Fancy Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
I’m a lady… and this Valentine’s Day I’m going to treat myself like a lady. I’ll open doors for myself. I’ll pour myself the first glass of wine. I’ll let me eat the last soft french fry. I’ll drape my coat over a puddle for me to walk across. I’ll slyly check myself out as I walk by. Huh? I’ll buy myself movie tickets and tell me I look pretty today. That’s how it’s going to go down. Except… I won’t put my jacket in a puddle because that’s just dumb. Who does that? Dummies.
This Valentine’s Day is going to get pretty glamorous. I’m going to make myself a sandwich, scoop up some olives and drink a perfectly reasonable amount of wine. Dig it.
This Valentine’s Day, I’d also like to tell these people that I love them… because I do. I love you Asher, Launa, Lauren, Whitney, Zach, Rachel, Jenelle (you crazy lady), Jill, Kitten and Michael. I love you all so much. I love you enough to throw chocolate at you and run away. Wait… what? Let’s make out. Nevermind.
Happy Valentine’s Day to you and you.
It’s a good day to love people. It also seems like a good day to love olives and marbles and wine.
Don’t confuse olives and marbles in your mouth. Mistake.
I’m no rocket scientist. Yea. Duh. This sandwich isn’t a genius combination of ingredients. It is super delicious and melty and green and salty. So at least there’s that.
This is the world in which I’ll be shoveling this sandwich into my face.
Cat eats my olives.
Oh! And this is what I’m having for dessert.
It’s a banana stuffed with dark chocolate and white chocolate and salted peanuts and shredded coconut. I wrapped it in foil and baked it in the oven. When I was a kid we would pull this sort of stunt while at sleep away camp, but we’d cook the foil covered bananas in the campfire. That’s livin.
Also… don’t be alarmed that the baked banana peel will be black. That’s what happens when bananas peels are baked. The inside will be a warm baked banana topped with melted chocolate, et al. But… it’s not like this is a fancy show piece dessert. It’s more of a dessert-for-one sort of situation.
Now this is the part where I give you instructions on how to make a sandwich…. as if you don’t already know…. forgive me.
Spinach Goat Cheese Ham Sandwich
Makes: one sandwich
2 slices whole wheat or sourdough bread
2 tablespoons goat cheese, softened
handful of fresh spinach leaves
4 slices thin sliced ham
whole grain mustard
fresh ground black pepper
scant 1 tablespoon butter for the skillet
Place a skillet over medium low heat and melt butter.
Spread one tablespoon of goat cheese on each slice of bread. Top one slice with spinach and the other slice with ham. Spread a bit of whole grain mustard atop the ham and smush the two pieces of bread together. Grill on either side until golden brown and delicious. Remove from skillet. Allow to cool for two or three minutes before cutting in half. Enjoy with olives and wine.
Baked Bananas
Makes: one banana
1 banana
2 tablespoons dark chocolate chips
1 tablespoons white chocolate chips
1 tablespoon sweetened shredded coconut
1 tablespoon roasted and salted peanuts
Place a rack in the center of the oven and place a baking sheet on the rack. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Cut the head and butt of of a whole banana. Slice lengthwise down the peel (not through the entire banana, just the peel) and open the peel, revealing just the top of the banana.
Stuff banana with chocolate chips, coconut and cuts. Wrap loosely in foil and place on baking sheet to cook for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before unwrapping and enjoying straight from the peel. Get in there.
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For dessert, I’m having Pecan Macadamia pie :)
No sandwich says “love” to me like a grilled cheese :) Happy Valentine’s Day!
BANANA BOATS AWAYYYY! Oh this reminds me of a girl scout overnight, when we made those banana boats and they threw mine away for no apparent reason… I think I’ll have that for dessert tonight :)
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Oh, Joy. You’re my new favorite. :) And my old favorite. This is now my lunch for today. I’m sure this comment will get lost in the sea of praises, but your writing style is fantastic.
no comment is lost! thank you thank you.
I adore this post. Happy Valentine’s Day!
I must make that banana!! I looks soooo good!
That dessert looks great, but as an argentinian girl I think the banana is screaming out for some dulce de leche!! You should try the combination banana and dulce de leche, it’s great!
I love your photo collages (I guess they are not collages, more like well laid out images, but that takes too long to write). Do you use a specific program or do you have some fancy computer magic you can impart?
just phtotshop.
this will be my dinner thursday night after kids go to bed and husband leaves me alone so i can watch jersey shore. oh, man. can’t wait.
