Brie and Pear Grilled Cheese

For my final recipe for the week, I chose grilled cheese sandwiches with brie cheese and pear slices. The inspiration for choosing this recipe was actually not an inspiration at all. I had originally planned to make an onion frittata but I was easily sidetracked today. My friend Elise and I decided to go to lunch and then spend the remainder of the day walking around the West Seattle Junction. We had a few cocktails, shopped and all of the sudden, it was 4:30. Dave, Natalie and Nessa were coming over at 6:30 for dinner but I hadn't yet shopped for the frittata ingredients. I called Brad to have him read the recipe to me over the phone but he and Olive were taking a nap. As a result, I needed to come up with a new recipe fairly quickly. Elise and I went to QFC to the magazine aisle and started looking through cooking magazines for a recipe. Elise found a section about grilled cheese sandwiches in Everyday with Rachel Ray magazine. I immediately found a version of grilled cheese with brie and pear and I was good to go. The recipe is as follows:

Ingredients per sandwich:

2 tsp unsalted butter, room temperature

2 slices soft white sandwich bread (I chose locally baked sour dough)

1 1/2 ounces brie

sauteed pear slices

chopped walnuts or almonds

Spread brie on bread and add sauteed pear slices. Place one bread slice butter side down in skillet. Top with cheese and pear slices and second bread slice, butter side up. Cook for 2 minutes. Flip carefully using wide metal spatula, then cook for 2 additional minutes on second side; bread should be barely browned. Repeat, cooking for about 2 minutes more on each side, until golden. Cut in half and dip sandwiches' cheesy cut sides into chopped walnuts or almonds for crunch.

I decided to serve the sandwiches with a green salad. I chose a simple organic green salad mix and added organic radishes, avocado and roasted pumpkin seeds. For salad dressing, I mixed grape seed oil, locally made balsamic vinegar by Rockridge Orchards that I purchased at the West Seattle Farmer's Market and a pinch of sea salt. The salad was fresh and absolutely delicious.

The general consensus is that the sandwiches were quite good. We did however, have a few ideas that might make the sandwiches even better. Dave recommended adding more pear and drizzling balsamic across the top of the bread. He also could do without the walnuts. Natalie thought that raw pears would add an interesting texture compared to sauteed pears. Brad was as happy as a clam with the way it was prepared. I really liked the sandwich, especially the walnuts, but I would probably choose a more dense white bread instead of sour dough. All in all, dinner was a success. You really can't go wrong with good bread, brie and pear. Sweet and savory is always a wonderful combination and this recipe definitely fit the bill.