Gourmet Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

When I was a kid, it was pretty hard to beat a grilled cheese sandwich.  I remember watching a commercial for the Kraft singles cheese slices.  They would tear a grilled cheese sandwich in half and show the gooey stringy cheese pulling apart from the two sandwich halves.  I stared, mesmerized by the cheese and thinking that nothing in the world could be better than a grilled cheese sandwich.  I still love a good grilled cheese sandwich but my taste buds have grown up and so has my sandwich.  First of all, you have to start with some good bread.  A couple slices of store bought white bread just isn't going to cut it anymore.  I like to make a loaf of homemade bread  (go here for the recipe) but a store bought loaf of artisan bread would work too.  This first Hawaiian sandwich comes from Who Wants Dinner.  That sparked some creative juices and I created the Margherita sandwich.  For the ultimate gourmet grilled cheese sandwich, give one of these a try, then get creative and invent one of your own! 

Hawaiian Grilled Cheese

Ingredients:
Bread
Ham (thinly sliced ham, canadian bacon or lunch meat)
Pineapple rings
Colby Jack Cheese
4 TBS melted butter
parmesan cheese
garlic salt
dried parsley flakes

Directions:
Heat griddle to about 450.  Mix a sprinkle of parmesan cheese, garlic salt and parsley into melted butter.  Spread butter mixture on one side of each slice of bread.  Place one slice of bread, butter side down, on hot griddle.  Layer with a slice of cheese, a pineapple ring or two (pat dry with a paper towel first) and some ham.  Top with another slice of bread, butter side up.  Cook until the bottom slice of bread is golden brown, flip over and cook until the other side is golden brown also.

*Source:  Jamie Young

Margherita Grilled Cheese

Ingredients:
Bread
Mozzarella Cheese
Sliced Tomato
Basil*
4 TBS melted butter
parmesan cheese
garlic salt
dried parsley flakes

*(fresh is best but after going to two different stores to buy some, without any luck, I ran out of basil searching time and had to settle for dried basil flakes.)

Directions:
Heat griddle to about 450.  Mix a sprinkle of parmesan cheese, garlic salt and parsley into melted butter.  Spread butter mixture on one side of each slice of bread.  Place one slice of bread, butter side down, on hot griddle.  Layer with mozzarella cheese, tomato slices and basil.  Top with another slice of bread, butter side up.  Cook until the bottom slice of bread is golden brown, flip over and cook until the other side is golden brown also.  Enjoy your grown up grilled cheese sandwich!