Monte Hayes-Boh

As we learned from The Great Monte Cristo Sandwich Incident of 1997, a certain decadent sandwich looms large in family lore. Discovered at a favorite watering hole when we met as college students, it has been an infrequent but important part of our history with food.

(NOTE: Many entries on this blog are gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, simple, and/or healthy. This is not one of those entries, though some ingredients were locally sourced, and we would love to hear from any readers who make substitutions.)

This story begins on a rainy Saturday morning in our weekend home, trying to figure out how to have a good breakfast without leaving the house. (We failed on that count: after we committed to this plan I realized we had none of our usual Crescent Ridge milk, so it was off to the market for some Stonyfield. No regrets.)

Milk aside, Pam noticed a combination of ingredients on hand that led her straight to the Monte Cristo concept, but with waffles instead of bread. This breakfast is pretty straightforward, once the waffles are complete. To facilitate bringing all of the components together, Pam prepared a fruit/yogurt smoothie before I began the rest. Coffee, of course, had been prepared much earlier.

I had all of the other ingredients ready for assembly by the time the waffles were complete. I placed them on plates in a warm oven so that they everything would come together at optimal temperatures. Waffles are an area of continuous experimentation at Whaling House; these were very close to the gingerberry waffles I prepared in October, except that I left out the ginger and forgot the vanilla. 

Just before the second waffle was complete, I lightly fried some deli turkey in an indispensable cast-iron skillet and topped it with a couple of slices of cheese until it was melty and bubbly.

As soon as the second waffle was complete, I spread some local berry jelly on one of them.

The hot deli slices went right on top of that.

This tableau (which includes the smoothies Pam had just made and some fairly-traded, organically-grown, fresh roasted and brewed Nicaraguan coffee) was nice for a photo, but was also an extension of our prep area. With the second waffle in place, we sprinkled some powdered sugar on top, and then divided this enormous sandwich.

A close-up of my half of our invention:
The Monte Hayes-Boh