A.w.e.s.o.m.e. grilled cheese

I don’t know if I’ll ever eat grilled cheese sandwiches in the old way again.

The old way involved slathering butter before popping it into the George. I had this vague memory of my mom’s friend putting mayonnaise on her bread, telling me that it worked better than butter. That’s when the light bulb went off.

Drew and I received a box of spices as a wedding present. The box was entitled, appropriately enough, “Spicy Wedding.” It was the perfect present for two people setting up an apartment. Nestled inside were six glass jars, one filled with creamy peppercorn. The description says, “Robust, creamy salad dressing and sandwich spread.” Are you getting my train of thought here? I mixed this robust combination of herbs with mayonnaise and sour cream and slathered it on the bread (not inside the sandwich - it went on the outside bread pieces, providing the fat that makes the bread a toasty brown). These were the best grilled cheese sandwiches I think I’ve ever had. The finished product tasted a little like pizza crust - weird, I know - couldn't remember from what company, though. Perfection!

Cheddar makes for some of the best grilled cheese sandwiches around.

You can't forget a glass of pinot grigio!

The finished product. I love the spices sprinkled on top of the sandwich.

Recipe
1 Tbsp. creamy peppercorn
2 Tbsp. water
½ cup sour cream
½ cup mayonnaise

Mix peppercorn into sour cream and mayonnaise.

This recipe makes LOTS of dressing. I used about half of this for two grilled cheese sandwiches and still had some left over. But hey, it's flavored mayonnaise, basically. You can always find a good use for it. ;)

**Creamy peppercorn consists of Tellicherry black pepper (although I'm sure plain old black pepper would suffice), coarse salt, sugar, minced garlic, thyme, & minced parsley.