Open Faced Prosciutto and Egg Sandwich

Easter Sunday. Base chapel service. Egg hunt afterwards. Ham, scalloped potatoes, deviled eggs. The standard.

Donna sent a recipe card in the mail this week. She has been doing this for years. The recipes go in the binder. The binder is full. The newest one is for a green bean casserole that uses fresh green beans and fried shallots and which I will absolutely make for the next holiday.

I made a casserole for a neighbor whose husband is deployed. I dropped it off. She cried. I told her, eat the casserole, baby. The food is the saying. The casserole was a mostly-frozen tater-tot situation that took fifteen minutes of effort and six months of practice to perfect.

Ryan went to his counselor Wednesday. He always comes home calmer. I am calm too, just from him being calm. The man Torres was killed with — Ryan calls his wife twice a year on Torres's birthday and the anniversary. The military widows are their own community.

Hazel and I had a hard moment Tuesday at homework time. She is in a season of testing limits. We worked through it. We always do. She is mine.

I sat at the kitchen table Tuesday night writing in the journal. Volume 11 now. The handwriting has not gotten neater. The journals are a record of the life I am living, in the moment, in tiny script that I will look back on someday and not be able to read. That is okay. The writing was the thing.

I unpacked another box from storage Tuesday afternoon. Three years on this base and I am still finding things I packed in Twentynine Palms. Military-wife archeology — every box is a layer of geological history. I found a ceramic dish from Lejeune still wrapped in newspaper from 2020.

Ryan came home tired Wednesday. He showered, ate, sat on the couch, was asleep by eight. Standard for a Marine who has been up since four-thirty for PT and stayed late for a brief. The schedule is the schedule. The body adapts because it has to.

The Friday before-school morning was chaos. Three kids, two backpacks, one missing shoe. We all made it to the bus. I drank cold coffee at nine AM because that's when I sat down. Standard.

The PCS rumors are starting again. The official orders will come in a few months. We could move. We could stay. The waiting is the worst part. Three years here and I have learned to not put down deep roots in any military town. Nineteen-year-old me would not have believed how good I have gotten at packing.

Caleb's school had a fundraiser this week. I baked cookies because I always bake cookies. The cookies were the standard chocolate chip. They sold out in twenty minutes. I am the cookie mom of this PTO and I have stopped fighting it.

The military spouses' Facebook group had a small drama this week. Two women fighting over the playgroup schedule. I muted notifications and cooked dinner. Some weeks the group is the lifeline. Some weeks it is the source of unnecessary stress. The skill is knowing which week you're in.

My therapy session was Tuesday. We talked about the deployment cycle and the way the body holds dread and the ways the body holds it. The hour passed. The work continues. I have been doing this work for years. The work pays.

I went to the commissary Saturday morning. Got the grocery haul under sixty bucks for the week, which is a small victory. The cashier knows me. We talked about her grandkids while she scanned the chicken thighs and the family-size box of pasta. Small-town energy on a Marine base in California.

The week I described above had eggs in it from the start — deviled eggs at Easter, the egg hunt, the whole tradition of it — and when Ryan came home Wednesday wiped out and asleep on the couch by eight, I wanted something I could put on the table fast that still felt like I’d actually cooked. This open faced prosciutto and egg sandwich is exactly that kind of recipe: it looks like effort, it tastes like effort, and it takes about fifteen minutes, which is all I ever have on a Wednesday. I pulled it from the binder, and it earned its spot.

Prep Time: 5 min | Cook Time: 10 min | Total Time: 15 min | Servings: 2

Ingredients

2 thick slices rustic bread or sourdough, toasted
4 slices prosciutto
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 tablespoons whole-milk ricotta or cream cheese
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
Fresh cracked black pepper, to taste
Flaky sea salt, to taste
Fresh arugula or baby spinach, small handful
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Instructions

Toast the bread. Toast the bread slices until golden and sturdy enough to hold toppings without going soggy. Set aside on your serving plates.
Crisp the prosciutto. Heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Lay prosciutto slices flat in the dry pan and cook 1—2 minutes per side until the edges curl and crisp slightly. Remove and set aside.
Fry the eggs. In the same skillet, melt butter over medium-low heat. Crack eggs in gently and cook to your preferred doneness — runny yolk is recommended here for richness. Season with cracked black pepper and a pinch of flaky salt.
Dress the greens. Toss arugula or spinach lightly with olive oil and lemon juice. Season with a small pinch of salt.
Assemble. Spread ricotta or cream cheese evenly across each toast. Layer on the crisped prosciutto, then top with dressed greens. Slide a fried egg on top of each. Finish with red pepper flakes if using and a final crack of black pepper.
Serve immediately. These are best eaten right away while the egg yolk is still runny and the toast holds its crisp.

Nutrition (per serving)

Open Faced Prosciutto and Egg Sandwich — A Quick Win for the Busy Military Mom