Grilled Cheese and Tomato Sandwich + Corn on the Cob
This seasonal recipe comes to us from our friend Mia Cabana, Children's Librarian at the Wheeler Memorial Library, which is located right around the corner from Quabbin Harvest!
Simple Summer Supper: Grilled Cheese and Tomato Sandwich + Corn on the Cob
by Mia Cabana
There’s something about August that makes it one of my favorite months of the year. Somehow the heat of July seems burnished to a nice golden feeling that’s tinged with equal amounts of hope and melancholy because we start to take note of the signs that Summer Will Not Last Forever. Maybe this is why I start to become less interested in spending time in the kitchen-- a real paradox of the season is that just when things are at their most abundant, I want to be reading on a rock somewhere with my feet in a creek. Fortunately, the kind of vegetables you can get at this time of year don’t need a lot of attention to be the most delicious thing you’ve ever eaten.
This dinner was actually one of the most memorable things I’ve eaten in a while. Do you need a recipe to make grilled cheese sandwich? Probably not, but I’ll tell you about this one anyway:
(Rye bread+ plain old yellow deli mustard+ 3 slices of munster cheese) TOMATO= heaven.
The distributive property of tomatoes in this sandwich is what makes it amazing. A good garden tomato the likes of which you only really get for a couple of months out of the year in New England raises each of the other ingredients to greatness.
I put the barest skim of butter I can on the bread because I like mine just crispy, not greasy. I also believe in something in our house we affectionately call the “slow cook method” of grilled cheese-- layer all your ingredients, including the top slice of bread, cook on a very low stovetop heat for about 8 minutes on each side. I think this helps the cheese to melt and all the stuff stick together inside the bread when it comes time to flip it, and I need all the help I can get in this version especially because when the tomatoes are good you do not want to skimp on them for the sake of sandwich structure.
Revolutionary Corn on the Cob Recipe
Maybe it seems crazy to think about turning on your oven when it is already 84 degrees out, but I find that it doesn’t make the house too much hotter and the following recipe for corn on the cob is the easiest method I have ever encountered. If you’re lucky maybe you have a porch or patio to go eat outside and can get away from the heat you create.
- 1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Rinse unhusked corn in cool water. If you want, you can pull off any especially scraggly outter leaves but do not peel any more than the very outer layer off.
That is the beauty of this recipe. You don’t have to husk the corn.
3. Put ears of corn on middle rack of oven. Bake for 30 minutes, remove from oven and allow to cool, then peel corn. Be careful of the steam-- it is your friend and foe. Friend, because the process of cooking the corn in the oven allowed all those pesky little silky strands to be lifted out of their crevasses via steam. Foe, because steam burns are painful and I am always over eager to get to the corn.
One last thought: having 2 things on a plate really makes it a meal, not just a snack. The sweetness of the corn and the tang of the tomato are perfect.
Posted: to News on Wed, Aug 12, 2015
Updated: Thu, Aug 13, 2015