illdothedisheslater

Here’s something really annoying – has this ever happened to you?  Have you ever come up with an awesome, totally original idea – like you invent something or put a clock in something or a bird on it, and surely, surely nobody ever did this before.  You are a genius.  Watson, get that gorgeous behind in here – I need you.  But then your dear friend Google informs you that not only did you not invent it, but something like 19,000 people have already posted it on Pinterest, and Watson can’t come in because he’s on hold with AT&T.  Well let me tell you – as a cook and aspiring recipe writer, that happens all the damn time.  (See Hot Pimiento Cheese Dip).

But I had this idea for grilled cheese croutons, and I’m going to roll with it.  I’ve already whipped up a batch of my foolproof tomato soup, and need something starchy and fattening to go offset the relative healthiness.  It’s also a vegan recipe, so hell – let’s add bacon.

The other crouton recipes I see are more like little sandwiches anyway.  They call them “croutons” with quotation marks, and seem to be meant for dipping.  I want something a little dryer and crunchier that won’t fall apart in a soup, but will still give that great grilled cheese flavor.  So if the idea isn’t original, the technique might be.  Then again, it might not – I choose to not investigate further and keep a tiny piece of my dignity intact.  (Dignity, she says, having been woken up at 1:30 by Mayor McStink – my cat’s villainous alter-ego.  I had to sleep in the guest room because my cat smelled so bad, and I’m worried about dignity now?)

Well of course you start by making grilled cheese.  Almost everyone knows how to do this already, so I won’t get into the details.  I do nothing special or different with it, besides use cheddar cheese and sprinkle chopped bacon over it because – protein.   I’m also using very thinly sliced bread so the croutons don’t end up too big.

Here we go.

Now I just have to wait for them to cool enough so I can cut them into little crouton shapes.  I don’t wait long enough, obviously.

Here we have the croutons ready for the next step, which may or may not be an original idea.  I put them into a low, low oven (175) for 30 minutes to hopefully dry them out and get them crunchy.

Well, I guess it worked.  They are dry and crunchy now.  They still look like tiny sandwiches (adorable, hamster-sized sandwiches), but they don’t fall apart – the cheese has melted through the bread enough to keep them in one piece.  The taste?  Well they taste like tiny grilled cheese sandwiches.  That’s a good thing, right?

So maybe I didn’t invent the wheel today.  I didn’t even invent a smaller wheel, really.   That’s okay.  My dignity and I are going to enjoy eating this regardless.