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Monday, September 19, 2011

Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese



Ah, just the name conjours up wonderful kidhood memories.  Growing up it was Campbell's Tomato Soup and Cracker Barrel Cheddar Cheese on good white bread.  Nowadays, we eat bread with rocks.  Or at least whole grains.  And, the kinds of cheese vary with what's at the front of the cheese drawer. 

It was a busy day today.  Very busy.  I got home well after 7:00 and started in on my recipe for the Secret Recipe club.  It's due to be posted next Monday but I'm out of town at the National Planning Holdings Women's Conference Wed-Sat so prep time is limited.  I figured I'd get half of it done tonight and the other half tomorrow evening. 

On the way home, as usual, I called Mom.  She'd been to a luncheon today where one of the recipes included capers.  The hostess had never used capers and didn't really know what they were nor where to find them in the grocery store.  Now, growing up our birthday dinner was always flank steak with caper sauce.  So, Mom repeated the story she'd told at lunch today.  When my younger brother, John, was a little shaver (like 3 or 4) the two of us were at the Murray's for dinner.  Jack, thinking John probably wouldn't want what the big folks were eating and thinking he'd probably want a hot dog or hamburger asked what he'd like for dinner.  John promptly responded with the fact that he'd be delighted to have flank steak with caper sauce.  Precocious young man, eh?  Now, I'd forgotten all about that story so I told Connie as soon as I got home.  He thought it was hysterical and asked why I'd never fixed him flank steak with caper sauce. So, that became one of the choices for dinner.  Except we didn't have one in the freezer and having one would involve a trip to the grocery.  Choice number two was a grilled cheese sandwich with gruyere and some other goodies.  Unfortunately, I only had enough of the other main ingredient to make the Secret Recipe Club recipe. 

It was now almost 8:00 and dinner wasn't started.  Time to pull out the Knorr's soup.  Tomato Basil.  It's good if a bit thin.  So, I dressed it up a bit.  Added a can of crushed tomatoes, some chopped basil and a good slug of cream.  And, it wound up being quite good.  The gruyere was out so that became the base for the grilled cheese.  We loved the grilled cheese.  And, best of all, I have half of my sandwich and a bowl of soup leftover for tomorrow's lunch.  Score!

Gruyere and Salami Grilled Cheese
serves 2

Ingredients:
olive oil
4 slices whole grain bread
spicy mustard
8 thin slices gruyere cheese
16 thin slices salami
blue cheese
mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Pour some olive oil in a large skillet.  You just want to coat the bottom of the skillet.  Slather the slices of bread with the spicy mustard.  On two slices of bread, lay the gruyere, then the salami then the blue cheese sprinkles then the shredded mozzarella.  Top with another slice of bread.  Grill until both sides are nice and toasty brown and the cheese is all melty.  See that wonderful blue cheese oozing out?


2 comments:

Monet said...

Could anything be more wonderful or comforting? Thank you for sharing with me, Kate. I'm sitting down to a leisurely breakfast, and, as always, your blog is wonderful reading material. I hope you have a happy weekend, my friend!

Eliotseats said...

Love me some grilled cheese! My memories of grilled cheese and Campbell's tomato soup seems to revolve around busy weeknights of my childhood when my school-teaching mother was rushing around trying to get to an evening ballgame or other school event. (She did let us put cheetos in our soup, too!)