Grilled Cheese Sandwich

April 12: National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day

There are days when we are too busy/tired/lazy to cook or too cheap/indecisive/moody to eat out anywhere. That’s when Highlander resorts to making one of his favorite comfort foods—a grilled cheese sandwich—because of the simplicity of the ingredients (bread, cheese and butter or margarine) and the ease of cooking.  Adding luncheon meats, savory spreads and vegetable fillings; using artisan breads and imported cheeses; and slicing off the crusts or making special shapes with cookie cutters on the sandwich can enhance this basic recipe. But Highlander is content with the classic, especially for today’s blog post in observance of National Grilled Cheese Month and National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 slice of cheese
• 2 slices of bread
• butter or margarine

Directions

Below are two different methods (none of them using an actual “grill”) that we typically follow to prepare a grilled cheese sandwich.  The first example was made with wheat bread and Swiss cheese and the second was made with white bread and American cheese.

Toaster method:  Toast both slices of bread. While still hot, butter one side of each bread slice. Put the cheese in between the bread slices.  If necessary, microwave for a few seconds until the cheese is melted.

Stove top method: Butter both slices of bread on one side each.  Preheat a pan on the stove top to medium high heat. Place one slice of bread in the pan with the buttered side down. Put the cheese on top of the bread. Then place the other slice of bread on top of the cheese with the buttered side up. Cook until the bottom bread slice is browned, then flip the sandwich over and repeat.

Mizeria

April 11:  Feast Day of St. Stanislaus of Szczepanów

When we visited Bandera, Texas, during one of our weekend road trips, we stopped by the second oldest Polish parish in the United States, St. Stanislaus Catholic Church. Immigrants from Poland founded this town, which is now known as the “Cowboy Capital of the World,” in 1855. The church was built in 1876 and is recorded as a Texas Historical Landmark. The featured blog recipe for the Feast Day of St. Stanislaus, the martyred patron and first saint of Poland, is mizeria z ogórków, a simply refreshing Polish cucumber salad with a sour cream dressing.

Recipe

(Adapted from Polish Forums)

Ingredients

• 1 large cucumber
• ½ cup sour cream
• 1 to 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Peel and thinly slice the cucumber. Place the slices in a colander and sprinkle with a little salt. Let stand for 30 minutes to drain the liquid. Pat the slices dry with a paper towel. In a large mixing bowl, make the dressing by combining the sour cream, dill, lemon juice, sugar, salt and pepper. Add the cucumber slices to the bowl and mix well. Chill the salad in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Garnish with extra dill before serving.

Notes

• Panna Maria, Texas, is the oldest Polish settlement in the United States since 1852. Panna Maria means Virgin Mary in Polish, and the immigrants built the first Polish parish in America in 1856.

HI Pizza

April 11:  The day Highlander and Islander started dating; the day HI Cookery blog was officially launched

Our first recipe post is HI Pizza (popularly known as Hawaiian Pizza), a dish that our friends have used to described us as an intermarried couple. The main toppings are Canadian bacon and pineapple.  The meat represents Highlander’s Canadian heritage, although the bacon is really a ham like him!  The fruit represents Islander’s upbringing, although the pineapple is not native to Hawaii like her!

And just because a pineapple is an ingredient in a recipe doesn’t make it Hawaiian. In fact, the Hawaiian word for pineapple is halakahiki (foreign fruit); it is believed that it came to the islands from Latin America. Because visitors would take this tropical fruit back home to share with family and friends, the pineapple has become a symbol of hospitality.

So now we extend our hospitality to our blog visitors by sharing our first recipe post.

Recipe

Crust

We have used the roll-out refrigerated pizza dough, pre-made pizza crusts and even a homemade recipe using the dough-only cycle on our bread machine (one of the first appliances we bought with our wedding gift money).  Below is the modified bread machine recipe from AllRecipes.com substituting the butter or oil with Kauai herb macadamia nut oil for a more local and aromatic flavor. We also used a Hawaiian beer as an ingredient!  Layer all the ingredients in order and follow the dough-only cycle instructions for your specific bread machine.

• 1 cup beer at room temperature (we have used Kona Brewing Co.’s Fire Rock Pale Ale and Longboard Islander Lager before)
• 2 tablespoons oil (we used Oils of Aloha’s Kauai herb macadamia nut oil)
• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar (we used C&H brand, granulated white)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 ¼ teaspoons yeast

Once the bread machine cycle is complete, remove the dough from its container.  Roll out the dough on a floured surface to prevent from sticking then press into a pizza pan.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Brush flavored oil on the crust.  Prick several times with a fork.  Bake for 15 minutes before adding sauce and toppings.  Then bake for another 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Sauce

We have used pizza sauce in a jar from the store for a quick preparation.  But for those who are a little more ambitious, here is Islander’s modified recipe from her eighth grade home economics class in Hawaii, again substituting the oil for garlic-infused macadamia nut oil.

• ½ chopped small onion (try a sweet Maui onion)
• 1 tablespoon oil (we used Oils of Aloha’s Garlic Isle macadamia nut oil)
• 1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
• 1 small bay leaf
• ¼ teaspoon basil
• ½ teaspoon oregano
• ½ teaspoon salt
• pinch of pepper
• 1 teaspoon sugar (we used C&H brand, granulated white)

Heat the oil on high and sauté the onions until transparent.  Lower the heat then pour in the tomato sauce, bay leaf and spices.  Stir then simmer for 10 minutes.  Remove from heat and discard the bay leaf.

Toppings

Pizza is very versatile and the amount for the toppings can be adjusted according to one’s taste.

• One package of shredded pizza cheese (mozzarella, parmesan, mild cheddar, etc.)
• Canadian bacon (we used heart-shaped cookie cutters and diced the rest of the meat)
• Canned pineapple

On top of the pizza sauce, sprinkle the diced Canadian bacon, then the cheese.  Arrange the Canadian bacon cutouts on top of the cheese.  Fill in the rest of the spaces with pineapple.

Notes

• Thanks to Auntie Maria B. for the macadamia nut oils sampler pack.
• When we lived in New Jersey and Illinois, we ate New York-style and Chicago deep-dish pizzas, respectively. When we visited Italy, we also sampled different kinds of pizzas. Note that an American “pepperoni” pizza might get lost in translation as a “peperoncini” (Italian sweet pepper) pizza there.
• See more pizza recipe posts on our blog in January (National Pizza Week–second week of the month) and October (National Pizza Month).