Happy Grilled Cheese Day!

I’ve never been great about family traditions. Rather than stick with the same routines year after year, we tend to switch things up. I love the idea of the families that get new Christmas pajamas every year, or go caroling and drink hot cocoa, or put up lights on their house. Fortunately and unfortunately, we’ve been living abroad off and on, so traditions have been tricky. We’re just not those solid, routine people. This year, however, I think we stumbled upon a winner and it seems worth repeating: Grilled Cheese Day. Good, wholesome, cheesy fun for the whole family!

This started as a conversation with my mom and her husband, Frank, over a podcast about grilled cheese and developed into a competition idea. We set a date on the calendar and gave everyone their assignment: design the perfect grilled cheese sandwich. Our kids, 10 and 13, were in on it too. Even with hundreds of options of bread and cheese combos, there’s really no way to screw it up so they had full artistic license. Our grilled cheese day happened to land the day before Thanksgiving. Planning, shopping for ingredients, and rules were decided upon.

I went first and made a very classic, American grilled cheese- white bread and velveeta. After cooking, plating, and tasting, we took notes and discussed. Consensus was that mine felt nostalgic, melted nicely, and had a good buttery crunch. Everyone secretly rated the sandwich on a score of 1 to 10. However, we didn’t announce scores until the end of the evening. Gotta keep up the suspense.

Next up was Ted. He used brioche bread, brie, baby swiss, and rosemary- a very unique combo. I thought it was a bit too sweet, but my mom loved the rosemary. It was well cooked and the prevailing thought was that it had a wow factor.

Justin went next and used white bread, creamy havarti, and smoked gouda. This one had the best “cheese pull” and tasted great with a creamy, yet smokey flavor. The comment was made that it would be nice with ham or roast beef in the future.

At this point, even with small portions, we were needing a bit of a break so we headed to the living room to enjoy a glass of wine and a movie. Obviously, Wallace and Gromit was the perfect pairing for our made-up holiday. For those unfamiliar with this claymation film, it’s about a man and his dog who run out of cheese so they build a rocket and go to the moon. “Everyone knows the moon’s made out of cheese,” says Wallace. It’s adorable!

Now, back to the action! Frank has had a famous grilled cheese recipe for years. People seem to love it or hate it. Pumpernickel rye bread, Tillamook extra sharp cheddar, stone ground mustard, and dill pickles. It’s tangy, more hearty, very complex, and reminds you of a ruben or cheeseburger without the meat. It was my favorite one of the evening, and Ted’s too. Unfortunately, Penny rated it a 0 and tanked the average. Justin wasn’t a big fan either. Very divisive.

My mom used greyere, munster, and caramelized onions on English muffin bread. If you’ve ever had French Onion soup, it was like that, but a sandwich. Most of us were fans. It was a bit sweet from the onions, but balanced nicely with the cheese choices. 

Last up was Penny. I encouraged her to come up with a “dessert” grilled cheese to end our night on a sweet note. She made French Toast with Brioche and then added raspberry jam and mascarpone cheese, sprinkled with powdered sugar. It was creamy but a little tart and not too sweet. Very yummy, but didn’t really look or feel like grilled cheese which was the only complaint.

After trying each dish, everyone turned in their ratings to Ted and he totaled up the scores and found the average. We decided not to vote for our own so it wouldn’t seem unfair. He did a great job announcing the results starting from last place (sorry Frank!) to our winner, Justin!

Tips To Host Your Own Grilled Cheese Day:

• It may not be as environmental, but paper plates were a big time saver.
• Keep the portions small. Each of us only made a couple sandwiches each to split between 6 people.
• Grapes and wine were a nice palette cleanser between dishes.
• Take notes to remember your thoughts and help with ratings.
• It doesn’t have to be grilled cheese day. You could do sandwich day, pasta day, pie day, appetizer day, etc. Just pick and theme and go with it!
• In the future, a traveling trophy for the winner could be fun.