Classic Comfort Food - Grilled Cheese

It's a snowy day and some comfort food was in order. I was still in my pajamas by the time lunch rolled around so it only seemed fitting. For the record, I don't typically sit around in my jammies all day but I am home with the baby all day today. We are relaxing.

This took about 7 minutes to make. That's about the time it takes the baby to eat one of her Mum Mum crackers - a good distraction tool.

Ingredients and Prep:

• 1 plum tomato (these have the least water in them so I find they are a good option as your sandwich won't get soggy)
  
• some brie (I remove the rind because I want nothing coming between me and smooth melty brie)
• a sprinkling of fresh thyme leaves
  
• 2 slices of bread
• some butter

Prepare as you would a typical grilled cheese (do I have to tell you how?). You know, butter each slice of bread on one side. Place 1st piece in frying pan, add brie, tomato, fresh thyme leaves, top with 2nd slice of bread. Turn on the heat to medium and grill until golden brown.

Perfection.

Super Bowl Menu: Hash Brown Casserole, 7 Layer Salad & Creamy Dill Ranch Dressing

Well, I have only a couple of hours to finish everything up, pack up the husband, baby & dog and head over to my brother-in-law's house for the game. Football isn't really my thing, but my in laws love it so I go for the socializing. But who's kidding who here? It's really because I like the food. As a non meat eater in a carnivorous family, I like to contribute to the menu so that a) I have something to eat and b) I can see how long it takes my Father-in-law to realize that it's not "real" bacon that he's eating!

While I can't say what everyone else is bringing - here are my contributions:

- 7 Layered Salad with homemade Creamy Dill Ranch Dressing
- Veggie burgers (Yves brand)
- Hash brown Casserole with Faux Bacon, Onions & Cheese
- Brownies (from a box - we all cheat sometimes)

Creamy Dill Ranch Dressing

*try using an old mason or pasta sauce jar to make your dressing in...

• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup 2% plain yogurt
• 3/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tbsp green onion or chives, finely chopped
  
• 2-3 tbsp fresh dill, finely chopped
  
• 1 tbsp fresh tarragon, finely chopped
• salt (to taste)
• white pepper (to taste)

Put the liquid ingredients in your jar first, then the remaining ingredients. Stir up or shake madly. Let the flavours infuse for a few hours or overnight.


The 7 Layer Salad

This was supposed to be a vegetarian Cobb salad - you can see it is not. All I can say is that of the 2 stores and 4 avocados I bought, 0/4 could be used. Instead it became a layered salad made from a variety of ingredients.

From the bottom up...

Iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, cheddar cheese, chick peas, green leaf lettuce, boiled egg, green onion.

This will be served with the Creamy Dill Ranch Dressing so that will make it much better.


Hash Brown Casserole with Faux Bacon, Onion and Cheese

I pretty much followed this recipe from Cooking Light but used fake bacon (Yves brand) and I eliminated the green onions. I also used 2% plain yogurt instead of sour cream because I had it leftover from the dressing recipe.

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1120354