The sandwich looks delicious and I want that banana dessert! Yum!
Hehe Cat looks so funny sniffing the olives :)
I spent my lunch break at work melting chocolate in the microwave and dipping strawberries in it, I’m giving them to my sweetie when he gets home. also a potato, because they grow things, just like our love, :P.
oh man, I’d trade all my valentines treats and maybe even my valentine himself for your sandwich and dessert! They both hit on my favorite foods and flavors. There’s nothing like a good, fancy grilled cheese sandwich and the banana is brilliant! I don’t know why I’ve never done that with a banana before but I have clearly been missing out.
holy canoli! the banana is just genius!!! there is always a banana in the house, and of course always chocolate chips….i’m thinking marshmallows would be perfectly melty and gooey in there too!
That’s how we used to make them at girl scout camp – chocolate chips and marshmallows. Deeeeelicious!
This is SO up my alley … we have been eating sandwiches most of the time lately… too hot to cook.
I can manage grilling a sandwich though and definitely can manage baking a banana … lovely.
Happy Valentines !
chau, C
srsly, best valentines/recipe description I have read in my life. “let’s make out” for the win. I am having my mom’s leftover pot-roast I have been saving in the freezer and for dessert, these oreo truffles i didnt finish making last night because I couldn’t be bothered to cover anymore things in chocolate in a cold house with the heater on the fritz.
Dinner awaits…Wonder years marathon, here I come…
Thanks for the delightful post. Have a wonderful un/fun Valentine’s Day!
I just adore you! That may be weird, but I’m at peace with it. Happy Valentine’s Day! :)
Joy, Great post! As my 15-year old says, Happy Artificial Holiday with Strong Commercial Overtones!
She made some from-scratch cream of mushroom soup for our dinner tonight & I just showed her this banana recipe. Guess what we’re trying soon? THANK YOU!
Do I spy “The Chook” sparkling red wine (shiraz if I remember?). That stuff is AMAZING!!!!!
that stuff is a delicious problem.
These look soooo good! I’ve got a log (great name, right?) of goat cheese in the fridge and can’t wait to smash it into a sandwich. And the banana dessert? Sounds like a lovely breakfast instead of oatmeal one of these days…
Fancy grilled cheese sandwiches are the best! So are bananas.
I love the picture of the sandwich and your cat. Cats do like olives, one of my friend’s cat drinks the olive juice that comes with canned olives!
Happy Valentine’s Joy!
Fairly new reader & was immediately smitten with your site. Your sandwich reminds me of the famed Grilled Cheese Truck here in LA. If you haven’t tried them yet, you really must!!! In fact, I think they are the best food truck in town. Delish!
i have not tried that truck. noted.
Just found your amazing blog a cpl days ago. And let me tell ya- I made that delicious roasted garlic ( first time I’ve tried making it myself). Oh and the smell is a-ma-zing
found your blog yesterday and made your oatmeal cookie pancakes for Valentine’s Day dinner tonight with my mom’s vanilla syrup. Can I just say there’s no going back? AMAZING!
Here’s the thing, Joy, I love when you tell us how to make simple things, like sandwiches, because you make them so well! And that baked banana? Heaven! You’s such a smart funny witty chic girl it kills me that I used to have a single son.
Oh Joy…I’m so jealous of your yummy ham sandwich! Did you know that for Valentine’s dinner I also had a ham sandwich? Of course not! Did you know that my ham sandwich was just a store-bought bun with a little meat…not even any mustard, mayo, pickles…let alone goat cheese and spinach (my two favorite ingredients in the whole world…besides butter of course.)
Now you may be thinking I’m sitting here feeling sorry for myself *sniff, sniff*, but you see, I had to work today, as I’ve had to work every other Valentine’s Day for the past 16 years. That’s how it is when you work in the restaurant. You work holidays. And you feel lucky when you’re employer brings in ham and buns.
So I’ll stop complaining and moaning and groaning about my ham sandwich. It’s just that yours looks SO incredibly good!! Are you envious of the Fritos I had with my plain sandwich? Thought not…’cause you had your yummy baked banana stuffed with yummy stuff. Gosh…I gotta try making that sometimes. It sounds freakin’ awesome!
Anyway, thanks for lettin’ me vent about my sandwich. I sure would have loved yours! :)
i <3 u back.
cu2mrw!
