Monday, August 13, 2012

Kind of Fancy Grilled Cheese

It took a new pan and some amazing homemade bread to finally motivate me to post again.  I was looking around my favorite discount store, Gabriel Brothers, and happened upon a very reasonably priced coated cast iron griddle.  I am a fan of cast iron pans, even more so of ones that are coated because they cook like traditional cast iron, but don't need to be seasoned.  I have a pot that is like this and love it, so I figured it was worth the $20 I was about to shell out.  Well, it definitely turned out to be an excellent purchase.  I have been making grilled cheese like a mad woman!

The griddle is a great tool because of the lack of sides like a traditional frying pan, making it much easier to flip things, like pancakes or grilled cheese.  In addition to the pan, I also have come across some of the most fabulous bread.  At the local farmers market there is a woman who makes home made flavored breads that are quite amazing.  They remind me somewhat of the no-knead bread that has become popular.

This week I picked up a round loaf of sun dried tomato basil bread and have two new combos of grilled cheese that have been great.  First I put a layer of mayo on the outside of the slices, this is much easier than using butter.  This bread crisps nicely on the outside and the inside gets soft, but not too mushy.  Then I add the cheese.  Tonight it was white american, with ham and some fresh basil from the garden.  Last night, I had colby jack cheese with tomato and pesto.

Let me know if you have any favorite grilled cheese combos!