How to Throw a Grilled Cheese Party

A friend reminded me last week that it is grilled cheese month. WHAT?! We have a lot of silly “holidays”, but this, this is awesome. I love a good, warm, melty grilled cheese sando. Who doesn’t? It’s just total comfort food. There’s a grilled cheese truck in Los Angeles and I think the owners are pretty much brilliant. There are about a million ways to make one of these sandwiches! There’s also a restaurant here in Las Vegas, Rachel’s Kitchen, that has a gruyere and tomato grilled cheese on sourdoughbread. It’s so good that I think I actually might have to have it for dinner. I’m not even exaggerating with these numbers and thoughts. It’s a scientific fact that you just can’t dislike a good GCS (grilled cheese sandwich for those that are wondering). My second favorite grilled cheese is a gruyere grilled cheese dipped into piping hot tomato soup. YUUUUUM!

A couple months ago I was having a small gathering over in the evening and I was trying to think of something yummy to make. I could make the perfect slider sandwiches or my favorite chicken salad or do something totally different. At Christmas time my family and I started a new tradition that I really hope we keep until we are grown and have grandchildren running around. My husband gave me an early Christmas present because I’d been saying I thought it would be fun to have a raclette Christmas Eve. We did this with some of our dear friends that we met while living in Germany. I was so excited when I opened up my gift. Long story short, my raclette tradition began. Along with my family we had a couple others join us and it was a blast standing around chatting while our food cooked before our eyes. It’s basically habachi style cooking. You can do breakfast on it, pizza, omelettes, potatoes, meat etc etc. It was such a hit that it started sparking other ideas in my head which lead to what I wanted to do for my girls get together….

I also got a panini maker for Christmas. I woke up a month before Christmas realizing that I had to have a panini maker. I almost bought one at Costco, but I didn’t and ended up with one under the Christmas tree. Yes, if my husband bought me a blender or vacuum I would be the weird wife that was very excited. He wouldn’t be in the doghouse. He’d be somewhere else….

With the panini maker and habachi on my mind, I came up with the perfect idea for my get together. A GRILLED CHEESE PARTY. If you don’t own a panini maker, please go buy one. I love this one and we use it prb 5 out of 7 days a week. I have used it for making eggs, quesadilla’s, panini’s, grilled chicken, and grilled cheese sandos. Yes, it is better than a pan. It has a griddle on one side and a panini press on the other. It is so easy to take out, cook on, clean and put away. I feel like this was some dirty secret that people have been hiding from me all my life. Why didn’t someone tell me to put this on my wedding registry?!

What do you need for a grilled cheese party? You’ll obviously need a pan, skillet or panini maker.  I used my skillet and panini maker. Before I went to the store I made a list of delicious possible sandwiches. The list could go on and on, but below are a few for inspiration. The most random combinations seemed to be the best! My favorite was sourdough, cream cheese, jelly and ham. Something about the sweet and salty. Mmmm

• Sourdough, pesto, tomato and mozzarella
• Sourdough, cream cheese, jelly and ham
• Marble, swiss, bacon and arugula

Here are my suggested ingredients for a fabulous grilled cheese party:

Breads

• Extra Sourdough
• Dark Rye or Marble
• White

Cheeses I didn’t serve brie or gruyere because I’m too cheap to buy that nice of cheese for so many people. Hehehe just kidding, kinda.

• Sharp Cheddar
• Muenster
• Swiss
• Mozzarella
• Brie
• Gruyere

Fixin’s

• Tomato
• Bacon
• Ham
• Turkey
• Arugula

Spreads

• Butter
• Pesto
• Raspberry Jam
• Cream Cheese

I suggest having everything laid out for people to see. Labeling was important too so that people aren’t always wondering what type of cheese or sauce something is. They can just start grabbing and assembling their sandwich! I also suggest making HALF-sized sandwiches that way you can have more. hehe

The butcher paper I used to cover my table is actually brown wrapping/shipping paper from the Dollar Store. I love buying rolls of these because I can use the paper to cover my table during craft time AND parties! Plus, it makes clean up such a breeze. My friend did a grilled cheese party first and had everything displayed BEAUTIFULLY. She used a decorative chalkboard to write everything down. I totally copied her and got a chalkboard for our habachi Christmas!

Then, have yourself a party….

What’s your favorite grilled cheese?

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