Foodtastic: The Ungrilled Cheesy Sandwich

I’ve been meaning to post this simple little recipe for a quick comfort grilled cheese sandwich which in all honesty is not grilled at all and more melted to achieve its effect. I started making them like this to avoid the extra intake of excess butter or cooking oils. That’s no good for you if overdone after all. Sharing this one with you was based on one of my friends posting on her Facebook how much she loved grilled cheese sandwiches so now the rest of you readers benefit. Let’s begin.

We are starting with a couple of pieces of white bread but these days I have opted to use something a little healthier like a whole wheat or seven grain bread. It surely adds to the taste and if you want to be brave go with pumpernickel.

Bread Is The Beginning

Once toasted we move over to the toaster oven. I hope you have one of these as otherwise the rest of the recipes steps are kind of useless to you. You CAN use a microwave but that is just not the same in my humble opinion. Of course you can try and let us know how you made out with the comments section. We’ll leave the kitchen light on for you.

Toast The Bread

For this recipe I decided to use some spicy brown mustard. I like a little kick to my food and you can also use a good hot sauce (not the pepper water that is often sold as the stuff) for a different vibe to the fun. Since I had the Gulden’s stuff in the house I went that route.

Add Spicy Brown Mustard

Lay a few slices of American cheese on each slice of bread. I went with two for each side as that was going to be more than enough. My goal is to eat and not overdo it and we still had some ingredients to go.

Layer The Sliced Cheese

As I assembled my working area I noticed I still had some mozzarella cheese and I wanted to put it to good use. I sliced it up nice and thin and applied to the top of the slices of American cheese.

I Added Some Mozzarrella

Now we’ll put the tray back into the toaster over and click the toast button which should run for about a minute on a standard device. You need to stick around for this since its a very quick process and you don’t want to burn your sandwich. Once melted it looks like this if you didn’t over melt and its quite visually appealing. We’re almost done.

Cheese Is Meltified

I mentioned loving some spice so I took some whole pepperoncini and sliced them into halves. For this particular sandwich I only used one larger pepperoncini as it was more than sufficient. If they were smaller you could surely use a couple of them or even try out some Jalapeno peppers. Mind you that I have NOT yet tried those on this but it would probably work out fine.

Add The Peppers

Take the whole thing and put them together and press lightly so these two sides of cheese meet and connect. We’re still working with some hot stuff so that should happen with no incident. Doesn’t look too bad in the end right? I know that I was happy with it.

Combine The Sides

Now it’s time to eat and you can serve this with a sour pickle and some chips or perhaps pretzels. Total preparation time is less than ten minutes if you need an exact count and that is great. It’s also easy to clean up after this one.

 

Ingredients Used:
Sliced Bread
Sliced Cheese
Sliced Mozzarella
Slicked Pepperoncini
Spicy Mustard

Happy Thanksgiving 2011 Everyone!!!

Hey it’s Thanksgiving once again isn’t it? Well so it is and in that I would like to wish you and your families a very Happy Thanksgiving. This is a very big and very family oriented holiday here in the USA and while I realize that we have a lot of global readers on the blog, I ask that you folks indulge me for a second here. This year has been a tricky one for a lot of people and with that in mind its best to remember the good things and good people in one’s day and be thankful for them. Do you have some decent health, a handful of trustworthy people around you and interesting ways to spend your time? If so you have a serious bounty to be thankful for. Could you use a little more money? Well, who couldn’t and as the economy has show us that kind of thing comes and goes more often than we’d like. Perhaps you’ve experienced some kind of loss this year and while that saddens me too, its best to remember the good times and be thankful for the time you had spent with that person. Remember we all leave eventually and some just sooner than we would like. We’ve not a set amount of time on this plane that’s for sure. Try to make the best of what we do have and make your life one that positively impacts the life of someone else. You can do this with kind words, gestures and even support. Positive energy is strong medicine in an uncertain world.

Oh so I snapped some images of Thanksgiving related stuff that I happened upon and wanted to share it with you all before you get a move on into your day. Check out these couple of turkeys (horrible I know, but this is what you get from me).



I like the comfortable look on this little Pumpkin Man. He doesn’t seem to have a care in the world and all is solid with him. A nice place to be every once in awhile don’t you think?



Next we see one of the protester’s from “Occupy Thanksgiving” whose position is more of an Anti-Pumpkin one. Sadly I don’t think he has a leg or drumstick to stand on (queue snare drum).



A festive napkin for sure but not the kind of plate I like to see on Thanksgiving. Empty that is. My hope is that everyone gets their fill today.



Here is a slightly different take on a stuffed turkey. My grandmother actually made this many years ago and since I’ve always loved it, I decided to share a visual with you all.



