I have a secret to tell all of you. Grilled cheese and I go way back. Okay okay, that isn’t my secret. The secret is that grilled cheese and I go really really far back, back to the days when I used to think it was call Girl Cheese. Why not right? They sound similar!!! Don’t make fun! Girls are special, I of course already knew that, why wouldn’t we have a sandwich named in our honor? There certainly aren’t any sandwiches that are called, or even sound remotely similar to, boy cheese. Suckers. Ohh to be young again. Back when a girl cheese sandwich set us girls apart, the piece of glass at the front of the car was called a window shield and Santacloset was the wonderful man who came through the closet to deliver gifts every December.

To celebrate National Grilled Cheese month I had a grilled cheese dinner tonight. Originally I had planned to make four different sandwiches and then sample and judge them all. Sadly, as usual, my eyes were bigger than my stomach (for those of you who don’t know me, I have abnormally large eyes but don’t worry I grew into them) and by the end of the second grilled cheese I had to tap out. My grilled cheese plans for the night consisted of

1. Sourdough grilled cheese with mozzarella, pesto, spinach, sundried tomatoes and fresh basil.

2. Crusty french bread with rosemary ham, Gouda, cracked pepper and mustard.

3. Sourdough bread with extra old cheddar, avocado and fresh tomato.

4. Crusty french bread with mozzarella, ham and pineapple chunks.

As I said above, I only made it through sandwiches one and two. They were both fantastic, but the rosemary ham and Gouda grilled cheese was the best. I think I made the mistake of having too many competing ingredients on the first one where as they second one was simple enough to have balance.