9 October Sunday

A friend of mine that works events that involve catering frequently brings over the booty afterwords. This week, a large box of various cheeses-Gouda, Manchego, Cheddar, Edam. I shred it into a savory and complex pile of cheesy complexity yum yum. There´s probably thirty five dollars worth of cheese in a ziploc bag in my fridge, none of which I would have bought, all of which would have ended up in the trash.

Then, there are all those beautiful tomatoes, bell peppers, zucchini, and onions I purchased at the Farmer´s Market. First, the great blessing. The grilled cheese with tomato slices on it. Don´t be glib with your grilled cheese, young man. There is a way to make it, and a way to make it. The grilled cheese sandwich is one of the great things of life. Here´s how I make mine.

A pan sits alone on the stove top. The knob is turned, the gas comes on and the tick tick tick of the whatever the hell that is. Then, a flame. Low, low and gentle, friend. The pan and the flame are lovers. Let the gentle blue flame gently kiss the bottom of the pan, no more. We must not spoil the moment. While this happens, take two sturdy slices of sourdough bread. Go to the fridge and get out your million dollar bag of cheese and a tablespoon of butter.

Set the tablespoon of butter into the the warm pan. It should just begin to wilt, to fall in on itself, and if your butter is shy, it might try to be a wallflower and retreat to a corner of the pan. No! Bring her forward, into the center. Let her swirl around the pan, like an ice skater leaves a trail behind. Let the butter relinquish her white fluffy down like a bridal train.

As the butter gets warmer, the white milk solids separate from the yellow fat, and then the solids begin to caramelize in the fat. This is exactly the moment that you put the two pieces of bread into the pan and swirl them around until the butter is absorbed in the bread. This will ensure that the bread toasts at the same time the butter is browning. As soon as the butter is absorbed, place a few handfuls of cheese on top of one of the slices. Take the cheese all the way to the edge of the bread, allowing some to spill over directly onto the pan. Let it do the things, slowly, gently. You should hear it sizzling, but careful the butter doesn´t burn.

Once the cheese looks like it is preparing for a nap, blanket it in tomato slices and check the other piece of bread for toastiness. If it´s yellow, let it mellow. If it´s browned, flip it over on top of the tomatoes, spank it with a spatula a couple times, and immediately flip the whole sandwich over. Keep toasting until the cheese begins to weep over the tomatoes. Flip the whole thing over again and turn off the heat. Place the plate on which you intend to serve it on top of the sandwich still in the pan. This will press the sandwich down, helping the cheese to seal the deal, and will warm up the plate. Two minutes.

Now, this is a good thing in and of itself, but what if we served it along side a bowl of Cream of Bell Pepper soup? It´s too good to be true in some ways. The City is cold and somewhat subdued today. The sun is setting, the fog is in, and it´s just six.