What's for Lunch? July 30, 2010

             
I believe in grilled cheese sandwiches. I grew up on these things, and I still enjoy eating them. Over the years I have ventured into the world of what I like to call "grown-up grilled cheese sandwiches". You may know them as "melts" or other fancy titles, but in my kitchen, they're "grown-up grilled cheese sandwiches".

I truly believe that grilled sandwich making is an art. This art form varies greatly what with the invention of the pizza sandwich maker and the panini sandwich maker, but the classic grilled sandwich involves a skillet and a spatula (the flipping kind, not the scraping kind).

I also believe that a great sandwich requires quality and, when available, fresh ingredients. As a special treat, I have decided to document the tasty (and maybe not-so tasty) grown-up grilled cheese sandwiches I concoct from time to time. Whenever possible I will include pictures. In other words, when I remember to or can stop from consuming the sandwich in three belly-bloating bites, I'll grab my camera and photograph my lunch for you.

By no means will I attempt to call these sandwich "recipes" originals (or for that matter, healthy), but I hope you can find them inspiring nonetheless. Usually creating a grilled sandwich involves me wandering around the kitchen to see what sort of goodies and leftovers I have on hand. The sandwich creating process is hardly ever premeditated.

So, without further ado, I present to you...

The Chicken Parm Grilled Cheese Sandwich

(which, as it turns out, doesn't actually include any Parmesan cheese)

2 slices whole wheat bread

3 slices Mozzarella cheese

3 slices leftover roasted chicken breast

6-8 fresh basil leaves, chopped

3 tablespoons* leftover tomato sauce 
sea salt and black pepper to taste 

2 teaspoons garlic infused olive oil

Here's how the assembling process went down...

1. slice of bread. 
2. cheese (3 slices might sound like a lot, but I'm talking about 3 slices off of the block of cheese you might buy if you were making lasagna or fancy pizza, not the overpriced, pre-packaged, sliced garbage stores like to sell you).
3. chicken.
4. basil.
5. fresh ground black pepper.
6. tomato sauce.
7. other slice of bread.

I greased my frying pan with the garlic infused olive oil (which you can easily make by buying regular olive oil and dumping a bunch of fresh garlic cloves inside. The longer it sits in there, the more potent the garlic flavor). Then I slapped my sandwich down and grilled it (if you don't know how to grill a sandwich using just a flipper and a frying pan, call your grandma up and have her teach you). Between flips I ground some sea salt onto both sides of the bread, hoping for a pretzel type effect. It kind of worked.

And then I wolfed it down, which means, no pictures. Sorry.

* All 'spoon measurements are guesstimates as I don't actually measure anything.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Did You Know?

OBG had a sandwich filling "recipe" published on the website Allrecipes.com. As anyone who frequents this site and/or has tried to submit a recipe for "publication" would know, the criteria for selecting what recipes to publish is... uh... well, does anyone really know how recipes are chosen over there? At any rate, go check it out. Apparently people like it.

     

Mayo-Free Tuna Sandwich Filling