Grilled Cheese (Egg, Avocado, Pepper. Tomato)

When I was growing up my Mom occasionally made sandwiches for dinner. She was a really good cook and, with rare exceptions, I loved and ate everything she made. The sandwich dinners were invariably after a busy day or when we had leftovers —shnipzels she called them — and she wanted to use them all up.

And so, I learned that a sandwich is just as worthy a dinner as anything else. Especially when I have shnipzels to use. Or when I’ve been busy and don’t want anything fancier. Or when I was able to buy fabulous avocados that weren’t outrageously priced. Or when my garden finally burst with a few ripe tomatoes.

It all came together last night when we had these wonderful sandwiches for dinner. One of us added some hot sauce to the mayo.

Summer sandwich days are really lovely. No meat, just cheese and veggie goodness.

Grilled Cheese, Egg, Roasted Pepper and Avocado Sandwich

• 1/2 sweet bell pepper, deseeded

• 2 teaspoons butter

• 2 large eggs, beaten

• 2-3 tablespoons mayonnaise

• A few drops of hot sauce or 1 tablespoon chopped basil (or both), if desired

• 4 slices homestyle multigrain bread

• 3-4 ounces sliced fresh mozzarella cheese

• 4-6 tomato slices

• avocado slices

• 1 tablespoon butter

Preheat the oven to broil. Place the half pepper on a piece of foil and broil for 3-4 minutes per side or until crispy and tender. Remove from the oven and wrap the foil around the pepper to enclose it. Let cool, then peel the pepper, cut it in half and set it aside. Melt the 2 teaspoons butter in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add the eggs and cook until set. Dish out, cut in half and set aside. Spread equal amounts of mayonnaise on each of the bread slices (mix the mayonnaise with optional ingredients if desired). Top two of the bread slices with equal amounts of cheese, tomato, avocado, egg and roasted pepper. Cover with second piece of bread. Melt half the remaining tablespoon of butter in the sauté pan over medium heat. Place the sandwiches in the pan. Place another, heavier pan on top. Cook for about 2 minutes or until the underside is crispy. Remove the heavier pan, lift the sandwiches with a spatula and add the remaining butter to the pan. When the butter has melted, place the sandwiches in the pan, uncooked side down. Weight down with the heavier pan and cook for another minute or so or until second side is golden brown. (If you have a panini grill, use it!)

Makes 2 sandwiches

Grilled Cheese, Egg and Tomato Panini with Basil Mayo

I won. I won. I won!

I won a recipe contest sponsored by Jarlsberg cheese.

No one ever expects to win these things, but I actually won!

What a thrill! They sent me so many wonderful gifts: a big apron, tablecloth, cold pack tote bag, gorgeous ceramic cheese board, cheese plane, cutting board and thumbnail drive for my computer (with a pretty Jarslberg holder).

PLUS: a 22 pound wheel of Jarlsberg cheese. You can see it in the second photo.

That’s a lot of cheese.

Thank you Jarlsberg! 

Here’s how it all came about: I saw the contest and remembered an event from my childhood that inspired me to create a sandwich using Jarlsberg cheese. 

The event was that when I was a kid I had a friend whose Mom was very strict and forced me to eat Swiss cheese and tomato sandwich when I went there for lunch.

I hated that sandwich but I was really afraid of her, especially because she’d stand over us, watching us eat, with her arms folded in front of her and a snarl on her face.

We moved away. I never saw my friend again.

I didn’t eat Swiss cheese for years. 

Years later I discovered Jarlsberg cheese. My Dad loved it and bought it all the time. And I noticed that although it is similar to Swiss cheese in some ways, it is milder, nuttier and much more to my liking.

Would it be good in a sandwich? The kind of sandwich I once hated? I tried it. No one watching me this time.

MUCH better!

And even better when hot, grilled like a panini.

I added a couple of extra taste bits like fresh basil and mayo, plus an egg.

It was SO good I entered it into the contest.

