ArcaMax

Grilled Cheese

It’s National Grilled Cheese Month! So let’s celebrate! Break out the cheddar!

I was raised in Wisconsin so I know my cheese. I’ve been eating cheese since I was a baby, and I don’t mean those gummy, rubbery slices wrapped in plastic. I mean real cheese.

Grilled cheese has always meant comfort food to me. For over 4 years I lived above an Irish pub on Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago. When my husband was traveling and I was feeling sorry for myself, I’d order up a grilled cheese sandwich from the pub. They did them up real good there. The white bread had just the right amount of butter, grilled to a golden perfection. The American/cheddar combo inside was triple gooey. The crispy bacon I had them add was just that. Crispy. And the tomato slices were actually ripe tomato; even in the dead of winter. Best part was when I ordered it was they sent it up in the elevator on a tray. The grilled cheese sandwich rode the elevator up all alone. This special elevator opened up into my living room and voila. Special delivery of my piping hot grilled cheese sandwich.

I miss those sandwiches.

But I don’t really miss sandwiches in general. I have gotten over bread. Too many carbohydrates, and having left them behind has given me a smaller behind.

So I got dreaming of a grilled cheese sandwich. I think I’ll splurge and make one but it won’t look much like the one from the Irish Pub.

First thing is I’ll use half as much bread. Commercial white bread has 23 grams of carbs per slice. That means 46 grams of carbs for one sandwich. That’s ridiculous. And who said you have to be able to eat with your hand? I’m happy with my fork and knife. So I’ll cut the amount of bread in half and have my sandwich open-faced.

When I go to make a grilled cheese, I labor over what cheese I want. My first go-to is cheddar. That’s always a hit. But sometimes I like to mix my cheese too. I’ll do provolone for its melty goodness. My husband wants pepper jack cuz he wants the bite of the peppers. He also wants sautéed onions and a mustard smear. My new favorite is to spread some boursin on the buttom piece of grilled bread. Then put a slice of cheddar on top. Top that off with the crispy bacon, the cold, ripe, red tomato slice and then another slice of cheddar. I use the oven and perhaps my broiler to bring it to bubbling perfection. Sometimes I even add a bit of sliced avocado or guacamole somewhere in there.

But back to the bread. I said one slice of commercial white comes in at 23 grams. By cutting out one slice I cut that carb count in half. If I go to a good commercial whole grain I can get it down to 12 grams. So I’ve cut it in half again. But behold, we now have low carb breads on the market. Julian Bakery (for one) makes a variety of low carb breads made with almond flour or even coconut flour. They come in at six grams of carbs per slice. So you can have your bread and eat it too. Just in moderation and to double that point, not every day.

A lot of those made up promotional holidays are just plain dumb. Selfish self-promotion. But I just might make a small exception for one grilled cheese sandwich.

Open-Face Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Cheese options: You can really use just about any melt-able cheese you want but here’s a list of some of my favorites:

Cheddar, swiss, emmenthaler provolone, boursin, gruyere, pepper jack
Sliced, ripe tomato
Onion slices, raw or sautéed

Other basic ideas: avocado slices, pre-cooked bacon, guacamole, mustard, mayo, thousand island dressing, coleslaw from the deli. You know this list can go on forever and as far as your culinary imagination will take you.
Butter for your bread

Standard assembly and baking instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

First thing I do is fry my bacon to a nice crisp and set that aside. I also sauté a few onion slices for my husband’s sandwich. I get things like that done ahead so I can assemble and bake the sandwiches in an organized fashion.

I melt a few tablespoons of butter (depends on how many sandwiches I’m making). Spread a smear of butter on one side of the bread. Then I take out a large sauté pan and brown the bread on the buttered side. Transfer them, butter side down to a cookie sheet.

Let cool just long enough so I can handle them. Then I put on any kind of smear I want. My husband gets his mustard. I smeared some boursin cheese on mine.

Put on sliced items. I added the tomatoes to mine and the onions and tomatoes to his. Put on one layer of cheese. Pop them in the oven until these items are hot. That might take about 10 minutes max. Then I add the bacon and another layer of cheese. Pop them back in the oven til the top layer of cheese melts. I find if I try to do all of that in one trip to the oven the top cheese will melt off so doing it in two stages is a good idea.

Remove them from the cookie sheet, put on a plate and eat.

Enjoy!
Cheers,
Zola