Grilled Cheese Adventure

Have you ever grilled cheese so hard that you broke a sweat? No? Just me? Oh. This is weird. Well kick back, because do I have a tale for you.

Picture this. I invited about 15 friends for a party and I promised them dinner in the form of everyone's favorite childhood throwback: grilled cheese and soup. Naturally I went to the grocery the day before the gathering and I thought to myself, "Eh, I'll just get one loaf of bread. Oh and a pack of Kraft singles, duh. And last but not least Campbell's soups." Flash forward 24 hours and guests start arriving. I fire up the burner and whip out my favorite 15" KitchenAid skillet. "Oh yeah," I tell myself, "I'm a master cheese griller and I'm about to wow all these guests with my mad skills." I start buttering bread at a nice pace. I open cheese as I need it. The first sandwiches are up and look like golden brown perfection. And just as I think, "Yeah I can probably slow down," ten more people walk in the door and I realize I've forgotten to but the soup on. As you can imagine, things get a bit hectic from there. I throw a block of cheese at a friend and say, "UNWRAP THESE!" in my best Chef Gordon Ramsay voice. I'm flipping sammies with my left hand and stirring soup with my right. I run to the fridge for a stick of butter and take a second to dab the sweat from my forehead with the hem of my apron. My guests love the grilled cheese and all request second sandwiches which makes me smile until I discover, to my utter horror, I have only two slices of bread left. The heels. In an act of desperation, I check the deep freeze where I find, under a bag of frozen peas and a chuck roast, a sorta-smooshed-but-totally-okay loaf of split top wheat.

Here's what you can learn from my story:
1.) Ages 8-87, everyone loves grilled cheese.
2.) Always buy plenty of ingredients, even if it means you might have a little extra.
3.) Always enlist a little kitchen help when entertaining.

Yes, I am going to get on with the recipes now. And yes, recipe was plural. If you're looking for a grilled cheese sandwich that's a bit nicer than American cheese and wheat bread, look no further. Here are two of my favorite grilled cheese remixes:

Grilled Caprese

Italian Bread, sliced
Fresh Mozzarella, sliced
Tomatoes, sliced
Basil Leaves
Basil Pesto

What could be better than caprese salad? The grilled cheese version of caprese salad! First things first, gather the ingredients and slice them up. Instead of buttering the bread as with a typical grilled cheese, use a basting brush to spread pesto on one side of each slice of Italian bread.

Okay, yum. Do your best to keep yourself from x-ing out the recipe and eating it at this stage.



Heat a skillet to medium and build your masterpiece, layering mozz, tomatoes, and basil like so.

Could this look any more delicious?

Fry until bread is crispy on both sides and the cheese is ooey, gooey, and melty. Something like this:

 Can we get a closer look at that grilled cheese?



Yes, yes we can.

Optional Change-Up: Not a huge fan of bread that's a little moist? The juice from the tomatoes and the fresh mozzarella can make this sandwich a little sloppy. If sloppy scares you, try using sliced mozzarella from the deli which is a little drier than the fresh. Or you could substitute the fresh tomatoes for sundried tomatoes which are, you know, DRIED by the sun.

Baked Monte Cristo

2 Bake At Home French Baguettes

1/2 lb. Virginia Brand Ham, thin sliced

1/2 lb. Oven Roasted Turkey, thin sliced

1/2. lb. Swiss Cheese, thin sliced

Powdered Sugar

Raspberry Preserves

Toothpicks

If you've never had a Monte Cristo sandwich, you've never lived. The traditional Monte Cristo is an American version of the French croque-monsieur. A Monte Cristo is a ham, turkey, and swiss sandwich coated in an egg batter and fried. My version of the Monte Cristo is like the older, more sophisticated, French cousin of the Hot Pocket. It's important to get the bake at home loaves, because pre-baked baguettes will get too crispy or burnt in the oven. Speaking of the oven, preheat to 350.

To start these sandwiches, you need to cut each baguette into 5 sections, then hollow out one end of each section. To do this, I used a small serrated knife to cut the first chunk out, then a grapefruit spoon was absolutely perfect for digging out the rest of the inside.

You'll be filling the baguettes then closing them up so don't forget to save this piece for the end of each baguette:

Next, you can begin to layer turkey, ham, and swiss cheese inside each section of the baguettes, filling them as full as you can!

Close up each open end with the designated chunks of bread and keep the bread plugs in place with a few toothpicks. Place the 10 sandwiches on a cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes to crisp the bread, heat the meat, and melt the cheese. Just as with a traditional Monte Cristo, dust the sandwiches with powdered sugar after removing them from the oven and serve with raspberry preserves.

Trust Me On This: I know what you're thinking. "Wow, this was sounding delish until she told me to put powdered sugar on it and serve it with flipping raspberry preserves." But trust me. It's amazing. Like better-than-Aaron-Tveit-in-Les-Mis-amazing. Just try it. You won't regret it. I promise.

That's all for now, lovely humans. Happy eating!

Mags

Coming soon to REtR: 2016 Picture Book Review. Hear from me what's awesome and what's atrocious in the world of newly released picture books.



A Stroll Down Memoir Lane

Hey, friends! I've had my nose in two great books this week and I'm thrilled to share my thoughts with you. A little background about each book:



Don't Tell The Girls

Author: Patricia Reilly Giff

Published: 2005

Publisher: Holiday House

Target Age: Grade 4 and up

Six Word Summary: Nana's love and tales of Ireland.

The Glass Castle

Author: Jeannette Walls

Published: 2005

Publisher: Scribner

Target Age: Grade 9 and up

Six Word Summary: On the run from life itself.

