Debi’s Evolving Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Personally, I find a lunch consisting of a warm grilled cheese sandwich and a hot bowl of tomato soup to be one of the all-time great comfort foods that exists.  Brings back warm, fuzzy memories of both my mom and my grandma.

I got the idea for creating an “Evolving” sandwich from Jamie Oliver’s popular cookbook, Jamie’s Food Revolution.  Jamie has several Evolution Salads in one chapter of his book that go from basic two or three ingredient simple dishes to gourmet extravaganzas, just by adding another ingredient or two at each evolutionary step.

Debi’s Evolving Grilled Cheese Sandwich

• Evolution #1 – Mild Cheddar Cheese & Mayo
• Evolution #2 – Mild Cheddar Cheese & Mayo PLUS Sliced Tomato
• Evolution #3 – Mild Cheddar Cheese & Mayo & Sliced Tomato PLUS Deli-sliced Turkey
• Evolution #4 – Mild Cheddar Cheese & Mayo & Sliced Tomato & Deli-sliced Turkey PLUS Cooked Bacon
• Evolution #5 – Mild Cheddar Cheese & Mayo & Sliced Tomato & Deli-sliced Turkey & Cooked Bacon PLUS Thinly Sliced Dill Pickle
• Evolution #6 – Mild Cheddar Cheese & Mayo & Sliced Tomato & Deli-sliced Turkey & Cooked Bacon & Thinly Sliced Dill Pickle PLUS Thousand Island Dressing (or you can serve the 1,000 Island on the side and use it for dipping the sandwich – which is what I usually do … YUM!)

Ingredients for Evolution #1:
(Makes 1 Basic Sandwich)

• 2 slices bread (sourdough or Ciabatta are the bomb for grilled sandwiches – but just plain ol’ white bread or whole grain is fine!  Use what you have)
• Butter, softened (probably about a teaspoon, depends on how thick you spread it)
• Mayonnaise (enough to lightly cover a slice of bread)
• 2 thin slices mild Cheddar cheese

Directions:

Preheat a large skillet or griddle to a medium-high heat. Butter one side of each slice of bread. Place one slice, buttered-side down in hot skillet/griddle. Cover with the thinly sliced cheddar, then but mayo on the un-buttered side of the other slice of bread and place on top of sandwich in grill, buttered-side up. Grill on hot skillet/griddle, flipping when necessary, until both sides are golden brown and cheese is beginning to melt. Serve warm.

For Later Evolutions:

Just keep stacking the ingredients onto the bottom layer of buttered bread, except you’ll only put on one slice of the cheese at first.  Then you’ll be ending the stack of ingredients with the 2nd cheese slice and the last slice of buttered bread.   The melted cheese slices will act sort of like the glue on either side to hold the whole yummy thing together.

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