{"id":856,"date":"2012-09-12T17:08:11","date_gmt":"2012-09-12T17:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/icecreamoffpaperplates.com\/?p=856"},"modified":"2012-09-12T17:08:11","modified_gmt":"2012-09-12T17:08:11","slug":"figgy-grilled-cheese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/icecreamoffpaperplates.com\/2012\/09\/12\/figgy-grilled-cheese\/","title":{"rendered":"Figgy Grilled Cheese"},"content":{"rendered":"

Late summer brings one of my favorites fruits \u2013 figs. I\u2019ve noticed that fresh figs are extremely expensive in the grocery store. Luckily for me, my dad is one of those strange Italians that has fig trees so I can enjoy figs for free. Sometimes I actually have too many since they don\u2019t last long once they are ripe. When this happens, I simply chop them up and cook them to make fig preserves.<\/p>\n

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This year I decided to be creative in the kitchen and combine two of my favorite things \u2013 fig preserves and grilled cheese. I think the pairing turned out pretty tasty, so here\u2019s the \u201crecipe\u201d:<\/p>\n

First, you\u2019ll need a bunch of fresh figs to make the preserves. I had about twenty and used both black and white figs. Remove the stems and then chop them all up. Put them in a small pot with some water and let them cook over low heat. I added about a teaspoon of both sugar and honey for little extra sweetness. <\/p>\n

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Keep cooking the figs until they become a chunky paste, stirring regularly to make sure the bottom doesn\u2019t burn. That\u2019s all you need to do to make fig preserves \u2013 as easy as homemade applesauce! It\u2019ll keep in a sealed container in the fridge for at least a week.
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Now on to the fun part\u2026time to build a sandwich!<\/p>\n

I used whole wheat rolls, but really any crusty type of bread will do. I went with the whole grain because my healthy conscience momentarily won out in the grocery store.
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Next, slather on the fig preserves on one side.
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Then pile on the cheese and ham. I used a mild gouda and goat cheese. (I\u2019m so glad that I can finally enjoy goat cheese again \u2013who knew pregnant ladies can\u2019t partake in goat cheese and brie? If I\u2019d known beforehand, Owen might not be here today.) Make sure to use a good quality ham, like prosciutto or serano ham. I used a smoked ham to add an extra dimension of flavor.
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Then pop the sandwich in a heated panini press and grill it until the cheese is melted and the bread is golden and toasted (or leave it in there too long so it\u2019s a bit burnt like me – oops!).
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The sweetness of fig preserves with the tanginess of the goat cheese and the smokiness of the ham went well together. I think it would be even better with some arugula greens, but I was too cheap to buy some (I do have an extra mouth to feed now). Didn’t stop me from enjoying my sandwich…
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And then for dessert we had figgy pudding. Just kidding. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\"ice","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Late summer brings one of my favorites fruits \u2013 figs. I\u2019ve noticed that fresh figs are extremely expensive in the grocery store. Luckily for me, my dad is one of those strange Italians that has fig trees so I can enjoy figs for free. Sometimes I actually have too many since they don\u2019t last long […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2832],"tags":[7630,352034,18663,8845,35428],"class_list":["post-856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recipes","tag-cheese","tag-fig","tag-ham","tag-recipe","tag-sandwich"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/icecreamoffpaperplates.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/dscn1821.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/icecreamoffpaperplates.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/icecreamoffpaperplates.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/icecreamoffpaperplates.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/icecreamoffpaperplates.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/icecreamoffpaperplates.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/icecreamoffpaperplates.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":872,"href":"http:\/\/icecreamoffpaperplates.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856\/revisions\/872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/icecreamoffpaperplates.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/icecreamoffpaperplates.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/icecreamoffpaperplates.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/icecreamoffpaperplates.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}