My New Favorite Grilled Cheese

This is not a manly grilled cheese sandwich.

In fact, if I served this to Tony, he'd probably ask 1) if we were out of good old American and 2) what we were really planning on eating for dinner. Lucky for me 1-2 nights of the week I'm on my own for dinner, and I can eat whatever I darn well want without any cracks from the peanut gallery. Hurumph.

I've seen many variations of this type of grilled cheese sandwich on the cooking channel and food blogs, but I made this one with the ingredients I had on hand--so this is what you get to read about! I really enjoyed this sandwich, and it gave me more ideas for new combinations I plan on trying in the future. Enjoy!

Golden Delicious and Muenster Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Serves 1

Ingredients:

2 slices sourdough bread

1/2 small golden delicious apple, sliced into thin wedges

2 slices low-fat muenster cheese

1-2 Tbs margarine or butter

Procedure:

1. Butter one side of both pieces of bread. Put a small skillet with a spritz of cooking spray over medium heat.

2. Begin to build the sandwich: with butter sides OUT, add cheese, apples, and then a final layer of cheese.

3. Place the sandwich on the skillet for about 2 minutes, or until the bottom is browned to your liking, and flip over. Cook for an additional 2 minutes until the cheese is melting and both sides are golden.

Ambrosia

This dish means so much more to me than most of the other recipes I post on here.

It's not particularly complicated, or fancy.

But this dish is beautiful.

For me, this recipe symbolizes home. My mom used to make this "salad" (which is actually much more of a dessert to me) in the spring and summer time. It's a fool proof recipe, which means I can replicate it even if I'm about 2,500 miles away from my mom. We've started a tradition a couple of years back to always make at least one dish that's the same for Easter dinner, no matter how far away we were from one another. This year, I requested ambrosia. Having a physical connection, knowing my mom and dad are eating the same thing I am, enjoying each other's company like I am enjoying the company of my husband and friends, is a very comforting feeling.

I got to spend time with a local family and friends this Easter. Transitioning to living in San Diego has been very hard for me (you can read about my struggles on my other blog). For the first year or so, I really didn't have any community or friends that I felt comfortable with. Then, in an answer to prayer, I was taken under the wing of a lab mate, and included in her fellowship community. At first, I was awkward.

Well, I'm always a little awkward. Awkwardness comes naturally when you are a giant lady with red hair. But then, I became comfortable. And then I became happy. And then, after I had assimilated into a group of lovely, godly women, I became totally and tearfully joyful. There is no better feeling than knowing people have been hand picked and placed in your life. This knowledge keeps my faith strong.

Tony and I were so kindly welcomed into a friend's family household this Easter, I was nearly reduced to tears at the dinner table. I brought ambrosia, and even Tony, a self-proclaimed hater of fruit salad, cleaned his dish. Perhaps he sensed the weepy-ness and decided he better clean his plate to prevent the irrational "WHY DON'T YOU EVER LIKE ANYTHING I MAKE?!?!" waterworks. I felt like I was tapping into some underlying current of family, tradition and love by sharing my mom's dish.

I am so grateful for friends, family and ambrosia.

Enough of the story--enjoy the recipe with your own family and friends!

Ambrosia

(in my mother's words)

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

1 can pineapple chunks in juice, drained some liquid reserved

1 can fruit cocktail, drained

~8-10 maraschino cherries, drained and halved (used mostly to add color)

1 cup shredded coconut

1 cup sour cream

1 cup miniature marshmallows (Kraft brand Jet-Puffed Marshmallows are the best)

1 cup chopped pecans (optional; delete if nuts are a problem)

1 can mandarin orange segments, drained

Drain juices from all the canned fruits, one can at a time, then dump each into one large bowl for mixing later. (Don't worry about getting the fruit "dry" -- you just need to get rid of most of the juice. But save a little of the pineapple juice for later if the mix seems too dry -- or drink it for breakfast or as a snack while you cook! )

Add the coconut, sour cream and mini-marshmallows to the bowl of fruit. Take a big spoon and mix gently with a folding motion, but mix well so that the fruits and other ingredients are evenly distributed.

Pour the mixture into your serving bowl (the bowl for mixing needs to be much bigger and will be "messy looking" after folding and stirring), and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, but it tastes better made in the morning for serving that evening or even made the night before to let the flavors mellow and the marshmallows to "dissolve" a bit in the sour cream. You do NOT need to mix again before serving.

Garnish with cherries, mandarin oranges or anything else edible and pretty!

Moo Shu Pork Wraps

This is a great recipe if you want to try something fast, easy and different from your typical weeknight meal.

This recipe takes under 30 minutes, start to finish (hooray) and is very flavorful. If you've never tried cooking with hoisin sauce at home, I highly recommend trying out this recipe. I was surprised how much this dish tasted like it came from a restaurant!

If you are looking for a more low carb option, you could easily replace the tortilla wrap with a large Boston bibb or iceberg lettuce leaf.

Moo Shu Pork Wraps

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 lb ground pork

seasoned pepper (or fresh cracked pepper)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 inch fresh ginger, minced

2 Tbs reduced sodium soy sauce

About 1/4 cup hoisin sauce

8 soft taco sized flour tortillas (I recommend Mission's Carb Balance brand)

2 carrots, grated

2 cups bean sprouts

fresh cilantro

Procedure:

1. Coat a large skillet with a light amount of cooking spray, and turn on medium-high heat. Cook ground pork until browned, seasoning the pork with pepper before it is fully cooked.

2. Add the soy sauce, garlic and ginger, and cook for about 2 minutes more. Remove from direct heat, but leave in the warm pan while you assemble the wraps. NOTE: You don't want to burn the garlic or ginger, because this will give a bitter taste to the dish (or any dish, for that matter). Adding garlic and other spices towards the end of recipes ensures full flavor.

3. Begin to assemble your wraps. Heat the tortillas in the microwave (or on the stove, fancypants). Place about 1 spoonful of the hoisin sauce (or more/less depending on your taste) in the center of the tortilla. Add the sprouts and carrots, and top with the ground pork. Add a bit of chiffoned cilantro for an extra pop of flavor.

4. Wrap up and serve! How easy was this!? I suggest serving with stir-fried green beans, or if you need some more filling bulk to your meal, some jasmine rice.

A Big Bowl of Fail: Tex Mex Macaroni and Cheese

It was supposed to be delicious. It was supposed to be easy.

IT was neither. It=Rachel Ray's Tex Mex macaroni and cheese recipe. Everything was going great--my pasta was boiling, my ground beef was cooked to perfection, my roux was a nutty brown, and my cheese was grated.

Then, the unthinkable happened. I added the required amount of milk and broth to the roux, and allowed it to reduce. I tried to get it to reduce. WHY WASN'T IT REDUCING!??! GAHH!?! I tried adding a bit of flour (cornstarch would have been better) to thicken it a bit, but the sauce just was. not. having. it.

I decided to press forward, telling myself, "maybe it's supposed to look like that." No. No, my friends, it was most definitely NOT supposed to look like that.

I added the cheese to the "sauce" and this awful emulsion occurred, the likes that have never been seen before in my kitchen.

This is what it looked like.

Needless to say, we ate leftovers, and I will not be posting the recipe...

Still, this was not as bad as this incident :).