Crocque Madame for Dinner...

Dubby made some great-tasting spaghetti sauce for lunch this afternoon. Lots of meat. It hit the spot over angel-hair. Tonight around 9, I realized I hadn't had dinner yet. I had a craving for a Crocque Madame. A traditional snack (or light meal) in Belgium is the "Crocque Monsieur", which is a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. It is always served with "sla" (a tiny helping of salad) and Frites (any Belgian will tell you that french fries having nothing to do with the French, they were invented in Flanders and are properly called Flemish Frites). When prepared properly (twice fried), real frites beat the pants off any American french fries you can come up with, in taste and texture, too. There are many variations on the Crocque Monsieur. A "Crocque Hawaiian" is a grilled ham and cheese sandwich with a slice of pineapple on top. (Yes, it really is as good as it sounds! MmmmMM!) A "Crocque Paris" (pronounced crock-par-EE') has sliced olives and mushrooms over the sandwich. One of the most popular variations is the "Crocque Madame", which is a grilled ham and cheese sandwich with a fried egg on top. So for dinner, I made a Crocque Madame. It was great, just what the doctor ordered. Since Dubby had cooked some bacon yesterday, I used bacon instead of ham. You fry the egg separately, using just a touch of butter to crisp the edges, then lay the fried egg on top of the grilled sandwich. Yummm. Unfortunately I didn't have time to make the frites. A Crocque just isn't the same without the frites and a bowl of mayonnaise to dip them in. But it was still quite good.