Joy posts it, I make it! I made the bananas (called banana boats at my daughter’s camp) last night for Valentine’s Day, how great! I can’t believe I never thought to bring that camp tradition into the ove– and adding nuts and coconut, wow! I used walnuts. I think I will use organic bananas for this use, just cause. Love your blog, and your LA life and your cool friends. Here in the NE it’s good for the soul to see your beach as well as food photos while there’s snow on the ground. Keep it up!
I made the bananas last night for dessert as a special treat for our family!! Very delicious. Next time, I will try equal tablespoons of the chocolates & cut the bananas in half for a more reasonable serving for the kiddos!! Love your blog!
Hey Joy,
Love your blog and your food. Found you via Ree….love looking at great food on the web. Congrats on your Cookbook!
Have a Question….Would it work to use your Easy No-Roll Pie Crust with pecan pie or a streusel topped apple pie? What would that moisture do to this pie crust. I looks awesome !!!
THANKS !
You had me at grilled cheese. Holy moly these look amazing!
I make yummy sandwiches like that too. I cannot wait to try the baked banana!
OMG that baked banana sounds amazing! Totally my kind of treat! Who doesn’t love melty chocolate on sweet, warm banana mmmm!
eeee! i love all your baking, but obviously sandwiches are where my heart is. :)
It all looks so good , Joy . I love goat cheese and that sandwich really sounds good. that banana desert looks great as well thanks for this post and this site. I am going to take a look around this site know! oh happy valentines day I know I am a day late for that, but I hope that you had a great valentines day!
Mmm, banana boats. I still make these, many years after working at a summer camp. Banana, milk chocolate chips and marshmallows. Yum, yum, YUM! I will definitely try adding peanuts next time. The only thing better than sweet and sweet is sweet and salty! Thanks for your awesomeness, Joy.
There are defining moments in our lives, and yet we never realize just how defining they are until years later. I’m pretty sure I’m going to be looking back on this moment and realizing just how much this baked banana changed my life.
lady! i love you like crazy. truly. my favorite.
also, i am kinda jealous that you got to see asher today.
but that’s okay, cuz i get to see you tomorrow.
big squeezes!
i love you.
nothin’ says love like grilled cheese. this looks amazing!
Thanks for the foil banana memory lane. I immediately had to share with my old friend camp buddy.
That banana will be mine…
Hi Joy,
I am also a self-taught baker, so finding your blog was incredibly inspiring. I love the way you present your bake goods and other food items; truly professional and very pleasing to the eye. Thanks so much for this blog, you are a gifted lady, and I pray that you continue to grow as you walk this wonderful journey of food.
KeishaG.
HA! my cats lick my olives too. eat them if I let them. I thought it was just my funny cats. Jack goes nuts for cucumbers and Bobbie can’t get enough butternut squash or beets. And they both go crazy for broccoli. fun little fuzzies. Some day I’ll stay with them all day long and bake all the yummy things that I bookmark from your site. and I will top it all off with toasted marshmallow shakes. which I have made, and it made me fall in love with you a little more. (but not in a creepy stalker way, just in a meet my fuzzies and sip shakes type of way.) Oh and if you wouldn’t mind, please bring some of those amazing onion rings that I dream about. Thanks for being my kitchen entertainment. I love love love this blog! :)
another out of control meal. looks incredible.
xxjj
I love the banana – forgot all about them . Used to bury them in the coals in girl scouts and then be so excited about hot banana and chocolate and marshmallows in the cold forest! Yum!!
exactly!!
Joy: I love your blog SOOO much! In fact, you remind me a lot of myself in your manner of cooking…except your about a million times better/more creative than I! :) (And, for the record, I was almost named Joy since I was born so close to Christmas. They gave me the name Janet instead. Boo.)
Btw, I found your blog from seeing a picture of you with my other fave blog, “The Pioneer Woman.” Amazing how blog traffic converges, isn’t it?
Thank you for your blog and please keep up the great recipes. And better yet…please write a cookbook! :)
i’m so glad you’re here and a cookbook is on the way!
Very delicious looking stuff and very creative.
Happy Valentine’s day
That is a beautiful sandwich, and who doesn’t love olives? Hope you enjoyed your Valentine’s Day.
Great recipe Joy! I think this is a fabulously easy recipe anyone can make, including college students!
I am going to add this link to our Friday Link Drop tomorrow which is featuring all recipes and DIY links this week so make sure to check it out tomorrow to see your link and others like it!
Thanks for this great recipes, we know our readers will love it!
Annie Maguire
I adore reading your posts. Does cat eat the pits of the olives? Silly cat.