Here’s the link to the contest: http://www.jarlsberg.com/jarlsberg-sandwich                                                                                                                 

Grilled Cheese, Egg and Tomato Panini with Basil Mayo

• 2 teaspoons butter
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
• 4 slices multi grain bread
• 4 ounces Jarlsberg cheese
• 4 tomato slices
• 1 tablespoon butter

Heat the 2 teaspoons butter in a sauté pan over medium heat. When the butter has melted and looks foamy, add the eggs to the pan. Cook without stirring for 30-45 seconds, then flip the egg over and cook another 30-45 seconds or until cooked through. Cut the cooked egg into quarters and set aside. Mix the mayonnaise and basil together. Spread equal amounts of the mayonnaise on each slice of bread. Top two of the slices with equal amounts of cheese and tomato. Place two egg quarters on top of the tomato. Cover with second piece of bread. Heat half the remaining tablespoon butter in the sauté pan over low-medium heat. When the butter has melted and looks foamy, place the sandwiches in the pan. Place another, heavier pan on top. Cook for about 2 minutes or until the bottoms are crispy-brown. Remove the heavier pan, lift the sandwiches with a spatula and place them on a dish or cutting board. Add the remaining butter to the pan. When the butter has melted, add the sandwiches on the uncooked side and weight the sandwiches down with the heavier pan. Cook for another minute or so until second side is golden brown.

Makes 2 servings

Grilled Cheese and Cranberry Sauce Panini

Every year, on Thanksgiving, I make a roasted turkey. 

Every year, on Hanukkah, I make a roasted goose.

This year, Thanksgiving and the first day of Hanukkah are on the same day.

So, what to do? Turkey or goose?

I thought about turducken but that’s a chicken stuffed into a duck stuffed into a turkey. No goose. Even if it included goose, turducken isn’t my thing. Too much work and the chicken and duck inside is steamed, not roasted.

Not for me.

I could make goose the night before, on the first night of Hanukkah, but that’s always the latke fest and to eat potato latkes without sour cream is unthinkable.

So, I’m in a quandary.

If anyone would like to voice an opinion, I’m all ears.

Actually, Hanukkah lasts for 8 days. AND, it’s a holiday featuring food with dairy, especially cheese. AND everyone loves grilled cheese. AND there are always leftovers of everything.

So, during the long holiday weekend when the entire clan is here, we are sure to be eating one of these Grilled Cheese and Cranberry Paninis.

Grilled Cheese and Cranberry Sauce Panini 

2 slices rye bread

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon orange marmalade

1 ounce slices Muenster, cheddar, Manchego or fontina cheese

1/4 cup cranberry sauce

Spread one slice of the bread with a half tablespoon of the butter. Spread the other slice of bread with the marmalade. Place the cheese and cranberry sauce on top of one of the bread slices, then cover the sandwich with the other slice. Melt half the remaining butter in a saute pan over medium heat. When the butter has melted and looks foamy, place the sandwich in the pan. Place another, heavier pan on top. Cook for about 2 minutes. Remove the heavier pan, lift the sandwich with a spatula and add the remaining butter to the pan. When the butter has melted, turn the sandwich on the uncooked side, weight down with the heavier pan and cook for another minute or so or until second side is golden brown. Makes 1 serving

Grilled Cheese, Egg and Avocado Panini

Grilled Cheese with a difference

For me, grilled cheese brings to mind the version my mother made: slices of American cheese over one piece of white bread (sometimes topped with a slice of tomato) and broiled or toaster-oven toasted until the cheese melted and bubbled on top.

But grilled cheese is one of those dishes that defies definition. Although almost everyone’s mother I knew back in my childhood days made the sandwich with American cheese and white bread (except that, unlike my mom, they used two slices of bread and fried the sandwich instead of toasting it), that wasn’t the case for all households.

Some moms used actual, real cheese, not processed American. Like my friend Lynne’s mother, who made it with Swiss cheese, which I hated, but this woman was so strict and glared at us so sternly that I ate every bit of that sandwich when I was at her house. To this day I can see Mrs. Remer standing there, arms folded over a well-endowed chest and willing us to finish.

When I was much older I realized that grilled cheese might be a kid favorite (at least when it had American cheese or, at worst, cheddar), but it continues to endure all through adulthood. It does in our house. Ed and I eat grilled cheese for dinner occasionally, or for a Sunday late breakfast, lunch or early dinner. 

I use all sorts of meltable cheeses (even Swiss) and types of bread and add other ingredients for variety. Like fruit or jam. One time we wanted something more substantial, so I made this version:

Grilled Cheese, Egg and Avocado Panini

• 2 teaspoons butter

• 2 large eggs

• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise

• 4 slices homestyle white or multigrain bread

• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil, optional

• 3-4 ounces cheddar, sliced

• 4-6 tomato slices

• 1 ripe Haas avocado, peeled and sliced

• 1 tablespoon butter

Melt the 2 teaspoons butter in a sauté pan over medium heat. Crack the eggs and place them in the pan. Cook until the whites are set and barely crispy. Flip the eggs and cook for 30-45 seconds. Dish out and set aside. Spread equal amounts of mayonnaise on each of two slices of bread (mix the mayonnaise with basil if desired). Top with equal amounts of cheese, tomato and avocado slices. Add one egg on top of each sandwich. Cover with second piece of bread. Melt half the remaining tablespoon of butter in the sauté pan over medium heat. Place the sandwiches in the pan. Place another, heavier pan on top. Cook for about 2 minutes. Remove the heavier pan, lift the sandwiches with a spatula and add the remaining butter to the pan. When the butter has melted, turn the sandwiches on the uncooked side, weight down with the heavier pan and cook for another minute or so or until second side is golden brown.

