grilled cheese

The grilled cheese sandwich is not some idle obsession or Pinterest fantasy. It plays a valuable role in my life.

The grilled cheese sandwich always delivers. There are foods, like soup or yogurt, that automatically lead to a craving for more: dessert, steak, whatever. Technically, the yogurt and the soup provide plenty of calories to satiate a sedentary blogger, but in reality, they’re somehow not enough.

My mom once gave me a piece of advice: only eat what you like. (I’ve written more about staying healthy as a food lover in this post.) That applies both to unhealthful food and healthful food: I avoid yogurt and donuts with the same passion. When I eat food I really like, I feel great, whether it’s ice cream or quinoa.

It’s funny how in the last month, Pinterest has captured the attention of reporters, who have analyzed and unpacked it from all different angles. Funny in part because the people I know went through the angst and the confusion about the visual social media network (or whatever you want to call it) many moons ago, back when we joined in August.

It’s not that I’m a super techie early adopter types. It’s just that Pinterest and I had a bunch of mutual friends. Sarah, one of my best friends from high school, blogs over at the beautiful Chevrons and Stripes…

Check out my beloved Grilled Cheese Pinboard!

My apologies: it’s the second to last day of January, and I’ve yet to post about grilled cheese. It doesn’t mean that 2012 isn’t a year of eating and writing about my favorite sandwich, er, meal.

Fortunately, it’s a good one, a classic inspired by the rich French soup, and perfect for winter. It’s also incredibly simple. Just two ingredients make this sandwich, a red onion jam created by Merrill over at Food52 and first seen on BGSK in another simple dish, a fried egg sandwich.

When I re-made this …

BGSK’s Other Prize-Winning Grilled Cheese Sandwiches: Grilled Cheddar Sandwich with Pears and Pecans; Perfect Grilled Cheese; Grilled Mushroom-Cheddar Melts; Prosciutto & Fontina Panini with Arugula Pesto and Pickled Shallots.

We believe there’s a pretty fine art to grilled cheese sandwiches, one that you too can achieve mastery at by watching this video.

Look, they may seem simple: some bread, some butter, some cheese. But there are finer points. And then there are tweaks.

Once you move beyond the three necessary ingredients, you move into a kind of wonderland. You get to take your wildest dreams …

Favorite Grilled Cheese Cobos: Grilled Cheddar Sandwich with Roasted Pears & Pecans; Perfect Grilled Cheese; Prosciutto & Fontina Panini with Arugula Pesto and Pickled Shallots; Radicchio & Mozzarella Toasts; Pesto Grilled Cheese; Grilled Mushroom-Cheddar Melts

You know we love grilled cheese (for evidence, see above). In early January, I posted about this Grilled Cheddar Sandwich with Roasted Pears & Pecans. We reposted it on Huffington Post later on and were awed by the cheese sandwich suggestions that readers came up with. So we figured it was time to get back in the kitchen and …

DISH: Grilled Cheddar Sandwich with Pears and Pecans
TYPE: Weekday Lunch
MAIN INGREDIENTS: Homemade Bread, Cheese, Pears

I adore grilled cheese by whatever name: quesadilla, panini, pizza (ok, maybe that last one’s a stretch). It is practically in my blood, at least the blood from my mother’s side. My father’s side almost universally detests cheese. But my maternal grandparents, as I understand it, when they went to Paris for the first time fell in love with Croque Monsieurs. They ordered them at a bistro for lunch and were blown away. At all the Parisian meals that followed that …

HEALTHY-ISH NAUGHTINESS: Grilled Mushroom-Cheddar Melts; Spinach Hash Browns or Sweet Potato Fries; Carrot Cake

I love a good grilled cheese. But sometimes it just feels right to introduce a vegetable to the mix, even if that vegetable is sauteed in butter. This seems to be my rationale come summertime (otherwise known as bikini season). To help this sandwich trim down even further, I decided to grill instead of fry it. Getting a nice charred cross-hatch on hearty country bread really does a summer sandwich good.

I made these mushroom melts for a picnic lunch in Central …