Grilled Three-Cheese & Rosemary Sandwiches

Justin and I love grilled cheese. First of all, who doesn't like cheese? It's pretty spectacular. Then it's also just so easy to make. Slap some butter and cheese on some bread and toss it in a hot pan. Voila, dinner. Tangent alert: I don't like it when people make "grilled cheese" with meat on it. That's not grilled cheese. That's a grilled sandwich with cheese on it. That's a poor man's panini. I'm sure it's still freaking delicious, but it's not grilled cheese. I can make an allowance for veggies I suppose, but even that's a little iffy to me; you're still verging on grilled sandwich territory there.

Sorry about that. I get really passionate about my grilled cheese. Anyway, in my book, you really can't beat the childhood favorite grilled cheese, white bread with Kraft singles. However, sometimes we like to pretend to be adults and fancy it up a bit. That's where this grilled cheese sandwich comes in. It still has the American cheese in there to give it that classic, gooey creaminess, but it also adds sharp cheddar for a little bite and Swiss cheese for a rich nuttiness. The rosemary butter gives it a hint of freshness. While this will never be my absolute favorite grilled cheese, it's a good alternative for when I want to feel a bit more sophisticated. My one major tip for this sandwich is to put the American cheese in the center of the other two slices. Being harder cheeses, they'll take a bit longer to melt, so having each of them right up against the bread should help with that a bit.

Rosemary Chicken & Potatoes

This is one of those dishes that's really simple in both execution and flavor profile, but sometimes that's exactly what you want--here the rosemary really has a chance to stand out without a lot of other flavors getting in the way. I always feel like fresh herbs make things feel fancy anyway, so you don't really need anything else to make this dish feel special.

Chopped Challenge #1: Sausage & Herbed Polenta Cakes with Citrus-Tequila Rosé Sauce

Justin and I spent a lot of time watching Chopped on Food Network when we were living in Indiana. At some point, we decided that we should give it a try ourselves, but we never actually got around to it for whatever reason. We thought about it again recently and decided to actually try it this time. Our plan is to alternate who cooks and to do this once per grocery list (every two weeks or so).

For the challenge, one of us selects four ingredients that the other must use to cook dinner. We can use whatever other ingredients we want, and because right now we're telling the cook what the ingredients will be when we're making our grocery list, we can buy whatever extra supplies we need while we're at the store. (We don't have a lot of pantry space here, so we don't have a ton of extra, basic ingredients on hand usually.) The only two guidelines we really set up are that the four ingredients all have to be something we both eat--I can't make him cook with peas, and he can't make me cook with pumpkin--and they can't all four be super calorific, meaning we can't pick butter, bacon, heavy cream, and maple syrup. Lol.

Cilantro-Lime Rice

Cilantro is an herb that divides people. There are people who love it and can't live without it. Then there are people who think it tastes like soap. I fall somewhere between those two camps, I guess; I like cilantro in moderation. I enjoy the fresh flavor that a small bit lends to Mexican food, but too much of it makes me feel like I've swallowed a mouthful of Dawn. This cilantro-lime rice was made with that in mind, so the lime is intentionally a more prominent flavor than the cilantro. If you love cilantro, by all means add more.

Crepes

I'd always had the impression that crepes were difficult to make. I'm not sure where the idea came from, but it's what I thought nonetheless. While I was living alone in Indiana after Justin started his job out here in Virginia, I decided to give it a try and was amazed at how easy it is. Can you make pancakes? Then you can make crepes. It's basically the same process.