Adult Grilled Cheese & Quick Kitchen Sink Salsa

Several years ago, our good friends Barb and Kevin came up to the Upper Deck for a long weekend (pre nupitals and kids) and Barb made this delicious Grilled Cheese Lunch from Cottage Life Magazine. Now I don’t have the exact recipe, but it’s not rocket science so I wing it and I’ve been making it ever since. It’s really easy, and you only put into it what you like! I like a little tomato salsa with my grilled cheese, and since we ran out of the store bought kind, I whipped up one I refer to as Kitchen Sink Salsa, because I threw everything I had in the fridge into it. Oh, by the way, it’s adult grilled cheese because there is booze in it (no wonder I like it so much!). For this version, we used JT’s No Knead Olive Bread.

Adult Grilled Cheese

Adult Grilled Cheese

• 2 slices of artisan bread per person (this is a heavy lunch, our slices were about 3″ x 4″ x 1/2″ thick) buttered one side
• 1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese (you can use gruyere or any full bodied cheese, except the processed kind – YUCK!)
• 1 medium green onion sliced thinly and chopped
• 2 tbsp cognac or scotch (we used Palinka) – anything with a good full taste will do
• 1/2 clove garlic minced finely

1. Mix cheese, green onion and garlic well. Add cognac and mix again.
2. Spoon 1/2 the mixture onto 2 slices of bread on the non buttered side and compress with the back of a spoon.
3. Put the second slice of bread on top, butter side out.
4. Heat cast iron skillet to medium high. Carefully place sandwiches into the pan and press down. Brown side one and flip.
5. Turn heat off and cover skillet and allow the other side to brown, and the cheese to melt.

Kitchen Sink Salsa

• 6 cherry tomatoes
• 2 sundried tomatoes in oil
• 1 green onion
• 1 tbsp tomato ketchup
• 1 tsp lime juice
• 1 clove garlic minced finely
• 1 tbsp olive oil (or the oil in the sun dried tomatoes)
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp coriander
• 1 tsp Spanish smoked paprika
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1-2 tsp heat (cayanne, hot paprika, anything you have will do)
• 2-4 tbsp chopped cilantro (I didn’t have any at home, but it would have been tasty!)

1. Add all of the above into a small processor and pulse a few times (you don’t want a smooth paste, but a chunky salsa)
2. Season to your taste. Enjoy with the grilled cheese.

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