The Perfect Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Grilled cheese sandwiches, a staple in every Stay At Home Mom’s menu rotation.  They are quick, easy and CHEAP to make.  But if you don’t know the secret to making them perfectly you are missing out!  I will share with you what has taken me 30+ years to figure out.  It’s like the perfect storm of grilled cheese coming together on your stovetop.  Mmm mmm!  (Hee hee!!!)

Ok, so you start with these ingredients.  And yes, you have to use fattening margarine!  These are not for the health conscious, friends!

Turn on your stove to just past medium and put your pan on there to heat up. Then you take 2 pieces of bread, white tastes best with these, and you slather on a good ol’ thick layer of buh-da on one side of each slice.  Then stack them on your plate, counter or where ever, butter sides TOGETHER. 

Lay 2 slices of Sharp Cheddar Cheese on the bread.  (Side bar: We grew up using Velveeta or Kraft Singles.  THESE DO NO CUT THE MUSTARD HERE, FOLKS.  I REPEAT, THESE WILL NOT WORK TO MAKE THE PERFECT GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICH!!! Don’t even think about it!  Go to the store, walk directly to the cheese aisle and buy yourself a package of sliced Sharp Cheddar Cheese. Sheesh.)  Take the top slice of bread with the cheese on it and lay it, butter side down, in the pan.  I hope you hear a sizzling sound.  Turn the heat down to just under medium.  Then place the other slice of bread, butter side up, on top.  Place a lid over the skillet and back away.

Stay close by and after about 45 seconds to 1 minute lift the lid and use your spat to pull up the corner of the bread.  If it looks like this:

the flip it over.  If it does not, leave it alone for a little bit longer.  Once it does look like that there beautiful picture above flip it over and cook the other side to match, with the lid back on!  Last, throw that amazing sandwich up on your plate and cut it, DIAGONALLY, not down the middle (boring and so, so wrong) and devour it. Yum yum!

Now, here’s the secret to the perfect storm perfect grilled cheese sandwich. It’s the lid!  It helps keep the heat in and MELTS THE CHEESE TO PERFECTION!!!  Why didn’t someone tell me about this years ago??  Sometimes I take the lid off for the last minute of toasting, just so the cheese doesn’t melt too much and ooze out the sides of the sandwich.

Ok, here’s one variation (well, 2).  First, you can add shaved meat for a more filling sandwich for the men-folk in your life.  And B (ha ha, an inside joke between me and Andy.  You start listing things off by number then change mid-stream to letters.  Classic!  Ha ha!) you can grill these puppies in your George Foreskin – I mean Foreman!- -Grill. It’s pretty slick how well that baby grills them.  But it does flatten them out quite a bit, but I don’t care because I tend to have a death-grip on sandwiches and flatten them out anyway.

There you have it, the Perfect Grilled Cheese Sandwich!  Enjoy!

Erin

P.S.  I was sitting in the Easy Boy eating this because it was Sunday night and on Sunday nights we eat in the living room as a treat for the boys.  And we usually have something easy (think popcorn) so sitting on the floor isn’t a big deal.