Spicy Grilled Cheese with Sweet Ham and Pineapple |Cooking With Amanda

Don't you love holidays? We're getting into the season of barbecues, which are in and of themselves reason for family to gather. Barbecue or holiday, they're filled with family, laughter, and big hunks of meat.

For our family, it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without a big old turkey or Christmas without a leg of lamb, and of course it wouldn't be Easter without a big spiral sliced ham.

I love roasts, be it turkey or lamb. Each holiday I eat my fair share and then some. In fact, I eat so much turkey at Thanksgiving and ham at Easter that I find I am unable to serve it to my family until the holiday's come around the following year. Suffice it to say I lose all self-control and literally eat myself sick every single holiday. And even then, there's still some leftovers that go into the freezer.

The thing is I love turkey, I love lamb and I love ham! I want to eat them year around, I really do, hence saving leftovers. I think my problem is the roasts themselves. I don't want to deal with making my own hunk of meat unless I have a special occasion.

Yes, I am just plumb lazy. I'm not too proud to admit that. All this means is, I have to get creative with how I add ham or turkey to our diets throughout the year.

The best way to do that I've found is to make sandwiches! Who doesn't love a turkey sandwich? Especially one that has creamy Munster cheese and a spicy pumpkin mayo!

The best thing about sandwiches is their possibilities are infinite! I am especially drawn to unusual combinations like this Fontina and Chocolate Grilled Cheese. While the combination of ham and pineapple is relatively common, the addition of the Sambal Oelek makes this sandwich just a bit out of the ordinary.

Thick slices of ham are tucked inside a Hawaiian roll along with creamy and mild Havarti cheese. The spicy mayo balances out the sweet pineapple ring perfectly. This spicy sweet ham and cheese might be the best excuse to make extra ham the next time a big holiday rolls around. For me, it's the best excuse to enjoy ham all year-long!

These spicy grilled cheese sandwiches are even better paired with Carrot Ginger Soup or Tomato Soup with rice and spinach.

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Spicy Grilled Cheese Recipe

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Ingredients

4 large hawaiian bread roll
4 slices havarti cheese
4 slices pineapple, thick
4 slices ham, thick

For the Chili Mayo:

1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons sambal oelek ground fresh chili paste, generous

For Cooking:

4 teaspoons butter

Directions

Heat a grill pan over medium heat.
Butter tops and bottoms of each bun with butter.
Place 4 roll bottoms, buttered side down. Top each with ham, pineapple and a tablespoon of mayo and top with bun.
Grill sandwich for 1-2 minutes per side.
Serve immediately.