Grilled Cheese - Three Ways

The three WINNERS of Hank Phillippi Ryan's guest blog book giveaway are:

drumroll...

Peg, Janel and Marie A.

Ladies and everyone, thanks for your comments!

Scroll to the bottom of this post and find out how to choose your "Time" book from Hank.

And now...

GRILLED CHEESE

Do you love grilled cheese sandwiches? I do. I have fond memories of vacations at Lake Tahoe (one of the finest lakes in the whole world! Clear blue, super deep, extremely cold).

After a chilly swim in the lake, my sisters and I would meet on the porch and our mother would make us a warm lunch that included grilled cheese and tomato soup. A tiny slice of heaven.

But I digress. Back to grilled cheese.

[If you haven’t guessed by now, because I’m writing A Cheese Shop Mystery, I’ve become obsessed with cheese. I dream cheese. I Google cheese. I savor cheese.

[*My protagonist, Charlotte, would be very proud of me!]

By the way, did you know there are grilled cheese competitions? They’re sort of like Top Chef for the masses. People from all over the country attend the competitions offering up their versions of a grilled cheese.

I’ve got to include a competition in an upcoming book, don’t you think? Charlotte will be a judge. Her pal, Delilah Swain, who runs The Country Kitchen diner, will be a contestant. I’m seeing big possibilities here.

In the meantime, I’m trying my hand at a variety of grilled cheese combos. The best one will make it into the book as a recipe.

I’d use the same basic ingredients in all the cheese sandwiches -- turkey, cheese, bread -- but they’d taste decidedly different.This week, while I was making a grilled cheese with Wensleydale cheese and turkey, I thought, hey, what if I made this sandwich three different ways. My own version of Iron Chef.

And I’d rate them, with the help of my family and friends.

Here are the results.

An open-faced Wensleydale cheese and turkey broil.

A grilled Wensleydale cheese and turkey and ham.

A regular sandwich, not cooked, with Wensleydale cheese and turkey and homemade raspberry jam.

Note:

Wensleydale is produced in North Yorkshire, England. The pastures in Wensleydale give the cheese a lovely flavor of wild honey. It’s crumbly and moist and melts like a Caerphilly

The Wensleydale I’ve used actually came from Costco. Yes, you can buy good cheese at Costco. It is laced with cranberries and tastes incredible on a cracker or just by itself. It’s lovely with a glass of Pinot Grigio. The acid in the wine brings out the acidity in the cheese.

Here's how I constructed the sandwiches:

Grilled Cheese

Ingredients:

2 slices of bread

1 Tbs. butter

2 oz. sliced Wensleydale cheese

2 oz. sliced turkey

Directions:

Heat skillet. Butter the bread on one side. Lay butter side of one slice in skillet. Layer with cheese and turkey. Put other piece of bread, butter side up, on top. Grill for about 3-4 minutes until bread is browned. Flip the sandwich. Grill another 3-4 minutes, until bread browned and cheese melted. If necessary, put a lid over the sandwich to help the cheese melt.

Open-faced Grilled Cheese

Ingredients:

1 slice bread

2 oz. Wensleydale cheese, sliced thin

2 oz. sliced turkey

1 Tbs. Italian or raspberry vinaigrette dressing

Directions:

Toast bread by itself first.

Remove from oven. Baste with dressing. Layer with turkey and then cheese.

Put under the broiler for 3-5 minutes, until crispy.

Serve warm with sliced fruit or small green salad.

Regular Cheese and Turkey Sandwich

Ingredients:

2 slices bread

2 oz. Wensleydale cheese

2 oz. sliced turkey

2 Tbs. raspberry jam [I used my sister Kristy's homemade jam! Fabulous!!!]

Directions:

Spread jam on 2 slices of bread. Layer cheese and turkey on one slice. Top with the other slice of bread spread with jam.

Done.

As for the taste test, my husband and I both agreed that the grilled cheese was the best, but the "regular" sandwich is fabulous and would taste great grilled. And the open-faced sandwich was a lovely morsel of good flavors. Go figure! We love grilled cheese.

Enjoy.

If you want to know more about A Cheese Shop Mystery series or the first in the series, The Long Quiche Goodbye, click on my website: Avery Aames.

Reminder:

We have a NEW CONTEST. Win a set of COOKIE CUTTERS from

Wilton. To enter the contest, all you have to do is leave a comment!

Check back on March 2, when the cookie cutter winner will be announced -- oh heck, check back every day! There's always something fun going on ;-) But that's when Jenn McKinlay will launch her new book Sprinkle with Murder, as well as a new CONTEST. One you won't want to miss!

Also, don't forget to enter Jenn’s Name the Cupcake Contest. Go to her website to enter. You and your cupcake might be the lucky ones to be written intoBUTTERCREAM BUMP OFF.

Last but not least -- Hank Phillippi Ryan's THREE BOOK GIVEAWAY. Peg, Janel and Marie A. Please Just email Hank directly by going to her website HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN, and click on contact in the upper left. (The little animation will resolve, and then it’ll say contact.) Enjoy a good read!!!