Grilled Cheese

 

A cartoon channel we watch in our house runs a short video of Elmer Fudd singing the glories of the grilled cheese sandwich.  My husband loves that video to the point that if I am in another room and it comes on he texts me to let me know.  It’s pretty funny to see and hear a cartoon character extoling the virtues of a basic sandwich, yet I understand.  Grilled cheese is such an iconic comfort food that just mentioning it sends even the most accomplished chef into a rapturous state of nostalgia.

               Every time I drive past the site where Stewart’s, a drive in restaurant, stood during my childhood I remember the grilled cheese sandwiches they served there.  Where I grew up was rural, and there weren’t fast food restaurants around like there are now.  There were a couple of nice restaurants in town, there were Woolworth’s and Britt’s (a local department store) lunch counters, and a couple pizzerias (or pizza parlors, as we called them), and just outside of town the drive in restaurant where they brought your food out on trays that hooked to the window of your car.  When my family went out to eat, this is where we went. My 3 brothers and I and my parents loaded into the old blue station wagon and drove there for dinner. I rode in the middle of the back seat, wedged in between my two older brothers while my younger brother rode between my parents on the front seat.  With the windows open on a hot summer evening, we were excited to be going out for dinner!  I don’t know what everyone else ordered, probably burgers and fries, but I always got the same thing—a grilled cheese sandwich.  It was delicious, and as close to gourmet dining as my young palate could get.  They used yellow American cheese and square white bread which they grilled to golden perfection, placed on a paper plate, cut into two triangles, and served with two pickle chips on top.  There was nothing else like it in the world to my little girl mind. Now I make it with rye bread, whole wheat, white or Italian bread, and cheddar, American, or Swiss cheese, depending what I have on hand.  I always have a dill pickle with it, usually cut into spears and a cup of tomato soup on the side. Somehow, it’s never as good as that sandwich I had at Stewart’s when I was young, squished in between my bigger brothers on a hot summer evening listening to my parents talk and laugh and my brothers goofing around.

               It seems that most everyone enjoys a grilled cheese sandwich as comfort food, and has happy memories of eating one.  It’s a sandwich on nearly every restaurant menu in one form or another, even high end restaurants who may offer it as a grilled brie with cranberry compote on focaccia bread or some other such fancy combination of cheese and bread served hot. I bet when you finish reading this you’re going to be craving the most iconic comfort food sandwich there is---grilled cheese. (Try it with pickles, it’s wonderful!)