I've always had my little "projects". In other days they were sweetly called "hobbies". I've had moments where you might call them obsessions. My OCD likes to defend them as learning. I've learned about whiskey and I've spent a year sampling different cheeseburgers. Part of my method has mostly been documenting the progress through Social Media. See Instagram or Twitter or Facebook for my counts and countdowns. What I've done but not documented is the process of my learning.
Last year I had over 500 beers in 11 months. I learned more about craft beer and breweries than I ever thought I would know in my lifetime. I started as more of a Beer Novice than I thought I was and border on being a Craft Enthusiast right now. What I wish I'd done is document the progression. What were the moments of "ah-ha" and when did I learn new important things. It's easy to talk about the project at the end but I don't document the process enough.
The goal of this NOVICE project is to pick one or two or twelve things and write short to medium length blogs along the way about my progress. Some will be just knowledge. Some will be trying new things. Some will be larger adventures. I'm limited by time, geography and budget in many cases. So that's why there will be multiple projects at once. I'm happy to accept challenges because there might be things I want to know about that I need a push on (thanks to Kim for encouraging me to watch all of "Sons of Anarchy").
GRILLED CHEESE
It's hard to call myself a "novice" regarding the first solid food I ever remember eating. I've had them for 47 years and yet I've really never put much thought into the sandwich. It's always just been whatever bread is available (usually white or wheat) and some butter and most of the time just some melted cheddar. I've added some bacon and tried a couple different cheeses. But in general it's been something I've not put much thought into.
For this purpose I'm talking about Grilled Cheese or Cheese Toasties. Two pieces of bread, butter and melted cheese. That's the base. I'll get into different toppings and breads and cheeses as I go. My first sandwich this weekend was my base. It was a white bread from the bakery at Kroger, sharp cheddar and butter on the griddle. I like my bread just a little golden brown.
I had tomato soup with the first batch but I am not making that a requirement for the project. This is the classic for me. This is the grilled cheese sandwich of my youth. Melted cheese dripping off the plate. Every future grilled cheese is measured against this classic.
The grilled cheese as we know it seems to have been around since the 1920s and the invention of sliced bread. My very short research came up with the addition of tomato soup as a way to get children Vitamin C with their meal of the sandwich.
Next episode - different cheeses and different breads and maybe explore some toppings.
SB
