The Perfect Grilled Cheese

It has been a while since I’ve sat down to write – it’s not that I haven’t had anything to say, only that I’ve had so much to say that it has been almost overwhelming to start. So, as is human nature, when faced with too much to do, I did nothing. However, today the perfect grilled cheese has inspired me to sit down and at least tell this tale.

It has been a hectic weekend; filled with family, play dates, housework and generally quite exhausting. We’ve been on the go from sun up to sun down all weekend long and we’ve finally settled into a late, lazy Sunday afternoon. The grandiose plans I had for the thawed pork chops in my refrigerator give way to the exhaustion of a well played weekend.

Pizza runs through my mind. But after a shocking review of my spending habits over the last few months I have resolved to dig into my very full pantry and reduce the fast food habit. Spaghetti? Nah. Too much effort. Left over Fettuccine Alfredo from last night? Nope. I was saving that for tomorrow’s lunch. Eggs and pancakes for dinner? Eh. I don’t like eggs and I’d have to find something else for myself. My eyes rest on the package of sliced sharp cheddar. EUREKA!

“Bit Bit! I’m making grilled cheese for dinner, how many sandwiches do you want?” “Mom. I want two. And can we have them with cheddar?”

Big Bit's answer speaks volumes to the ritual we have established in finding the perfect grilled cheese. Sometimes we forget how much these simple comfort foods trigger happy memories. I consider my method of making grilled cheese to be the lazy method, but if you even attempt to make it differently in front of Big Bit he will correct you immediately.

Stacks of bread handy, cheese out and butter separated into pats I am ready to begin. My skillet is over medium heat as I drop a pat onto it. Spreading it around I then set a slice of bread down, allowing it to absorb the sizzling butter. I am too lazy to wait for the butter to soften appropriately for bread spreading and so I use the pan to help me. Another pat sizzles and down goes another slice of bread. Then, the all important cheese. No processed American stuff for us. Grilled cheese HAS to be made with cheddar. Two slices and then the top of the sandwich.

Now the tricky party – you have to balance your need for a quick meal with the desire for the perfectly grilled sandwich. Heat too low and the sandwiches take far too long to be ready. Heat too high and you wind up with black bread and cold cheese. As the first side hits the golden brown, buttery crisp stage I lift up the sandwich, throw down another pat of butter and…flip!

The boys get their sandwiches first. Part of the perfection is when you bite into that slightly salty, buttery crisp, warm gooey cheese sandwich and it must be served hot! This means I make my sandwiches last. But boy are they worth it. It’s amazing when you are taken back to that comfort level. I have been creative in my grilled cheese quest. I have experimented with French baguettes, sourdough, smoked cheddar, Swiss, gouda but sometimes there is just no substitute for a good, old fashioned cheddar and honey wheat grilled cheese.  And lucky me…Big Bit decides one sandwich is enough for him…MORE FOR ME!!!

She Returns

My heart thumped in my chest as I approached the door. Entering, everything seemed different. The color of the light made me wonder if the walls were repainted. I had to do a double and even triple look to reassure myself that things had not been rearranged.

A place once familiar, now foreign and frightening. My palms were sweaty and I nervously glanced first here, then there. People once friendly, now looked through me as if they didn't know me.

Humiliated on the inside, I held my head up high, sucked in my now paunchier belly and walked proudly down the main aisle.

This is what I get for taking 5 months off from the gym. Time to pay my dues in sweat and pain.

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

Let’s have a discussion about ice cream cone cupcakes. I found this cute idea in a cookbook a couple years back. For Big Bit's birthday one year I made the ice cream cone cupcakes and what a hit they were! They’re rather simple to make, although my recipe tried to make them harder than necessary. Something about wrapping the bases in tin foil so they stand up in the muffin tin. Totally unnecessary. They baked up quite nicely and some frosting and sprinkles and, Whammo! The super-cool, wish-my-mommy-did-that, envy of all birthday treat.

This year was a little more challenging for me. Stupid cupcakes!

Now, you have to keep in mind that I am known for my baking and cooking skills. The daycare teachers anxiously await my next batch of banana bread and Big Bit insists I make his cake for him each year. Pies, custards, cakes and cookies are all wonderful products of my kitchen. The boys and I have lots of fun pouring and mixing and scraping and licking the beaters. For example, the lemon cupcakes from last month were an incredible hit (reference the Great Cupcake Challenge). My kids are excited about fish and veggies (usually) and the kitchen is just a pleasant place for us. I’ve come up with a couple of wonderful concoctions over time (most recently coconut-ginger tilapia) and find that I can convince the worst naysayers of brussel sprouts that they are a worthy vegetable when prepared properly.

