(Giveaway!) grilled cheese, please!

I can’t think of a much better way to spend a Saturday night. Wine and grilled cheese.

The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board graciously sent me a copy of grilled cheese, please! and because life got busy (Hi, new job and all the crazy that comes with it. Which, by the way, it’s going awesome.) I just got around to making a recipe from it – the cover recipe – this weekend. The book is great, though. It features a bunch of different grilled cheese sandwiches (obviously!) with quite a few funky combos. I can’t wait to try more of them.

Double Cheddar and Tomato Jam

What you’ll need:
12 ounces of cheddar cheese
4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
8 sandwich-size slices sourdough bread
6 tablespoons of tomato jam (recipe below)

Using the very small hoes of a box grater or other similar-size grating device, finely grate six ounces (half) of the cheddar. Place the cheese in a small bowl. Add the butter and, using the back of the fork, mash the mixture until the cheese is well incorporated into the butter. (Basically, you’re creaming together butter and cheese…whoa).

Using the large holes of a box grater, grate the remaining cheese.

To assemble: Spread the cheddar-butter on one side of each of the bread slices. Place four slices of bread, buttered side down, on your work surface. Spread 1 1/2 tablespoons of jam on each slice. Distribute the cheese, and top with the remaining bread slices, buttered side up.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat for two minutes. Put the sandwiches into the pan, cover, and cook for three to four minutes, until golden brown. Turn the sandwiches, pressing each one firmly with a spatula to flatten slightly. Cover and cook for two to three minutes, until the undersides are well browned. Turn the sandwiches once more, cook for one more minute and remove from the pan. Let cool for five minutes. Cut in half and serve.

Tomato Jam

What you’ll need:
6 large ripe tomatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds) peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped (use Roma tomatoes if it isn’t tomato season)
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar (if you’re making this in the middle of tomato season when tomatoes are at their sweetest, reduce the sugar by 1 to 2 teaspoons)
Salt

Place all the ingredients in a medium-size saucepan over medium-low heat. The mixture should bubble ever so slightly but not boil. Cook for about one hour, or until the jam has thickened and most of the liquid has evaporated. Let cool. (You can make this up to one week in advance. Store in the refrigerator).

Now, I must admit, my grilled cheese did stick to my pan a little bit, which either means I need a new nonstick pan (which I do) or maybe I had my heat a little too high. Our sandwiches didn’t look super pretty in the end, but they tasted ahhhhmazing!

After all of that, you want a copy of the book, right? Leave me a comment on my blog or Tweet about this blog post (@MWgirl) for a chance to win. Doing both gets you entered twice. Do all of this before Saturday, May 28, please. And really, your comment can be about anything – why you love grilled cheese, a special touch you put on yours or an always-turns-out-perfect-when-I-do-it-this-way tidbit.