Makes 2 sandwiches

Kid Lunch. Toasted Cheese

Gillian’s new App, Lalalunchbox, is a big hit. Kids all over the world, it seems, and their parents, are using it to help them pick stuff for lunch. (And the App also sets a shopping list up for you.)

Naturally, I’m thrilled for her. And happy for all those people out there who use it and have a chance to talk with their kids about the food they bring to school. And the App is fun to use too.

It also prompted a conversation about lunch with my trainer this morning because while I’m working out, as I’ve mentioned here before, Robbie and I talk about food practically the whole time I am doing pushups, squats and running up and down the stairs.

We talked about “retro-lunch.” You know, the kind of stuff we took to school or ate at home (I walked home from school at lunchtime) when we were kids. His Mom sent things like meatball sandwich (two of them) plus an apple or other fruit, “something crunchy,” like Doritos, and something sweet, like chocolate chip cookies.

My Mom made a sandwich, like salami or cream cheese and jelly or leftover roast beef. But my favorite was her Toasted Cheese, hot if she was home, cool and waiting for me on the counter if she wasn’t. No fruit as I remember. Or anything crunchy or sweet. Snack was for when I got home at the end of the day at 3:30, always milk and cookies.

I still make Toasted Cheese the way my Mom did. Two or three slices of American cheese on each of two pieces of bread, then broiled (these days in the toaster oven of course). Eaten open-faced.

Very often she left the sandwich in the broiler a few seconds too long and burn bubbles appeared on top of the cheese. I didn’t complain about that. In fact, I thought it added to the flavor.

Still do.

Here’s how I make the Toasted Cheese, which, by the way, you can put in a kid’s lunchbox as a sandwich (I’ve done that for my grandchildren), by slapping it together like a regular sandwich.

Toasted Cheese

2 slices whole wheat or multigrain bread

1 tablespoon butter, optional

4-6 slices, approximately, American cheese (or cheddar slices)

tomato slices, optional

Slather the bread slices with butter, if desired. Place 2-3 slices American cheese on each slice of bread. Top with a slice of tomato if desired. Toast in a toaster oven until hot and bubbly, or longer if you like blackish-brownish burnt bubbles on the surface. Eat open-faced or place the centers together for a traditional closed sandwich. Makes one sandwich.

Grilled Cheese with Fruit and Jam

We eat sandwiches for dinner sometimes. Ed is so accommodating, he will eat anything I cook and never complain. For example — recently I baked a batch of butter cookies for too long and they were nearly burned and he told me he actually prefers them that way.

Anyway, he’s okay with sandwiches for dinner and that’s all very familiar to me because I grew up in a sandwich household. My Mom used leftovers creatively most of the time, although she NEVER called them leftovers because she didn’t like that word. But sometimes dinner was just a sandwich. 

I don’t make Grilled Cheese sandwiches too often though. Our dinner sandwiches are usually more substantial. Grilled Cheese is usually just when the grandkids come.

But occasionally we’ll have it, depending on what kind of cheese I have in the fridge and bread in the freezer. I like to use cheese/bread combinations other than American cheese on white bread (although I am NOT sneering at that. I just need something more for dinner sometimes).

Recently I made this sandwich and we both loved it: Grilled Cheese with Fruit and Jam.

It’s what’s for dinner.

Grilled Cheese with Fruit and Jam

2 slices multigrain bread

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon apricot jam

1-1/2 to 2 ounces sliced cheddar, Gouda, Manchego or fontina cheese

slices of fresh peach, nectarine, mango, papaya or apricot

Spread one slice of the bread with a half tablespoon of the butter. Spread the other slice of bread with the jam. Place the cheese and fruit on top of one of the bread slices, then cover the sandwich with the other slice. Melt half the remaining butter in a saute pan (preferably nonstick) over medium heat. When the butter has melted and looks foamy, place the sandwich in the pan, cover and cook for about 2 minutes. Lift the sandwich with a rigid spatula and add the remaining butter, let it melt and flip the sandwich into the pan. Cook for another 2 minutes or until the outside is crispy and golden brown and the cheese has melted. Makes one sandwich