Grilled Cheese

I think I've mentioned how much I love grilled cheese. Seriously, it's one of my favorite meals. Grilled cheese and tomato soup mmm mmm good.

That being said boyfriend makes some of the best grilled cheese out there. We went to the grilled cheese fest this past spring and learned a trick or five...

1) Use high fat butter. The highest fat butter you can get. At the regular supermarket the highest we've found is Challenge butter. There's another even higher fat content butter at Trader Joe's that the guy at the fest was talking about - have yet to find it.

2) Use fresh bread. Not like white bread from the bread isle. Bread from the bakery that you have sliced for you. It needs to be thick enough to hold up to the amount of butter you use.

3) Dijon mustard. Yes. Mustard. Spread a thin layer of mustard on one side of the sammy. It helps bring out the cheesiness. Even if you don't like dijon - you should still give it a shot.

4) Shredded cheese. I'm not talking bagged shredded cheese. I'm talking buy a block of cheese and shred it yourself. Why? Because sliced cheese melts unevenly, and pre-shredded cheese has a chemical coating that keeps it from completely sticking together.

And lastly:
5) Butter the pan too. I know, I know, you've buttered the bread. You wanna get that special greasy crunch? Butter the pan!

Seriously - follow these simple rules and you'll wonder why you haven't been eating grilled cheese the right way all this time...

Cute Things #2

How cute is this!? Makes me wanna go home and make a tiny gingerbread house to hang on the side of my coffee! Seriously I can't get over it. I love that notmartha blog.

Christmas Breakfast #3

I got thinking - everything that I've been trying has made use of the oven. Christmas dinner is done at my parents house. Which means windows open, heat off, fans on...in below 20˚ temperatures. Why heat up the house with the oven before we even have to? So I found a recipe that utilizes the stove top.

My sister is a huge fan of french toast. She could eat an entire loaf of bread cooked as french toast. So..what could a person do that isn't as typical and boring as the actual thing itself? STUFFED FRENCH TOAST! Duh...so I tried it. It's most definitely not a difficult as I had thought. Look out IHOP here I come...

Stuffed French Toast
courtesy allrecipes.com

Serves 4:

Ingredients

8 slices oatnut bread *I used Challah and sourdough* both tasted the same
1/2 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened *I eyeballed it*
1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam *also eyeballed it*
5 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract *I used Vanilla*
1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1. Spread 4 slices oatnut bread on one side with cream cheese. Spread remaining 4 slices on one side with raspberry jam. Press cream cheese slices together with jam slices, forming sandwiches.

2. In a medium, shallow bowl, beat together the eggs, milk and almond extract.

3. Melt butter in a large, heavy skillet over medium high heat. Dip sandwiches in the egg mixture to coat. Place in the skillet, and cook on both sides until golden brown.

Christmas Breakfast #2

We liked this A LOT. The entire thing was gone...might have to make double if I do decide to do this one. It's some serious competition this year! I followed the recipe completely - I think if I make it again I'll add more goat cheese.


Goat Cheese Quiche with Hashbrown Crust
courtesy Martha Stewart

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter, softened, plus more for pan
1 package (1 pound) frozen hash brown potatoes, thawed
12 large eggs
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 1/2 cups reduced-fat sour cream
1 package (4 to 5 ounces) soft goat cheese, room temperature
4 scallions, thinly sliced

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brush a 9-by-2 1/2-inch springform pan with butter. Line the sides of the pan with strips of waxed paper (the same height as pan); brush paper with butter.

2. Squeeze excess moisture from hash browns. Mix in a bowl with butter, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon coarse salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Pat into bottom and up sides of prepared pan, using a moistened dry measuring cup. Place on a rimmed baking sheet; bake until set, 15 to 20 minutes.

3. In a large bowl, whisk sour cream, goat cheese, 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper until well combined; whisk in 11 remaining eggs. Pour into crust, and sprinkle with scallions. Bake until set, 45 to 50 minutes. Unmold quiche, and peel off waxed paper before serving.

