Grilled Grilled Ham & Cheese

For some reason I wanted some grilled corn too...

Happy Friday!  It's been an extremely long day and I'm ready to kick my feet up and put in a Netflix movie.  And I might just be in a cruel enough mood to make Andy watch a chick flick with me.  Yes, the perks of domestic bliss.

I grew up eating grilled cheese, but never understood why it was called "grilled" cheese.  I mean, I only knew of it being cooked in a frying pan - never a grill.  Then I saw Nick from Macheesmo do this.  And I was instantly inspired to do the same! 

Ingredients:

Bread
Cheddar cheese
Spinach
Ham slices
Softened butter

There's not really much to this.  And you don't necessarily have to use the ingredients I did - it's just the sandwich I was feeling at the time.

Light a charcoal grill. 

Butter one side of two slices of bread.  Place one slice on the grill, butter-side down, over moderate heat and top with cheese, spinach, ham, and another slice of cheese.  Then top with remaining piece of bread, butter-side up. 

Grill for about 2-3 minutes, or until grill marks appear and side is golden brown.  Flip over and grill for an additional 2-3 minutes, or until cheese is melted.

Slice in half and enjoy!

Seriously, this was awesome.  Even better than actual grilled cheese.  Don't believe me?  Try it out and let me know!

Have a great weekend guys!  I'm super pumped because we're getting a new couch!  Yeah, you know you're getting old when you can be excited about furniture! 

Tomato & Roasted Red Bell Pepper Soup

"Carmageddon" has officially hit Louisville.  While probably not as drastic as the major traffic that was caused in Los Angeles - but definitely something that perturbs me.  I love Louisville for the fact that it doesn't have 'major city traffic'.  Sure, we have crazy rush hour, but nothing compared to cities like LA, New York, or even Nashville.

Until last Friday.  The Sherman-Minton bridge was closed "indefinitely" due to some cracks found in some foundation beams.  While yes, safety is priority - it has put Louisville (and most parts of Southern Indiana - as the bridge connects New Albany, IN to Louisville) in a traffic tizzy, because now everything has to filter through to the other bridge (The Kennedy) - adding about 76,000 more cars that way.  And don't even get me started on the stupid detours.  My normal 20-25 minutes commute to work took a little over an hour today.  Yeah, I wasn't in a good mood.  But surprisingly enough, my commute home was more of normal pace, about 30 minutes.  I'll just have to think smarter for tomorrow's drive in.

Now that I've got my rant out of the way (I'm sure you all just wanted to hear about my traffic annoyances, right?) - let me tell you about something that calms me down... soup.  Yes, soup.  Now that fall has set in, soup will be a regular occurrence in our house - at least weekly.  And this week's soup?  This wonderful tomato and roasted red pepper soup.  Perfect for dipping grilled cheese!

Ingredients: 
Adapted from Sea Salt With Food's recipe

2 Red Bell Peppers
2 tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Onion, peeled and diced

3 Cloves Garlic, peeled and chopped

2 Heirloom Tomatoes, seeded and diced
3 tablespoons Tomato Paste
small handful of fresh cilantro, chopped
4 cups chicken stock
1 & 1/2 teaspoons Cumin
1 teaspoon Smoked Paprika
salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Sour Cream
Croutons

Broil red peppers under a broiler or open flame on gas stove until charred on all sides.  Place red peppers in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Set aside until cool enough to handle.  Peel, remove seeds, and roughly chop.

Heat the olive oil in a large pot or dutch oven.  Add onion and garlic.  Cook until soft and translucent but not brown in color, about 3 to 5 minutes. Then turn the heat on high and mix in the tomatoes, tomato paste, peppers, cilantro, cumin, and paprika. Sauté the mixture for a minute or 2, and add the chicken stock.  Bring mixture to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for about 30 to 40 minutes.

Allow the soup mixture to cool slightly, then puree it with an immersion blender. Bring the soup back to the boil and season with some salt and pepper. Serve with a dollop of sour cream, some croutons, and a grilled cheese sandwich (if you're the dipping kind of gal like me!)

This was super tasty, made great use of our CSA tomatoes, and will be a soup that paired perfectly with a simple grilled cheese!


Hope you guys have a great Tuesday!  See you tomorrow night!

Secret Recipe Club: Apple & Brie Grilled Cheese

It's that time again!  Secret Recipe Club time!  Last month was my first time and I had so much fun so I knew I had to join again for another round!

What is the Secret Recipe Club, you ask?  It's basically a secret Santa for food bloggers!  The brainchild of Amanda from Amanda's Cookin' - bloggers sign up to get a "secret" blogger from whom we choose to make a recipe from their blog and post on a designated day!  I think my favorite part is seeing what others do with my own recipe!  Last month, Dana from Food For Thought made an awesome rendition of my Coffee Ice Cream Pie by turning it into a Cookies & Cream Ice Cream Pie!  So I can't wait to see what whoever has me this month does with something else of mine!

So let's get to it!  My secret blogger this month was Sara from Cupcake Muffin.  I'd never checked out her blog before, and my first thought was - Cupcake Muffin - Andy's going to reap the benefits of this one!  Although there are tons of sweet treats on Cupcake Muffin, there are also many delicious savory dishes as well!  It's pretty much an all-around blog with tons of great stuff!

