Fancy Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Virtually everyone knows how to make a grilled cheese sandwich. Here's a variation that I like, and it involves neither white bread nor American cheese singles.

Ingredients/Equipment:

1. Bread: Cocktail-sized pumpernickel rye or any bread loaded with fiber - to scrape your system. Eww...I know.

2. Butter or margarine: I recommend Smart Balance brand spread.

3. Soft cheese or whey cheese: Ricotta works well.

4. Hard cheese: Swiss or sharp cheddar or whatever. Must be cut from a block, wheel, or wedge - never in prepackaged slices.

5. Non-cheese: A sliver of jalapeño without the seeds (your stomach will thank you for this), a bit of smoked cold-cut turkey, or whatever you think will complement the cheesy stuff. Keep in mind you're putting all this on cocktail-sized slices of bread.

6. Equipment: A grill, toaster, sandwich press, George Foreman knock-out-the-fat grill, clothes iron, or blowtorch. Duh, you're going to have to make everything melted and toasty with some sort of heat! And while we're stating the obvious, you'll need a knife to butter the bread and cut the hard cheese (haha, I know), as well as a spoon to scoop the soft cheese. Plates and napkins are optional.

How to:
1. Butter the bread.
2. Scoop a bit of soft cheese onto one slice.
3. Place the sliver of non-cheese on top of the soft cheese.
4. Place a cut of hard cheese above all that.
5. Cover the complex with a buttered slice of bread.
6. Grill until hard cheese is melted.
7. Repeat as necessary.
8. Eat.
9. Spread the word.

Grilled cheese sandwich with soup photo credit: DonES.