Homemade: Monty Toast-o sandwich

The fun part about cooking for yourself and eating at home is that you get a chance to be creative, and try to simplify the dishes you love at restaurants. When you succeed, you save yourself money, time, and even hassle if you have kids.

I, for one, am a HUGE fan of the Monte Cristo sandwich. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Monte Cristo, it's a sandwich containing cheese, usually two kinds, either cheddar and swiss or cheddar and american, turkey, and ham, and then the whole sandwich is battered and deep fried. 

While I've actually made the real Monte Cristo at home before, it was a HUGE mess between the frying and the battering, not to mention decadently calorific. So I came up with something that would satisfy much the same cravings that is a lot cleaner and simpler.

First, I took 4 Hawaiian rolls, sliced them in half...

...And put turkey and cheddar on them. I didn't happen to have ham, but if you desire to get as close as possible to the real thing, you'll need that.

Then I warmed them in my toaster and sliced them into 4. I ended up adding about 15 seconds in the microwave to get the cheese totally melted without over-toasting the bread. I ate them with raspberry preserves...

But when I tried it again the next day, I actually spread mixed berry cream cheese onto the bread before warming the sandwich. It was EXCELLENT and I highly recommend the addition. Even with the cream cheese this is significantly more virtuous than a deep fried, battered sandwich (not that there's anything wrong with indulging every now and then).

This simple sandwich was additionally inspired by an easy meal my mom serves, where she takes a whole Hawaiian bread loaf, slices it cross-wise into 3 sections, and layers pepperjack cheese and turkey on the bottom section, inside the pan it comes in, then places the middle bread section on top, then layers cheddar and ham on top of the middle section, then sandwiches the top onto it, wraps it in foil and warms it in the oven. Just slice it like a pie and serve! It's a super hearty, warm, salty-sweet sandwich.

This is excellent with a little mustard or even raspberry jam (NOT both), and if you don't like spicy, you can totally use swiss cheese, or even mozzerella, instead of pepperjack.