I "heart" a new tradition!

I'm wanting to start a new Tuesday night tradition of making my family grilled cheese sandwiches!  I know!  The possibilities are endless!  This all started last week....

Tuesday nights in our neighborhood is "Food Truck" night.  I guess a handful of Food Trucks park about two blocks away and cook and sell their specialities.  Personally I like cooking my own foods, because I'm a good cook, and I'm cheap that way, mostly the latter!  I wouldn't know anything about this if it weren't for my 24 year old, living at home, who eats out way, way, way too much (it drives me crazy).  Often times, as Gabe heads out to the trucks he asks Mark if he wants anything (he know better than to ask me!), and sometimes Mark will indeed order something, usually grilled....in butter, or fat!  Lately it's been gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches, which is fine because we normally do not have bread in the house.  (I have nothing against bread, but an entire loaf is just way too much, leaving half of it to go bad, so I rarely buy it.)

Last week Gabe was going later than usual and Mark was really hungry, in fact he was getting a bit cranky.  I happened to have bought a loaf of bread a couple of days earlier, and we almost always have cheese, and we always have butter (and mayo), so I offered to happily make Mark a homemade grilled cheese sandwich!  So much better, right?  And more convenient....and drumroll....cheaper!  It was a success!  I ended up making Gabe one too and I think a new tradition is born.  Tuesday night is grilled cheese night!  This is going to be so much fun!

Last week all I had in the house was some seeded rye bread, swiss and red onion (I added some chicken salad to Gabe's), this week I bought some marble rye and chives, same swiss cheese (Mark loves swiss).  I butter both sides of my bread, and on one side of each slice I add mayo.  The butter/mayo side is the first to go into a hot non stick pan (or grill), these sides are the "inside" of the sandwich.  Once they are crispy I flip over one slice, add filling (cooked side up at this point), layer the other slice, butter/mayo inside, and flip over to cook the last buttered side...or something like that!  This in NOT a meal for a calorie counter!  Yikes!  The fat alone is off the charts, but I would guess 400 calories just in butter and mayo!  Should we go there?  Okay, let's...

butter mayo 400 (at least 3 tbl butter 1 tbl mayo)

cheese 200

bread 200-240

800 calories 

Did I mention I don't make myself one?  It's not my "thing", although I would thoroughly enjoy one, but one of these days I will join in (thinner spreading of the fats on the bread though!)  The other thing is I've been eating my last meal earlier and earlier these days, as early as 3:30 and I don't like to eat anything more than a snack later than 5:00pm.

Last week I posted a picture of the very first grilled cheese I made and I accidentally discovered that when you cut an oval shaped bread slice in half, diagonally, flip one side over and join them back together it creates a heart shape!  I always cut sandwiches in half, diagonally for my family and friends.  It made me so happy that how could I NOT make this part of the tradition?  Do you cut your sandwiches in half?  Will you make a heart sandwich for someone you care about?