Next up, the only way that I like to be given the bird.  Let the feasting begin…..

I’ll close out by saying thank you to all those who have made my day a little bit better. Thanks to the parents for the constant support and thanks to my friends for being around for fun times and adventuring.  Thank you Heavy Metal music as you drive my passions.  Thanks also to anyone who reads and enjoys the websites that I have brought out to you, I really appreciate that stuff and promise to do more.

Take care of yourselves and treat each other good a little more than you might usually.

The Big Apple “Pyramid” or Sol LeWitt Structures Exhibit

I’ve often said to both friends and visitors to our fair metropolis alike that you just never know what you are going to see when you walk through the streets of New York City. This is another example of it and was seen just off Broadway at City Hall. It’s a pyramid structure made up of concrete blocks and looks to stand about ten to twelve feet high. It was part of the Sol LeWitt Structures public art display and I only managed to snare a few photos of this particular one. Time was not on my side that day but please enjoy these and the information sign.

Here are the finer details for you all. I felt it best to snap a photo of that rather than line out every single detail verbatim.

A shot from a slightly closer vantage point.

And yet another from a little bit farther away. Its very nice to look at but I always enjoyed the visual of pyramids myself.

I should mention that this pyramid is a little bit of angle trickery as well and the structure does not go completely around. Its only on the side that you see in these photos. I realize now that I should have taken a couple of more shots to show you exactly what I mean but I can always do that later and append this posting.

A Return To Metal: Machine Rehearsals (11/10/2011)

One thing I want to share more of whenever possible are the music adventures that fall outside of the stuff I normally do with the PiercingMetal.com site, and this seemed like the perfect place to do it since the blog’s overall premise was to be more in tune with my actual life. That being said, many years ago I was the drummer for a New York City based Heavy Metal band called Machine. The four of us were active on the local scene in the late 80’s and at the start of the 90’s and played numerous gigs including the famous L’Amour in Brooklyn. The band consisted of Jeff Mackey (bass guitar/vocals), Rob Rizzo (lead guitar/vocals), Anthony Trzesinski III (lead guitar) and I (drums) and we managed to do some Metal good while we did this. Perhaps I will reflect upon just how different being in a band was at that time in a future blog post but now the reasoning for this particular one. Even though the band had ended many years ago, we all stayed in touch when it was possible to do so and sadly without going into any personal detail, our guitarist Anthony Trzesinski III would pass away in early January of 2011. It was terrible to lose a former band brother and any musician will tell you that you live a lot of life in the times that you work together in this fashion. Thanks to the planning by one Anthony’s closest friends (Joe Affe of the band Maximum Penalty), a benefit to honor his memory was organized and musicians who he knew were all called upon to help raise a glass in true Rock and Roll fashion. One of the group’s that was tapped for the memorial event would be Machine, a band that had not worked together since 1991. It was going to be interesting to see if this worked at all.
Continue reading A Return To Metal: Machine Rehearsals (11/10/2011)

Celebrate The Veteran’s Today (11/11/2011)

As a proud American citizen I fully realize that the freedoms I enjoy every single day did not come easily, but instead came upon the bloody battlefields of numerous wars held around the world and often at the loss of our own armed forces.    While life in the USA is not always the most steady of things thanks to the roller coaster economy and unemployment numbers, you have to agree that it is far better than living under the regime of some psychotic dictator.   I think everyone that I know has had a relative that has served in the armed forces of some kind in my circle of friends and my own family has had Marine and Army Vets.  Should any of these connections in your life still be with us, it might be a nice idea to spend a little time with them and hear some stories if they are willing to share any.

Veteran’s Day is a good day to show just how much you appreciate their sacrifice even if you don’t always agree with the politics that came along with those in combat.  For them its a matter of duty, honor and country.  I snapped these couple of images over the summer while spending the weekend with friends upstate and its of the Orange County Veteran’s Memorial.  It’s located in Newburgh, NY and I really loved the powerful nature of the statue.  There were two flags high above on poles but I was not able to get a proper long distance shot for you to enjoy.  You will simply have to trust me on that.  The next image is just a closer look at the reflecting solider in this monument.

I wanted to showcase a few more photos of this kind as a part of Veteran’s Day posting, but the available hunting time for other statues and monuments was just not with me.  Next year I will do my damnedest to offer you a little more in the way of visuals even if I have to adventure around the city and surrounding area a little more.  Until then, be mindful of those who serve to protect you and your beliefs in our fine nation.  The active servicemen and women often do this duty away from their own loved ones so they deserve your thanks.

Happy Veteran’s Day!!!

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