Christmas Breakfast #1

I make Christmas day breakfast. This is a tradition that started when I moved across the country. It used to be no big deal...make some pancakes or some french toast and done. Then I got a little crazy one year and made some apple pancake muffins...and there was no going back. So every year I make something Christmas morning that's a little bit...well, special. So I have a few recipes that I wanna try for my big day. My lucky boyfriend (or unlucky depending on how awful it is) gets to be the guinea pig. The first one that I tried was the Apple Puffed Pancake from Martha Stewart online. It was a pretty big hit. We even went up for seconds!

Apple Puffed Pancake
courtesy Martha Stewart

Ingredients:

Serves 6

6 large eggs
1 1/2 cups skim milk, preferably organic
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
4 apples, such as Gala or Red Delicious, peeled, quartered, cored and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon light-brown sugar
Confectioners' sugar, optiona

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Combine eggs, milk, and vanilla in the jar of a blender. Blend until well combined. Add flour, granulated sugar, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Blend until dry ingredients are well incorporated; set aside.
3. Place butter in a 9-by-13-inch glass baking dish. Transfer dish to oven and heat until butter has just melted. Carefully remove from oven and place apples in a single layer in baking dish. Return to oven and cook until butter begins to bubble, about 4 minutes. *I sprinkled them with some brown sugar to make them a little more sweet*
4. Pour batter over apples, sprinkle with brown sugar, and continue baking until puffed and golden, about 20 minutes. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar, if desired; serve immediately.

--The boyfriend also suggested maybe using a more bitter apple...like granny smith. Just to get the bitter and the sweet.

Grilled Cheese Truck!!

We've all heard of the Kogi Truck and all the other taco trucks out there..but have you heard of the Grilled Cheese Truck? Neither have I, until now. Thank you Tasting Table LA. I want to go to there!

This is something I can get into. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love tacos. But I can't say I'm the biggest fan of the corn tortilla un-fried. It's just too thick for me. All the taco trucks that I've visited have been corn tortillas. I know I know I can get something other than a taco at most trucks...but seriously what's the point of going to a taco truck if you're gonna get a burrito? It's not the burrito truck.

But grilled cheese truck - oh my lord. Talk about my kinda truck! I might make this my goal this weekend...to hunt down the grilled cheese truck. WHO'S WITH ME!!?

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Blondies

I've made these before but it was before the time of the blog. My sweet tooth kicked in again the other night and I thought "mmm, I could really go for some blondies!" This recipe is really easy and has very little ingredients. I found everything for it right in my pantry.

Halloween Blondies
courtesy of Everyday Food

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted, plus more, room temperature, for pan
1 cup packed light-brown sugar *I used dark brown because that's all I had*
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
1/4 cup each orange, yellow, and brown candy-coated chocolates (from a 12.6-ounce bag)
**You could use pretty much any candy you'd like for this. I used reese's peanut butter cups and chopped them into small pieces*

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush an 8-inch square baking pan with butter; line pan with parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on two sides.*this makes it easier to just lift the blondies out of the pan* Butter paper.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together butter and sugars until smooth. Whisk in eggs and vanilla. Add flour and salt; stir just until moistened. Transfer batter to prepared pan and smooth top. Arrange candies in 12 rows (2 rows per color, repeating once) on top of dough. *or just sprinkle on whatever you've chopped up*

3. Bake until top of cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Set pan on a wire rack and let cool completely. Using parchment overhang, lift cake from pan and transfer to a cutting board; cut into 16 squares. (To store, keep in an airtight container at room temperature, up to 2 days.)

SO. TASTY.

Caramel Brulee Latte

There's something about Starbucks during the holidays. It just makes you wanna go out and decorate something with tinsel. It never fails to make me feel more in the holiday spirit. I've been a little down about the holidays this year. Not sure why, but I'm gonna do my best to get in the spirit. So I stopped into Starbucks and of course they have some fancy holiday drink that they've never had before! Of course I got it! This season it's the Caramel Brulee Latte. How do you pronounce caramel? CAR-mel (omitting the a in the center entirely) or car-A-mel? For me it depends on the context. I usually go car-A-mel, but sometimes I go CAR-mel.