Fancy Grilled Cheese and my birthday...

Today's my birthday and my brother took me out for a long lunch. He wouldn't say where - just that I needed at least 2 hrs.  He took me to Central Market for a cooking class. Today's theme was fancy grilled cheese.  NOT diet friendly but so much fun and I'll get right back to work tomorrow (after my SECOND class he signed me up for haha).    Tomorrow's class is on healthy soups and I can post those if you want. I just wish (hope) they include the calories!  Here's an email I wrote to friends a work to describe it:

Today's lunch was AWESOME!!! I went to Central Market to their upstairs cooking class. It's called LunchBox and they don't offer it very often during these hours. Today's theme was Fancy Grilled Cheese!

It's a rather small room surrounded by glass with about 4 long tables. You go in and pour yourself a drink (water, iced tea, wine. etc). In front of you the chefs are facing you and you can see what they are doing as there is a large mirror over them. There are also tv monitors but you don't need them as the setting is intimate and close up. They discuss what they're doing and cook it in front of you while another chef is making lots of them on the side.. so that as the chef is discussing you get to eat it!

Today we had 5 grilled cheese sandwiches!! You get 1/2 the sandwich and the breads are small so it's not too big but man, it was not too healthy!

Here's what we had:

Taleggio cheese, Proscuitto & Fig balsamic confit panini (This almost tasted like a monte-cristo.. the fig was spread thin like a jam and the thin proscuitto ham and then whatever the cheese was - it was wonderful!!!) And these are all grilled in butter.. haha

English cheddar, applesmoked bacon and apple (this was wonderful too. They did not have the pagnotta bread so they used sourdough and instead of jazz apples they used honey crisps)

4 Italian Cheese (Burgundy walnut bread with Mozzarella, Provolone, Gorgonzol and Parmagiano-Reggiano)

Trugole, Marinated Tomatoes and Pesto (My least favorite. Not sure if it was the pesto but it might have been the Rosemary bread I didn't care for).. Plus it's with Asiago cheese which isn't my favorite.

DESSERT: Goat cheese, Nutella and caramelized pears (I've never had goat cheese but couldn't even tell.. omg, it had the sugar, caramelized pears, roasted hazelnuts and the chocolate nutella spread.. oh and the bread was brioche with is a very soft bread and very sinful as it's made with so much butter and evilness!) You can also you Cajeta which is like Nutella but more caramel instead of chocolate.

Another idea he gave was hatch chili pesto with jack cheese and marinated tomatoes)..

Anyway, if you would like any of these recipes.. I can make a copy for you.

I'll let you know how tomorrow's healthy soup class goes!

Good thing I'm still stuffed for lunch or I'd be craving grilled cheese.

Happy Birthday JenniferthePennifer.

Oooohhh those sounds amazing, especially the dessert one and the cheddar/bacon/apple one!! I would love a recipe sheet to use as a reminder, if you have one :)

Not so great calorie-wise, but I do love a good grilled sandwich as a treat, and find that a bit of olive-oil cooking spray is perfectly sufficient insterad of butter. Now if only they can find a way to suck all the calories out of cheese and bacon ;)....actually I did find an awesome cheese that is naturally low-fat, called canterra, it's delicious but i can only find it at specialty places...just as well I guess, it's not low-cal if you eat too much, right!

Happy Birthday, sound like you've had a great one! Your brother is very thoughtful! What a great gift.