Grilled Cheese

By now many of you have already come across this winning recipe for the "The Aurora Borealis" which took third place in a mainstream grilled cheese contest. I drooled over the picture and description for a bit, and had the urge to recreate the sandwich. And while grilled cheese is usually a simple affair, the need to hunt down rustic sourdough bread and make a "berry reduction sauce" wasn't in the cards.

But when I went to make a simple sandwich today, the memory of the aurora borealis nonetheless inspired my own lazy ass to perk up the process. I had a bunch of Daiya cheese on hand, including the cheddar and mozzarella shreds and the cheddar and jack wedges. Since the wedges and shreds use a different recipe, I ended up including both cheddars as well as the others, because whynot. This would easily have worked with just two, or with cheddar and vegan cream cheese (that's tomorrow's plan).

I melted the cheese by putting the two halves in the microwave before dabbing a little blueberry jam in the center. Of course, I then melted a generous amount of Earth Balance in a small skillet and crisped the bread. Yum. I'm sure it isn't as good as the fancy original, but it certainly upgraded the simple grilled cheese. Jam. Who would have thought?