take your pants off grilled cheese.

while at the cottage last week, we took our traditional afternoon trip into town. one of our stops was empire cheese, a local cheese factory with a small store front, where paulie picked up a brick of creamy jalapeno havarti that was so good, we used every bite of that shit making grilled cheese sandwiches by the end of the week. since we've been home, i have been talking about wanting to experiment with different combinations to make the perfect grilled cheese -- and as much as i love the traditional cheese slice and white bread combo, the sammy we pulled together is a serious contender for my new favourite.

how we do: cheddar, bacon, avocado & chili grilled cheese

{makes 1 sandwich}

prep time: 15 minutes

cook time: 10 minutes

eating time: before your tomato soup has a chance to cool

you will need:

2 slices of fresh italian bread

cheddar or marble cheese

3 strips of crispy bacon

3 slices of avocado

1/4 chili pepper

1 tbsp butter

start by frying your bacon until it's perfectly crispy and allow any excess grease to absorb on a paper towel. prepare the rest of the ingredients by slicing the avocado into nice sized wedges, and finely chopping your chili pepper. i used one from my nonno's garden, and it packs a mean punch let me tell you. 1/4 of that thing, and your mouth is straight hummin' for the rest of the day -- in a good way of course. i used 1/4" thick slices of marble cheese, cut from a brick. you want your bread a nice thickness as well, as it needs to hold everything together without getting sloppy.

the rest is self explanatory. assemble your sandwich (i did cheese, avocado, bacon and the chili scattered on top), butter the outside slices of your bread, and get that thing in a frying pan on medium heat. because the sammy is pretty thick, cooking it on medium heat with a lid over it ensures the cheese melts and the bread gets golden and crunchy. we paired it with good ol' fashion campbell's tomato soup (what else could you eat with grilled cheese on a rainy sunday?) with lots of parmesan cheese and cracked black pepper sprinkled on top. it was a perfect mix of chewy, cheesy, creamy and spicy, with the crunch of the bacon and italian bread, and the coolness of the avocado to even everything out. and because i'm a typical woman, i'm already trying to figure out the next combo of flavours to use.

oh, and i'm calling this 'take your pants off grilled cheese' because it makes you do just that. with the heat of the chili, and how effing tasty it was, i had to take my track pants off while i was slamming this thing back. basically, don't eat it in front of anyone you aren't 
willing to get down into your panties with.