I am a first gen­er­a­tion Amer­i­can daugh­ter of par­ents who were born in Ger­many. They worked hard to assim­i­late into Amer­i­can cul­ture — Dad ditched his Ger­man accent in high school to avoid being teased by his class­mates, Mom made time for youth sports by allow­ing my sibs to skip Hebrew school on occa­sion, and both were active in com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions like Lit­tle League. But our fam­i­ly meals were decid­ed­ly old coun­try. We all ate togeth­er almost every night. And none of my friends had din­ner like we did, with a fruit sal­ad or grape­fruit starter, fol­lowed by a green sal­ad, then a main course plus veg­gies and starch side, then dessert. The green sal­ad was dressed with lemon juice and sug­ar, an odd­i­ty here in the US that embar­rassed me when friends came for din­ner. Imag­ine my sur­prise when I saw that dress­ing option on a menu in Stuttgart, my mom’s home town! Here I thought it was her unique culi­nary cre­ation!

I spent the last two weeks with my mom in South­ern Cal­i­for­nia, where I took my turn cook­ing for Mom. So no lemon-sug­ar sal­ad dress­ing, but still plen­ty of veg­gies and fruit. We ate grilled cheese, a clas­sic that I haven’t eat­en since child­hood, not once but twice. The first was at Rogue Cream­ery, where the indul­gent, arti­sanal bleu-ched­dar com­bo with local hon­ey was a far cry from the Amer­i­can cheese clas­sic I grew up with.

The sec­ond was my health­i­er take, below. I switched to whole grain bread, the fab­u­lous Euro­pean Style Whole Grain Bread from Trad­er Joe’s. Each sand­wich had a thin slice of Havar­ti cheese, a cou­ple of thin slices of Granny Smith apple, some crum­bles of bleu cheese, and a driz­zle of hon­ey. No but­ter need­ed — we baked the sand­wich­es in the oven.

In hon­or of Sep­tem­ber’s Fam­i­ly Meals Month, I’m hap­py that I could share this fam­i­ly meal with my mom. She’s not sure whether real kids would like it, but grown-up kids sure do!

Mom’s Grown-up Grilled Cheese
Serves 2

Ingre­di­ents

  • 4 slices Trad­er Joe’s or oth­er Euro­pean style whole grain bread
  • 2 ounces sliced Havar­ti cheese
  • 1/2 Granny Smith apple, cut into thin slices
  • 2 ounces crum­bled bleu cheese
  • Hon­ey

Instruc­tions

  1. Pre­heat the oven to 350º F.
  2. Place half the Havar­ti slices on each of two slices of bread. Top with apple slices, bleu cheese, a driz­zle of hon­ey, and a sec­ond piece of bread.
  3. Loose­ly cov­er with a piece of foil.
  4. Place the sand­wich­es on a bak­ing sheet and bake for 15 min­utes, or until the cheese has melt­ed. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 5 min­utes before cut­ting and serv­ing.

Note: A pani­ni mak­er, grid­dle, or skil­let would work also.