Cheesy Stuff

You probably didn't realize you were longing for someone to provide a grilled cheese sandwich tutorial, did you? I love grilled cheese in all its infinite variations, as long as it contains real cheese and not some "processed cheese food" stuff. The real keys to making a fantastic grilled cheese are to:
1. Use good cheese
2. Use good bread
3. Grate the cheese so it will melt better
4. Grill it on a heavy pan, like cast iron, at a fairly low heat. It's amazing how quickly it can go from golden to black.

So without further ado, here's how I made my most recent sandwich:
First, spread something interesting on one side of a slice of good whole-grain bread. In this case, I used my homemade pesto. You can find the recipe at http://morning-glory-garden.blogspot.com/2009/10/pesto-and-salad-dressing.html . Then sprinkle on about 1/3 of the grated cheese you'll use for each sandwich. Layers of melted cheese help hold the other layers together. Here I used a nice extra-sharp cheddar.

Then add a layer of tomato slices (or crisp, thin apple slices, but not with pesto - that sounds weird).

 Sprinkle on half of the remaining cheese.

 Add some sliced onion (this would also be good with the apple variation). I like red or sweet onions, when the sweets are in season.

 The last of the cheese.

 Put the top slice of bread on and butter it.

 Flip it over and put it on the griddle (I love my cast iron) or in the pan, and then butter the other side.

 Grill on both sides on medium low as long as it takes, checking often. It's better to take a few minutes longer and enjoy perfection than rush and get unsatisfactory results. This one got a wee bit browner than I'd like but not enough to need to scrape any burnt stuff off (it looks darker in the picture than in real life).

Serve with a nice bowl of soup(this is my pumpkin-peanut butter soup; the recipe is at http://morning-glory-garden.blogspot.com/2009/10/soup-of-evening-beautiful-soup.html) and some fruit. All those lovely flavors held together by the cheese are a real sensuous treat.