A Cozy Grilled Cheese

Okay so I know you’ve already heard by now. Adrianna and I were official competitors in the 7th Annual Grilled Cheese Invitational. It was…shall we say…an experience.

So, this is how it started. A friend of mine sent me a link for the competition while I was bored at work one day, with a joking line about how silly it was. Upon seeing that such an event did actually exist, I was consumed with a desire to take part somehow. I sent a message to Adrianna, my foodie partner-in-crime, and within a couple hours we were entered to compete.

Now, there were three categories that you could choose from. The first, “Missionary Position,” restricted you to using only bread, butter & cheese. You could use a variety of each ingredient, but they must all fall under those basic categories. The second was “Kama Sutra,” an anything-goes category in which any and all ingredients could be used. Finally, “Honey Pot,” was meant for grilled cheeses in dessert form. Since this was our first competition and we weren’t sure what to expect, we opted for the “Missionary” category.

Now, at the time of entering we had roughly a week to prepare, which is not much when you’re going up against 300 other competitors. Yes, 300!  Are you shocked? I was. So, with the pressure on, we devised a game plan. We came up with a list of ingredients, different cheeses, breads, and butters and divided them up. During the week both Adrianna and I went home and experimented with our ingredients to come up with the best options from each batch, and the day before we competed we met to narrow it down to our final recipe. After a week of cooking, experimenting, adjusting, and much tasting, (a special thanks to all our friends who helped!) we came up with the recipe for our Cozy Grilled Cheese. (see below)

The next day was the competition. Chase and I arrived and you could feel the excitement in the air. You could also see the ridiculously long line to get into the competition area. Luckily, as a being a privileged competitor, I was able to cut to the front of the line. (special thanks to all our friends who waited hours in line to come see us!) I marched proudly up to the check-in booth and gave them our team name (Team Cozy, of course) and waited while they looked, checked again, looked some more, and then told me the could not find our competition materials (voter’s ballots, plates, utensils, etc.) Great. Perfect. Then, a call from Adrianna. She’s running late. “Where is this place again??” Things were definitely off to a rough start…

Well, after the check-in folks confirmed that the package of materials we were supposed to be given had magically evaporated into thin air, it was decided that they would make a whole new one for us. I was worried that we would miss the chance to compete, but the entire event was apparently so well planned that it was an hour behind schedule, so that helped calm my nerves.

At about the same time, both my teammate and our materials appeared, and Adrianna and I got down to business. We dressed in the attire, which you’re probably laughing at right about now, and prepared our workstation. A very dramatic countdown occurred on the giant Grilled Cheese Clock, and off we went. The basic idea of the competition was to cook about 5 grilled cheeses, divide them up, hand them out to observers with voter’s ballots attached, and hope that they gave you a good score. With me prepping the sammys, Adrianna at the grill, and Ryan, Adrianna’s boyfriend, handing them out to the crowd, we had a nice assembly line going. Our biggest difficulty was trying to keep the grill pan hot, since it was unusually windy and the flame was less than consistent. In the end, we got all of our sandwiches made in the time allowed, and Chase, who took all these wonderful photos, told us he heard people raving about our cheesy goodness as they tried it.

Well, sad to say we didn’t win, but it was a worthwhile experience nonetheless. And hey, it brought us our Cozy Grilled cheese which has made the world seem just a little brighter, right? Give this one a try and let us know: were we robbed??

A Cozy Grilled Cheese

Print this recipe!

Okay, a couple of things before we get started. I am a huge fan of the standard grilled cheese that consists of bread, butter, and a couple slices of processed yellow cheese. This recipe is NOT meant as a replacement, but as another option for when you’re feeling adventurous. Also, some of these cheeses may not be in your local grocery store, but no worries, I tried to give an alternative that everyone should be able to find.

Ingredients:
2 pieces of your favorite fresh bakery bread
Salted butter
Raw milk white cheddar (or you can use any mild white cheddar)
Jarlsberg (or you can use Swiss cheese)
Blue cheese, crumbled
Sliced American cheese

To build the sandwiches:

First, butter both pieces sides of the bread. And don’t be stingy!

Now for the cheese! First, slice up the raw milk cheddar, or the white cheddar if you couldn’t find it. (I could only find it at Trader Joe’s. If you don’t have that you may be out of luck) This cheese was so rich and melted so beautifully that we made it the base for the sandwich, and there’s more of this cheese than any of the others.

Next, we grated up some of the Jarlsberg, or Swiss cheese, and sprinkled a thin layer on. This added a little bit of a bite to the taste. Then, add a very thin sprinkling of the blue cheese. It adds a great flavor, but since it’s so strong you don’t want to add too much or it will overpower everything. Finally, top it off with a slice of good-ole American. This adds color and is a nice tribute to the original.

Tagged as: Cheese