Smoked Ham, Provolone Cheese Raisin Cinnamon English Muffin Grilled Cheese

I came home from running errands today and checked my email.  I follow this blog called Foodie Crush.  Today in my inbox was the most delightful looking sandwich, grilled cheese no less, that I have seen in a while.  The picture immediately made my mouth water.  Since I hadn't eaten lunch yet I got to thinking this would be great for my lunch today and I knew that I had several of the same ingredients.  In the original recipe it using a fig spread.  Since I didn't have any on hand I chose to use strawberry jam instead.


Here is what I did:
1 tablespoon butter
1 sourdough cinnamon raisin english muffin, split in half 
1 tablespoon strawberry jam 
A couple of slices of smoked ham 3 slices of provolone cheese

Heat a skillet on medium. Butter one side of the muffin. On unbuttered side spread on strawberry jam, add cheese slices (you may need to break the cheese since the muffin is smaller than the slice of cheese) then add ham.  Place other side of muffin on top, buttered side up, and grill in skillet until bread becomes golden. Flip sandwich once and cook until cheese melts and bread becomes golden. Cut in half and serve hot.  Since I used an english muffin you may need to push down on it while it is in the skillet to get everything to melt and heat up.  

Sunday Dinner on a Wednesday

I took one of our small smoked hams out of the freezer and thawed it for dinner tonight.  I decided early on that I wanted to do something different with the ham instead of just roasting it.  So I found a recipe in The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook for Glazed Ham in Maple-Raisin Sauce.  I used the recipe but put my own spin on it.  I decided to soak the raisins this morning in light rum. This plumped the raisins and made them juicy.  The recipe for the glaze is on page 162 of the cookbook.  I can't really give the recipe out because I don't have permission from the author.  So please make sure you follow the link above to get her book.

Some things that I will change for the next time I make this is, use regular raisins not golden (this is the only kind I had on hand), use bourbon instead of rum (rum added a nice flavor but I think I want something a little more intense), also the recipe calls for the temperature to increase at a certain point of cooking.  This is fine if your ham is really juicy, my ham had minimal juices which made the maple syrup somewhat browned which changed the flavor of the sauce.  Other than that, this recipe is fantastic.

Along with the ham I added new potatoes that were cooked and smashed, chopped spinach, and a garden fresh tomato.