Okay, this one is just a fun and silly one. My kids got hooked into Cool Math Games at their previous school. It’s a fun and (almost?) educational website they can go on to learn math skills or in some cases, how fast they can click the mouse button (future console button mashers represent!).
One of the games on the site that is a big ‘win’ around our place is Papa’s Cheeseria. It is one of a whole series of “Papa’s” games that has the kids running a virtual restaurant. They learn how to accept an order, cook the meal to spec, and then deliver it to the customer who passes judgement on how well they followed their directives. In Papa’s Cheeseria, you’re running a bespoke grilled cheese shop, and interestingly enough, some of the combinations they have listed in the game sound quite delicious! On that front, it’s made lunchtime around here pretty interesting some days when one of the kids decides that a standard grilled cheese sandwich, just isn’t going to cut the mustard. Enter, the BBQ (no bacon) Grilled Cheese. I say no bacon as we didn’t have any bacon just laying around the house once this had been requested, so I substituted as best I could in the 5 minutes I had in front of me. You might be able to read the order ticket, but if you can’t, here’s the basic rundown.
- Bread
- Bacon (I substituted with a slice of processed turkey breast sandwich meat)
- BBQ Sauce
- Lettuce (romaine works just fine)
- Ketchup
- Bacon (repeat previous subsitution)
- Bread
Oh! and don’t forget…
- P.S. – put in some cheese
They almost forgot the most important part of a grilled cheese sandwich!
Now, I used to slather up some bread with butter and toss on the frying pan, but as of late, I’ve avoided that. I’ll give a warm grill just a quick shot of cooking spray before tossing the bread down. It works, will help add some nice toasty brown/black colour, and not be quite as artery-clogging. I’ll toss the sandwich on the grill, get a good toast on both sides, then I do a little bit of magic. Steam. You want ooey, gooey grilled cheese that’s insanely melty and leaves behind what my kids call “cheese bridges” when they bite in and there’s a foot long trail of cheese between their mouth and the sandwich when they pull it away? You need steam. Have a squirt bottle handy. Spray the grill, just off to the side of the sandwich you’re toasting, and then immediately drop a big pot lid over top of the sandwich and the now steaming wet spot on the grill. If you do it quick enough, you’ll capture the steam under the pot lid, it will help turn the cheese into liquefied awesome, and your Cheeseria ranking will go through the roof.
Now, as for this specific recipe…with lettuce involved, what I wound up doing was just making a grilled cheese with two pieces of sandwich meat in the middle…after the bread had been toasted and the cheese melted, I pried apart the sandwich between the meat slices, added the condiments and lettuce and then flipped everything back over. Is this a fantastic recipe? Ug. Far from it. But it was what my 8 year old ordered and I got a hug and 2 thumbs up, so, hey – that’s a winner in my books.
-g
Dad's Turn To Cook 