Happy Monday, everyone! This past weekend, Corelyn and I taught our first ever cooking class to a group of our friends, and we just had a blast. We taught the basics through rolls, mac and cheese, and two green bean recipes that we thought would round out our students’ kitchen skills.

We have wanted to teach people about cooking from the start. Maybe not straight up classes, but every text message, video chat, phone call, email, or in-person question I get about cooking excites me because I absolutely love cooking and teaching and more importantly, learning.

I love questions I don’t know the answer to, because that gives me the opportunity to learn something in the process, too. I love being able to discuss methodology in the kitchen, tips and tricks for making the cooking process easier, and I love talking about food. This class gave Corelyn and I the opportunity to do just that in a relaxed environment with our guinea pigs friends who were super patient with us, asked amazing questions, and taught us a lot about how to teach.

One of the recipes we made was rosemary rolls. They were based on the Pioneer Woman’s recipe, because why change something if it’s not broken? We loved introducing yeast rolls to our friends because yeast seems scary, but it’s not. Once you know how to use it, it’s magic. Making your own bread seems so fancy and is just too easy to not make. It’s simple, it’s impressive, it’s pretty, and it’s so delicious.

These are the rolls that our friends made during class – Steve, and Mitchell, and Jen, and Aaron’s rolls. They are delicious. They are beautiful. They are topped with blue cheese, caramelized onions, and so much love. And those are the best kinds of foods, we think.

We are hoping to teach so more classes soon, and if you live in the Los Angeles area and are interested, please feel free to email us at jennie@garlicmysoul.com. Thanks to our friends who allowed us to practice on them, and thanks to Jeff for filming the whole thing – hopefully someday soon we’ll have something to show you. (I tried not to swear too much.)

Alright, y’all. We have one more awesome recipe for you for the delicious week of the grilled cheeses. This one is one of our favorites, and it’s savory, sweet, and salty, which of course is the best of all of the worlds.

This grilled cheese we made with rye bread and suggest you do, too. This added a nutty flavor that we absolutely loved. Topped with gouda, caramelized onions, arugula, and fig jam, this sandwich is definitely to die for you guys. You should have it today. Please. Make me one, and I’ll come over and do the dishes!

Ingredients:

butter
2 slices rye bread
2 oz gouda
1-2 oz caramelized onions
fistful of arugula or similar green
1 tbsp fig jam

Directions:

1. Generously butter both sides of both slices of bread.
2. Over a medium high pan, put each piece of bread in the pan, and then layer on the cheese, onions, greens, and jam. Make sure to put cheese on the outside of both so that it melts and keeps the sandwich together.
3. Heat until cheese is melty and the bread is toasted as you prefer. Serve with soup of your choice!

We hope that you’ve enjoyed this week of delicious sandwiches – if you still have a craving for a type of sandwich we’ve yet to experiment with, let us know, and we’ll whip something up for you!

This may seem a bit like overkill. Or at the very least an unnecessary mixing of genres. But take this decadent and fun grilled cheese out for a whirl and it may just become a staple in your sandwich rotation.

Akin to putting potato chips on your ham and cheese as a kid, there’s just something delightful about a sandwich with a little crunch. Butter up the bread, melt the cheese nice and gooey, grab your chips and salsa. You’re in business, my friend.

The final product is delightful and heart-warming. A little reminiscent of the last plate of really great nachos you had from that place down the street, whose name you can’t remember but schedule and cash-only policy you know by heart.

Ingredients:

Butter, enough to slather on bread
2 slices Gluten-Free bread of choice (we used Trader Joe’s GF Brown Rice Bread)
6 generous slices cheese (TJ’s heavenly Cheddar Gruyere combo)
1 tablespoon salsa
1 handful lightly crushed tortilla chips
avocado, for serving, optional

Directions:

1. Preheat your skillet to a low setting. Butter both sides of your bread (trust us, though this gluten free bread looks and feels cardboard-like, given some love, butter and toasting it’s just wonderful).
2. Place bread slices in skillet side-by-side and flip both when lightly toasted.
3. Layer cheese on both slices of bread and wait for it to start melting.
4. Choose a side and dollop on salsa, then crushed chips on top.
5. Close sandwich by placing the opposite slice of bread on top of the loaded one. Toast to your preferred perfection.

Or maybe that’s a little too specific. Try it and let us know what memories it drums up for you! Up tomorrow: one more grilled cheese to round out the week – we think this one might be our favorite…

OK guys, it’s Day Two of the Grilled Cheese week, and today we have for you a savory sandwich. Now, this one could be considered breakfast or lunch, or dinner even, which makes it a fave in our book of course. We love a hearty green (in this case spinach) and we love eggs to pieces – they just make everything better, especially when they have a runny yolk, don’t you think?

This grilled cheese is basic: super sharp cheddar cheese, with egg and spinach. Throw mushrooms in if you want – we meant to, but we got distracted. We used sourdough for this one, too, because sourdough is such a versatile bread and it browns so well with some butter, don’t you think?

Ingredients:

1 egg
1 handful spinach
2 oz sharp cheddar cheese
2 slices sourdough bread
2 tbsp butter

Directions:

1. Fry your egg in one half tablespoon of butter. Meanwhile, with the other half of the tablespoon of butter, butter both sides of both pieces of bread.
2. Layer your cheddar cheese and spinach, adding your fried egg to the top, and then another layer of cheese (this helps to keep everything from sliding around.) Place sandwich in cast iron over medium-high heat until browned.
3. Flip the sandwich and brown other size;=. Pro tip: if you want to, you can use a cast iron bacon press or another cast iron to put weight on the sandwich so everyone gets nice and melty.
4. Serve warm with soup!

Up tomorrow: we have a gluten free (we know!) grilled cheese inspired by one of our favorite snacks of all time. What do you think, do you prefer savory or sweet?

Hey y’all. Happy President’s Day, and, more importantly, happy first day of Grilled Cheese Week! This week we’re bringing you four delish grilled cheeses that you can make to spice up “Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup” night at your house!

We love grilled cheeses, but we know that cheddar on bread can get a little boring. Delicious, sure, but boring. So we’re spicing it up in several directions…a little sweet, a little savory, and a couple in between. The great thing about grilled cheese is that you can make it with literally anything you like. We have a few suggestions, but we want you to feel like you can follow your heart here…at the end of grilled cheese week, we want you to feel empowered to go forth and grill cheese with other delicious items in any combination that will make you smile.

Up first, we want to bring you a fave of ours: a sweet grilled cheese with fontina, blueberry jam, apple, and basil. We think you might have seen something similar with brie, but we think that fontina is an underrated cheese that takes this sandwich to the next level.

This one was one of our test-tasters favorites, and we know why – this is sweet with a hint of earth in the basil. We used sourdough bread to keep it classic, but feel free to use whatever bread you love or keep around.

Ingredients:

2 slices sourdough bread
2-3 oz fontina cheese
2 tbsp blueberry jam
¼ an apple, thiny sliced
4-5 basil leaves, chopped thinly sliced
butter
soup of your choice, optional

Directions:

1. Butter both sides of your bread.
2. Spread the jam on the inside of both pieces of bread, then layer on the cheese, apple, and add the basil in the center.
3. Heat a pan over medium heat, and butter well.
4. Cook over medium heat on each side until the bread is well browned. Pro tip: if you want to, you can use a cast iron bacon press or another cast iron to put weight on the sandwich so everyone gets nice and melty.
5. Serve hot with soup!

Up tomorrow: a savory grilled cheese to counteract the blueberry jam here. Comment and let us know what you’re favorite grilled cheese is, and we might just whip it up!