Ham and Peach Ciabatta Melts

Well happy Sunday everyone! Sorry for the lack of posting. 2012 was a low year for our blog. We posted less this past year than we ever had before. For 2013 I'm setting some goals for the blog. We've got a lot going on right now that could mean for some interesting posts.

The goals are as follows:

• Redesign logo and launch new responsive site by June.
• Both Jessi and I love to travel both domestic and abroad. We'd really like to make it a priority to begin to incorporate more travel into the site.
• Dedicate set times to post each week.
• Eliminate the backlog of recipes to post. We've probably got 40 recipes and images set to post. Over the next couple weeks I'm going to throw all of the old up there. Although i have to warn you that some are not that pretty.

I think that's enough goals— this is not a fulltime job and and we have no ads on the site. However this may change with the new release this year. I, Michael, had been freelancing design work for the past year and a half. While I thought this would give me more time for other things such as the blog, I seemed to have less. I'm now in a new, full-time job now as a lead front end web designer at an agency here in Charlotte, Alter Imaging (thus making the need for a well-designed and functioning site even more important).

To top it all off, our house is for sale. We are not moving from Charlotte just getting ourselves some more space. So hopefully in the next few months there will be a new home to Chef Fresco and a new kitchen to create masterpieces in.

Needless to say there are a lot of new great things to come. So stay tuned and we'll see what actually gets crossed off the list in 2013.

Now onto the recipe. We spotted these delicious little guys in Jessi's mom's Southern Living magazine at the beach last summer. Finally, we got around to making them (this was in the summer when peaches were in season) and let me tell you, they are delish! Easy, cheesy and peachy. We picked up some country ham at the Farmer's Market, which was thickly sliced. A bit of a mouth-full - we definitely recommend thinly sliced ham for ease of chew.

Modified from Southern Living.

Ingredients

• 8 ciabatta bread slices
• 4 teaspoons coarse-grained Dijon mustard
• Freshly ground pepper
• 4 (1-oz.) fontina cheese slices
• 4 ounces thinly sliced country ham, prosciutto, or Serrano ham (we used country ham)
• 2 medium peaches (about 3/4 lb.), unpeeled and sliced
• 4 teaspoons honey 
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Directions

1. Spread each of 4 bread slices with 1 tsp. mustard, and sprinkle with freshly ground pepper.
2. Layer with cheese, ham, peaches and honey. Top with remaining bread slices, and press together gently. Brush sandwiches with olive oil.
3. Cook sandwiches, in batches, in a *grill pan, 3 to 4 minutes on each side (or until golden brown) and cheese is melted. 

*You can use a panini press if you have one. If you don't have either, you can use a regular pan, you just won't get the grill marks. If you're feeling extra energetic, start-up the charcoal and grill these suckers!