Something that really caught my eye was the recipe for Pear and Goat Cheese Sandwiches.  It has been extremely hot here, so the last thing I've wanted to do was actually cook something or turn on the oven/stove.  Sara says it best in this post when she says that these are so simple, but so gourmet!

But during my shopping trip, I couldn't find good looking pears anywhere!  So I opted for apples and switched out the goat cheese for Brie.  I mean, I love me some goat cheese, but Andy's a little picky about that one for some reason.  So I got some Brie - which is also creamy and crowd pleasing.  And everyone knows that Brie is best melted - so I had to turn this sandwich into a grilled cheese!

Ingredients:
Adapted from Cupcake Muffin's Pear & Goat Cheese Sandwiches

1 Granny Smith Apple, sliced thinly
Dash of Apple Cider Vinegar
Lettuce Leaves
Brie Cheese
Sliced Sourdough Bread
Pumpkin Seeds
Dash of ground cinnamon
1-2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Sprinkle the lettuce leaves with a little bit of apple cider vinegar and toss.

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a medium skillet under medium high heat.  Add one piece of sourdough bread (kind of swirling the bottom of the slice in the melted butter to coat) and top with one or two lettuce leaves.  Then add 3-4 slices of apples.  Layer on desired amount of Brie and sprinkle top with pumpkin seeds and cinnamon.  Top with slice of sourdough.

Once bottom is golden brown, carefully flip sandwich over (adding more butter to the pan if needed - and swirling again to get butter on 2nd slice).  Cook for another 2-3 minutes, or until golden brown on other side.

Simple as that!  Not much cooking at all, just basically some quick melting of the cheese and toasting of the bread.  This was probably one of the best sandwiches I've ever had, and could have never happened if I wasn't inspired by Cupcake Muffin's sandwich (which I will definitely be trying once I find some decent pears!).



Want to join the Secret Recipe Club?!  You should!  Click here to find out more and don't forget to check out what all the other SRC participants did this month!

Colombian Chicken Soup

So this is the first post. So I figured I'd start out with something light and refreshing. I posted on my Facebook status the other day that I was in the mood to make chicken soup. I got tons of responses asking me if I was sick. Why does wanting to make chicken soup have to mean you feel sick or ill? Hell, I just wanted it because it sounded good.

Well let's start out with what you need:

Short-Grain Brown Rice
Water
Salt
Skinless Chicken Breast
Scallions
Garlic Cloves
Ears of Corn
Cumin
Cilantro
Chicken Broth
Ground Black Pepper
Potatoes
Asparagus
Avocado
Fat-Free Yogurt
Capers

And On To The Action:

Personally, I like to get everything ready so I can just throw it all in and use it when it's called for. I Used to just prep as I went along, but I soon found out that it was a lot quicker to do the latter.

Anywho, put about 2/3 cups of the rice in a saucepan and put another water in to cover the rice. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat, cover the rice, and let it go for about 30 minutes or so, or until it tickles your fancy. When it's done, let it chill out without any heat for about 10 minutes, then salt it to your liking and let it be until it's needed.

Now for the magic, in a big pot, throw in the chicken breast(s) (the actual recipe calls for 1 skinless bone-in chicken breast, but I used 2 skinless boneless breasts instead because I had them on hand, you can do whatever), about 1/2 cup thinly sliced scallions (or green onions, whatever you wanna call 'em), 2 smashed cloves of garlic, 2 shucked and sliced ears of corn, 1/2 teaspoon of cumin, and some cilantro (actual recipe called for 1/2 cup, but Andy is sensitive to cilantro, sensitive meaning he's not too big of a fan, so I used about 1/4 cup to tone it down), and 8 cups of chicken broth (I took the easy way out and threw in 8 cups of water with 8 boullion cubes). Salt and pepper as you like and let boil, then simmer down low for about 12 minutes, or until your chicken no longer makes a peep. Take the chicken out of the pot and let rest until slightly cool, then shred it up. I did both thick and thin chunks, because I really like hearty pieces of chicken in my soup.

Then strain out the solids from the broth and discard everything except the corn (unless you don't like corn, you can throw it out, but why waste perfectly delicious corn, right?). Return the corn to the broth and bring that sucker to a boil again. Add about 1/2 lb. of cubed potatoes (I used red and peeled them, you can leave skin on if you like), and cook until just tender, 8 minutes. Then add 1/2 lb. chopped (1-inch thick) asparagus and heat for about 5 more minutes. Add chicken to pot, salt and pepper it up, and voila! You're done.


I "churched" it up a little and ladled the soup into the bowls, garnished the soup with some fresh cubed avocado, a spoon full of fat-free plain yogurt, a few capers (they add a punch that you don't expect), and a heaping spoonful of the brown rice.

Full recipe can be found here: Columbian Chicken Soup
Adapted from Food & Wine: May 2009 Recipe

And since soup clearly wasn't enough for Andy, his contribution was the grilled cheese...

... which I must say, was a good addition. There's nothing like dipping grilled cheese in soup =)