ham and cheese stuffed buttermilk pancakes

Ham and cheese buttermilk pancakes just in time for the weekend. How in the world did this creation come about? I am the type of food eater that loves a little bit of everything in one bite. Let's say it's thanksgiving: I'm going to put on my fork a little bit of turkey, some sweet potato, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and dip it all gently in a bit of gravy while having a bite of those buttered rolls. Yeah. See now that's how it's done. That's how all the chefs do it too. Next time you watch Top Chef watch the judges when they go and taste the dishes. They take a little bit of food from all that is on the dish in ONE bite; not only to see how it all tastes BUT to see if it all melds nicely together.
Any meal I eat I have to have various food flavors going on and eat them all at once. I am not one of those people that eats the meat first, then the vegetable, then the whatever.... That's eating to eat. I eat to savor, to mix, to meld, to satisfy every single craving I have in a day in one meal---if I can.
Get to the darn pancakes already! OK. We all know I love my sweet & salty fix--on an hourly basis, and breakfast is the most important meal for savory right? LOL. But I love pancakes with salty, fried ham, drenched in syrup!
So just like my love of having a peanut butter & jelly sandwich with a nice slab of sharp cheddar in there (try it, it's really good) I wanted to try and add a layer of cheddar cheese to the pancakes. So why not just make a nice thick, fluffy, greasy pancake with a little bit of ham and melted cheese in the middle? It's good to experiment right? Even the fussiest of fussy food eaters on the planet (my husband) loved it. So there.

ham & cheese stuffed buttermilk pancakes
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use your favorite buttermilk pancake recipe (this is a good one from alton brown)
a few slices of thinly sliced ham
a few slices of thinly sliced mild cheddar cheese
a few TB of butter for pan and for topping pancakes
pure maple syrup

make your pancake batter as you normally would. when you get ready to pour them onto the griddle: pour a little bit onto griddle, spreading out just a bit and quickly place a couple slices of the ham, then a slice of the cheese. top the pancake with just a little bit more of pancake batter to cover. you will have to spread the batter over and around the ham & cheese to make sure it's nice and covered. when bottom side of pancake is done carefully flip over. this takes some skill as you don't want to break apart the middle part.
serve with the butter and warmed maple syrup.