Ben the Chef

Ben has always been my ultra independent little boy.  When he was about 3½ or 4 years old he would make himself a snack by pulling out the lunch meat ham and the block of cheddar cheese from the fridge.  Using a butter knife, he would saw off a chunk of cheese and then he would wrap it up in a slice of ham and eat it up.  He took great pride in his inventive snack, and in his ability to do it all by himself.  He loved making some for everyone else, too.  I even recall one time (about 2 years ago, when Ben was four) when our next door neighbors came over in the evening to visit with us and drop off a Christmas treat. As the four of us were visiting on the couch, Ben came up with a small plate of his cheese/ham snacks and offered one to everyone. It was SO CUTE!  Our neighbors thought he was such a great host. :)

Anyway, he still takes proud ownership of his specialty snack. The other day, he was making some for him and Eliza, and he was deciding on an appropriate name for it. After considering and rejecting a few options (the only one I can recall is ‘ham and cheese sandwich’) he decided to call it a Ham & Cheese Rollup.  He was telling Eliza that he 'invented' it.  He told me that I could post it on my recipe website.  He got pretty excited about the idea, and I thought it was so cute!  I pulled out my camera and took pictures of him for my post…

So here it is!

Benjamin’s Ham & Cheese Rollups

First, lay your ham out flat. Place the slices of cheese in the middle of your slice of ham.

Now roll the ham up.

Presto!  You've got one delicious Ham and Cheese snack, made by yours truly!

One bite and you'll be hooked!

Mmmm, that's good!

 

Update 3/14/12: Last night after practicing the piano together, Ben asked when his recital was. Then he said, "Remember how at my last recital there were brownies and icecream, and all those treats? That was so good! ...This time, you can bring a plate of my ham and cheese rollups.  Yeah, we should probably bring like a bunch of plates of them.  Because I bet everyone will love them. Don't you think?"  He is so cute!