Perhaps I can attribute my recent cupcake shenanigans to the stress of recent days.  Who knows? In  the end, these were not up to my usual par. I mean, I DO have a reputation to maintain.

I purchased the Betty Crocker white mix with the sprinkles in the batter. She’s my preferred cake mix vendor, mainly due to the awesome recipes I’ve pulled from that website. I feel if she’s going to provide the recipe, I might as well use her recipe. Of course, that old, orange, well-loved cookbook my mom tracked down for me might also bias me towards that particular brand. My mom has the original, out of print cookbook. After some considerable squabbling among my sister and me about who was going to inherit that book when she died, my mom tracked down a couple used copies for us.

This box mix had the ice cream cone cupcake recipe right on the back! Whoowhoo! I didn’t have to pull down my cookbook. The Cake Mix Doctor was my original source. Let me tell you, that particular piece of amazing print was the source of the lemon buttercream icing that MADE those lemon cupcakes last month. Anyways, back to the cupcakes. Betty Crocker had a different method that seemed easier so I thought I’d give her method a try. This particular recipe had you fill cupcake/muffin papers as normal and then invert the cone on top to bake. So instead of a flatter topped cupcake, it would give it a more rounded, ice cream like appearance.

Well. My cupcakes, rather than expand and fill the base of the cone, simply pushed the cone up one side. They were lopsided and wouldn’t stand up when inverted. So the idea of taking off the paper and frosting a cone that wouldn’t stand up…well I decided to give it another go.

This time around I went for the Pillsbury Funfetti mix, which was the same as Big Bit's ice cream cone cupcakes of the earlier years. I decided to make this particular batch after the boys had gone to bed for simple expediency. Little Bit actually climbed into his crib, of his own accord and settled down. Naturally, just as I had the batter all mixed and had started pouring he decided to revert to his bed-time contrariness. Forty-five minutes later I returned to my batter. I looked at the now frothy, foamy batter doubtfully but was out of options. Once the kids are in bed, there are no last minute trips to the store. I made a face, shrugged and poured away.

Uhm, no.

The batter rose on the sides and spilled over but dropped in the middle. They tasted great, but they would not appeal to a toddler’s sense of aesthetics.

In the end, I took in the first batch into school (no icing) and tossed the second batch.  The kids in the school ate them up and probably didn’t care one iota that they weren’t how I envisioned them. Only the teachers knew I hadn’t lived up to my usual standard.

To sum it up, when making ice cream cone cupcakes:

1. 1.       Pour the batter into the cone, not into the cupcake holder.
2. 2.       Bake IMMEDIATELY

I really should have known better.

A Florida Storm

I walk outside and breathe in the heavy tropical air. The foggy coolness of the morning has given way to the hot, humid mass of a Floridian summer day. The intense daily sauna has not built up today, but the touch of crispness we delighted in this morning has passed. There is a stillness in the air, its moist touch envelopes me with a quality almost palpable.

To my right there is a storm rapidly approaching. Not the gray thunderclouds typical of a September afternoon, but rather an enormous purple mass, a true storm building over the Gulf. Sky, cloud and rain all merge together, the components indistinguishable. An occasional lighter cloud is outlined, but in general all you see is an arrayed whirl of purple shades.

Although my skirt and hair are perfectly still, a tree 10 feet away demonstrates the swiftness of the looking storm. Every leaf twinkles in the stirring breeze, evidence of the wind I have yet to feel.

By stark contrast the sky to my right is a bright azure vision. Fluffy dots of white clouds are scattered across its breadth. They are not the towering pillars of thunderclouds although the closest of them show some of the telltale thunderstorm grayness. However, these little tufts are too small and powerless to make good on their threat of rain. Instead, if a cloud can evince an emotion, these clouds are joyful and free much like a child at play. The midday sun is still streaming down from directly overhead.

The transition between the two skies is breath-taking; a pure white blanket of cotton. It is apparent these clouds are the shape of the purple ones yet to come, but the storm is not in them. I am standing on the very cusp of the storm itself. Nature is curiously quiet around me. The leaves on the tree dance in silence and there is no birdsong. The crickets are still. My surroundings are even devoid of human interlopers for the moment.

Even as I write the sky is darkening. The quality of the light changes and fades. Lacking a camera, I struggle to entrench this magnificent image into my memory. I am once again reminded of why I loved the rain so very much. I eagerly wait with anticipation the sound of the rain spattering on my window and striking the roof. The smell of the damp earth and the even heavier air that remains after the storm passes are some of my favorite sensations. Perhaps today, for the first of the new season, it will be cooler when the rain passes. The event on the horizon might just be the leading edge of Fall.