush pita with oil and grill for 30 seconds. Removed from grill and spread cucumber sauce onto pita. Add tomato, onions, lettuce and chicken to pita and fold pita over.

Enjoy!

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So anyway... I gathered my ingredients for the marinade.


Put the oil in a bowl


Chopped my garlic




Added it to the oil


Added salt & pepper


Fresh chopped parsley


Fresh lemon juice... if you press on the lemon and roll it a little, the juice will come out better.


Squeezed that in (careful of the seeds)


Mixed that all up!


Next I trimmed up my chicken breasts.


And the wicked cool thing I learned at the demo... BUTTERFLY THE CHICKEN BREASTS!




How cool is that!??!!


Add all the chicken breasts to the marinade and toss to coat them all well.


Time to move on to the Cucumber Sauce while the chicken in marinating.

For a thicker sauce, pour your sour cream into a cloth lined bowl.


Peel the cucumber.






Cut it in half lengthwise


And scoop out the seeds




Now dice it up.




Move the drained sour cream to a bowl.


Add the diced cucumber.


Chop the garlic. (I chop so much garlic, I should use stock photos for this!)


Add that to the sauce.


Salt & Pepper


Fresh lemon juice.


Stir well and set aside.


Now the chicken is ready to grill. I just used my Foreman Grill, because I didn't want to mess with charcoal last night.


YUM! LOVE the butterflied breasts!!!


Set them aside for 5 minutes.


I heated my pitas in the microwave, but if I had thought about it, I would have thrown them into a cast iron skillet for a minute.


Add some cucumber sauce


Lettuce


Some of that YUMMY grilled chicken


Onions


Tomatoes


More sauce!! (cuz it's SO good!!)


Fold it up and enjoy!!


I'll definitely make these again!

Thanks Aaron!