Home of the Grilled Cheese Sandwich
So far this blog has been a way one street: I write and you read. That is all. I want to change that. Besides allowing comments on all entries, I am now requesting your grilled cheese stories, articles and recipes. I want you to tell …
As some of you may have read in my entry on Sunday, there was some rescheduling going on with this week’s Sunday Dinner; it switched to Tuesday. I was planning on cooking this recipe on Sunday but we had a special guest on Tuesday, so …
Since I have started my Sunday Dinners/Grilled Cheese dinners, I have not really had a bad grilled cheese. Sure, some were better than others, but none were duds. Well, that has all since changed this evening. It has been hours since I took the last bite and I am still thinking about why this grilled cheese was not as great as I had hoped, even though it had potato chips in the grilled cheese.
The idea was last minute, there were too many ingredients and the bread was too heavy are just possibilities that have crossed my mind. Unfortunately, there were some changes this past week that has changed the Sunday Dinners schedule. There was tonight’s dinner and then next Sunday’s will actually occur this Tuesday evening. (It should be better!)
After reading the ingredients above, you may be thinking that there really weren’t that many ingredients but believe me there were. The sliced tomatillos could have been left as they did not add that much. They are very tasty though! The crunchy homemade potato chips, unfortunately, got lost in the crunch of the ciabatta bread. Using a softer bread may have worked much better so that the potato chips could have taken center stage.
The homemade spicy ketchup was a last minute ingredient and was not totally thought out. It was good, and had a nice kick to it, but was not perfect. The only main difference from my salsa was the consistency, which is not at all how I had hoped it would be. I may have to revisit this idea in the future when I have time to truly flush out my ideas. In my opinion, it is worth a shot.
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Not all grilled cheeses that I cook can be winners. Last week’s was probably one of the best, while this week’s was one of the worst. It happens and will continue to happen as I create a new grilled cheese each Sunday night. This time, the pieces, including the potato chips, did not come together to form a cohesive sandwich. Instead, when paired together, the individual ingredients overshadowed each other, making only a “meh” grilled cheese.
Probably the best part of this evening’s dinner was the side dish, created by the sous chef: fried zuchini. Although a tad over battered, they were very delicious.
…but there are plenty of good (great) cooking blogs, covering all types of foods. I am on the hunt for the perfect cooking blog(s). My theory is that I need to contribute to the community before the community will contribute to me or my blog. …
I am very disappointed in the Internet. Very, very disappointed. In a search for other grilled cheese related blogs, I did a search using Google BlogSearch, hoping to find other sites promoting all things grilled cheese. If my Sunday Dinner idea is going to take …
Happy belated Valentine’s Day to everyone out there. I hope everyone had a great day and a great weekend. In honor of the holiday, I went with strawberries as one of my main ingredients for this week’s grilled cheese. Seriously, how could I not? Since I was going the fruit route, I took it a few steps further adding mango to the mix, as well as a fruit salsa (strawberries + mangoes), which all were great additions. Overall, I would say that this grilled cheese turned out a lot better than I expected.
I was originally going to make a strawberry/mango aioli, but ended up simply making a fruit salsa. The only ingredients that I added were a small amount of olive oil and salt. I mixed it up into a fine salsa (not chunky) and then spread it on the grilled cheese, both on the top and bottom.
I was going to leave it at that, but then decided, with some assistance, to include actual slices of the mango and strawberries within the sandwich. I believe that the slices are truly what made the grilled cheese as great as it was.
I have not had strawberries in awhile so having them tonight was a great treat. However, the true treat was the mango. I could probably count on one hand how many times I have had mango in my whole life. The one I bought today was extremely sweet and extremely delicious. I said last week that I need to use alfalfa sprouts much more in my cooking. Well, that is the case, but much more true for mangoes.
The only issue that I had was with the spinach. We did not need it. I am not sure if it was because we chopped it up or if the mangoes/strawberries were so sweet, but I did not taste them at all.
Finally, the Gouda was a great cheese to use for tonight’s grilled cheese. It sat in the background, allowing the fruit to be the star. I would definitely use the Gouda for a future sandwich, where it could possibly be the standout ingredient.
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I believe that this was my most original recipe, including the fruit salsa, only taking cues from my mind. The other grilled cheeses I made had pieces and ingredients from other sources (sous chef/mom, internet, etc.). Therefore, while cooking this sandwich, I was very nervous that it would not live up to the idea I had in my head.
It did. Very much so.
I am not sure that I have had a “fruity grilled cheese” before, but I definitely would try more in the future, especially with various fruit salsa. This was a great sandwich and one that both my father and I enjoyed. That does not happen very often. Well done for sure.
With the assistance of my sous chef, the recipes keep coming to me and keep improving. Each week I seem to write that this week was the best grilled cheese yet but it is the truth. As I continue to break out beyond the stereotype …
Before I update everyone on tonight’s Sunday Dinner, I must play catch-up one more time and write about the yummy grilled cheese I cooked on January 18, 2009. So far, it was probably the best sandwich I have created for Sunday Dinners. ingredients: Brie Cheese …