Just as there is an art to writing books, there is an art to reviewing and critiquing books. Here on READ EAT then REPEAT my goal will always be to give you as readers an accurate view of the books I read, but to do so tastefully. One great way to critique politely and the method I'll use in this post is a Critique Sandwich. Say what? You heard me. Critique sandwiches look something like this:

I'll start with Jeannette Walls's memoir, The Glass Castle. The first bit of positive feedback is a compliment of the extraordinary writing style Jeannette uses. Important pieces of her story are told in a matter-of-fact, no-bones-about-it manner. Jeannette had a hard childhood and discusses plenty of difficult situations, but is never verbose. Perhaps it is because a large part of the story is told through the eyes of Jeannette as a child. Perhaps it is because Jeannette was exposed to so much in her childhood that circumstances which might concern an average reader didn't seem to affect her. In any case, Jeannette's style is lovely. Here are a few strikingly beautiful lines:

"But Dad drank hard liquor only when we had money, which wasn't often, so life was mostly good in those days."

"But even if I'd woken up one morning with a raging fever, I never would have admitted it to Mom. Being sick might have meant staying home in our freezing house instead of spending the day in a toasty classroom."

If I have any complaints or critiques to offer about The Glass Castle, it would be that the going was sometimes slow. The first 100 or so pages of the novel were important stories that laid a foundation for the plot points and conflict that would follow, but I found myself getting a little bored. However, when a growing Jeanette starts to question the way her family lives, the way her father behaves and the truths she has held tight to, things quickly pick up and I found myself unable to put it down.

My final positive feedback is more for Jeanette Walls than for the novel. I love that Jeanette found the strength to tell this story because it speaks to readers not only as a fantastic literary work, but more importantly as an outpouring of real stories, real emotions, and real reactions. Jeanette tells readers it's okay to have a messed up family, and it's okay to love messed up people. Jeanette's willingness to share her story says as much as the story itself.

Now for Don't Tell the Girls. I can't help but compliment how candid and real this family memoir feels to the reader. I felt as though I was sitting on Nana's lap hear the stories exactly as they were told to the author. I've always known Patricia Reilly Giff as a beautiful story teller and if you've never read her work, march to the library and dive into Pictures of Hollis Woods, Lily's Crossing, or Nory Ryan's Song. But in memoir form, Giff is equally talented at crafting a work that intrigues and draws in readers.

Here the bottom half of my Critique Sandwich gets a little foggy. My final comment its both constructive and positive feedback. Giff's family memoir, Don't Tell the Girls is largely a tale of discovery, fact finding, and genealogy, which, unfortunately, makes it read a bit like a journal or collection of notes. There were times I was enthralled with the adventure the author was on to untangle her family history. Giff even travels to Ireland to unlock some final clues about her ancestors. But, more often I felt like I was reading a kind of personal account of Giff's mission to understand her family, and for me, this book just wasn't a page turner.

To wrap it up: Memoirs can be fun to try out if you've spent your whole life with your nose stuck in fiction books. I've got to give The Glass Castle an overall 4/5 rating for impeccable storytelling even in the form of a memoir. I give Don't Tell the Girls an overall 2/5 rating for delightful tales that made me grin. But don't take my word for it. Read the books yourself and let me know what you think. I'm not always right, you know.

Thanks for hanging out with me here on memoir lane. That's all for now trusty reader friends. But don't worry, I'll be back with more.

Mags

Coming soon to REtR: An adventure in grilled cheese making. :)





Souper First Impressions - Chicken Tortellini Soup

Hey friends!

I'm SOUPer excited to share this recipe for Chicken Tortellini Soup, but first let's get to know each other. My name is Mags and I'll be posting frequently here on READ EAT then REPEAT. I'm a foodie and a(n) bookie avid reader, so I'll be intertwining my love of great books and tasty dishes to bring you the latest in cooking and literature. I'm neither a picky eater, nor a picky reader so I'll cover grilled cheese to Hemingway, crème brulee to Eric Carle, and just about anything in between. I know not all of my followers will be gluttonous bibliophiles like I am, so to help you navigate and find the posts that interest you, each post will be tagged with labels. On my home page you can click on the "food" label, for example, to see all my posts relating to food. I encourage you to read and cook right along with me, sharing feedback all the way. I'd love to know your thoughts on the book reviews and recipes I share. Speaking of recipes...

I love pasta. I love chicken. I love tomatoes. I love spinach. I love this soup and I think you will too, so gather these ingredients!

6 c. chicken broth
2 - 14 oz. cans diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano, not drained
28 oz. can chicken, drained
15.5 oz. can white kidney beans, drained and rinsed
20 oz. package Buitoni Three Cheese Tortellini
3 c. fresh spinach, washed
6 leaves fresh basil, chopped
2 cloves fresh garlic, minced or chopped finely

First things first, grab yourself a soup pot. Combine the chicken broth, tomatoes, minced garlic, basil, and chicken and bring to a low boil over medium-high heat.

Your boiling deliciousness should look and smell something like this. Stop smelling the computer screen, silly goose.

Add the spinach, beans, and tortellini then return to a low boil for about 5 minutes or until the pasta is nice and tender. Stir the pot occasionally.

This is getting good. Real good.

You're done. Yes, it's that easy. This dish is a breeze. In under 30 minutes, you can whip up 8 servings of a hearty soup and still dirty only one pot. I suggest pairing this soup with a small spring mix salad dressed in olive oil and vinegar as well as some nicely toasted French bread. (I'm aware the dish is Italian. I'm an equal opportunity bread eater.)

Look at it. Would you just look at it? Actually, don't just look at it, make the dang soup. Eat it!

 Hey now, hey now, this is what dreams are made of.

Try it. Love it. Repeat. Let me know how your cooking adventure goes and as always, any feedback is welcome.

Ta-ta for now,

Mags

COMING SOON TO REtR: My thoughts on the popular memoir,The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls.