The Perfect Grilled Cheese

A week ago my wife and I had an interesting conversation regarding the art of making a grilled cheese sandwich. Now she knows I love em with cream of tomato soup, and generally makes fun of me whenever I order that combo at any number of watering holes we frequent. So I felt it was time to turn the tables, since she has an entirely different approach to this tasty sandwich. We will agree to disagree on what goes in one, since she prefers adding ketchup and oregano to hers along with processed American cheese. I on the other hand prefer to lather one slice of bread with Hellman's, then a layer of sharp cheddar cheese. She prefers to butter her bread first and grill accordingly. I have always preferred to add butter to the frying pan prior to cooking. I use the term butter but we all know it's margarine.

That changed with the discovery of the following recipe. I shall never again use margarine with my grilled cheese again. So for the grilled cheese aficionados enjoy the following recipe I discovered. I did.


Borrowed from "Big Girls, Small Kitchen Blog" The Quarter-Life Cooks.
Serves 1 (easily doubled)


I like to use a mixture of cheeses, but of course you can stick with whatever your favorite happens to be.


Ingredients
2 slices whole wheat bread
2 teaspoons butter
1 oz Jarlsberg, thinly sliced
1/2 oz sharp cheddar cheese, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan
Freshly ground pepper
pinch of sea salt


Lightly toast your bread. Butter each slice with 1 teaspoon butter. Layer the slices of cheese in the middle, then sprinkle the Parmesan, pepper, and salt, and cover with the second slice of bread.


Cook in a frying pan over medium-low heat, flipping once, until the bread is golden and the cheese is melted. Serve immediately—and fill out your plate with veggies to even out the cholesterol intake.

For all the Navy Vet's out there

Detroit Teacher Union hits snooze button on wake-up call of disastrous student test scores

The last couple of days I've been writing on the disgusting test scores of DPS students in mathematics, where not a single student - not ONE! - scored "advanced" and a whopping 77% of 8thy graders couldn't even score into "basic." The scores were not only the lowest in the nation, but the lowest ever recorded in the NEAP test. Ever. In all its 40 year history! By far! So bad were the scores that Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, had this to say:

"These numbers are only slightly better than what one would expect by chance as if the kids had never gone to school and simply guessed at the answers"

The teachers unions simply couldn't stay silent. So they made a statement which I will sum up as this:

Don't blame us.

Here is the graph of the disastrous results:



My post of the other day highlighted the ineptness of our Governor, this points out the ineptness of the Detroit Public School system. Draw your own conclusions.

Granholm on Hardball: Government can't create jobs, that's why I'm happy Obama is spending money to create jobs

And we in Michigan wonder why our state is so F***ed up!

EPA: Greenhouse gases are harmful to humans

Obama's solution: Stop Breathing

"You can't leave, all the plants are going to die..."

I told you not to slam that door!

Science tells you that for every action there is a reaction, so when I attempted to slam the Red Door shut, it did as expected, it sprung back. My intentions were to close this blog. Feeling it had run it's course, served it's purpose, and with nothing further to add, it was time. For some reason I didn't post this right away, and in the mean time I've had a change of heart. I will continue to post "things" as might my sister Joey and whomever else wishes. I am going to try and stay away from politics, try I said, but use this to post whatever I think is news worthy. Recently I started another blog called "Recipes from behind the Red Door" because of my love for cooking, but in all honesty one is enough for me. I will merge the two, keeping this name, and offering various items that interest me and hopefully interest you.

Now that that is out of the way I do believe there needs to be a transition from the old to the new, so I am posting below my original post siginaling the end of the Red Door because there are so many people that I need to thank and give credit to. So witout further ado:


As the old saying goes, all good things must come to an end and I am sorry to say it’s time to close the door. The Red Door Journal will be no longer. Along the way it has been an amazing trip, and a great learning experience, so much so that I’ve decided to go back to school and seek a degree in the para-legal field. Maybe I can make a difference for someone else faced with the same issues we have had to deal with for the past three years. Good heavens there can’t be that many incompetent judges and shyster attorneys still left out there can there? Oh God!

But…..I can’t just close the door without giving some credit and thanks for so many who supported us, encouraged us, laughed with us, sometimes questioned our wisdom, but most importantly stood by us. You’re faithful reading of this blog, your comments; both negative and positive were always welcome. I may have come on a bit stern from time to time regarding questional comment, threatening to stop all comments, but truth be told, I couldn’t do that. My dilemma is to not leave out a name or two, and if I do, I apologize.

Mother, you could have just as easily said, let’s keep this quiet and not expose our “laundry” for all to see and hear, but you didn’t. And I am certain there are many who applauded you for taking that risky position to fight this when all the odds were against you. There were days when you scratched your head and wondered why, but you fought and in the end, we all know you’re the better person for it. Your brother and his family will have the rest of his lives to ponder why they have no friends; a position you will never be in.

As you discovered this past summer, renting can be cheaper than owning. So, I am having plaques made that will be available to cottage owners to proudly display that says: “Josephine Symons Lee slept here”. And who knows maybe in a few years "most" cottages will proudly display one.

To the eighty percent of the Lakeside Board who found themselves in a no win position yet managed to do all the right things, say all the right things and offered us their support, we appreciated your efforts, and your thoughts, we thank you. To the best caretaker an association could have. We put you in the middle of a bad situation which was never our intent, and you were diplomatic in your efforts, we thank you.

To every single member of Lakeside, Cottage Grove and Pinewoods, our thanks for your support and encouragement, we felt it and appreciated it. And to the few I left out, you know why.

It’s only fitting that I leave with a photo tribute to the past three years and highlight some of the serious issues as well as the fun ones. Enjoy and remember the immortal words of Donald Rumsfeld: “There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. These are things we don’t know we don’t know.”

However, the one thing that I do know is once you’re a Lakesider you’re always a Lakesider. Thank you again for your sincere support.



The begining...



From where we came









It's about Thyme cookbook, an overnight sellout, ready for another?



Your choice, David or Stu



The last great cocktail party at the cottage...




Lakeside auction queen!



This past summer 2009








Sorry Sara









Christmas at Lakeside, didn't someone say it couldnt be done?





Decorating the old girl for another holiday season.




The last supper, well not "Thee" last supper but dam close to it!





Oh yea, someone did try to prevent a last Christmas didnt they?

Parsley Sandwiches

These could become extinct, and I'm not kidding. This is serious. The reason being the bread that we have been forced to use is no longer being made. The original bread, was discontinued several years ago, now the same company has ceased production of what we had been using. Now what?

The original recipe called for homemade bread, like I got time for that. Plus I think my grandfather insisted on that as a way to keep others from making them. And he had plenty of time to make bread. Guess I will be dusting off that bread maker I felt I couldn't live without several years ago and see what happens. Damn that Koepplinger's bread company.

And on top of that what is with all the clumps of mud secretly hidden in the center of these bunches of parsley?. I didn't think they were being sold by the pound. Oh well, off to seek a better bread, and find my slice a slice.

Is the parsley sandwich soon to become extinct?

Almost there....

For those of you waiting on the final order? Don't hold your breath. It is the responsibility of the plaintiff's attorney to file this order. He will not. Eventually the state will send the judge a nasty gram asking him to "close" out his case. We all know how long "the state" can take. Right? It will eventually happen as they don't like to have "loose ends" out there. Once the final order is made, we can appeal. Will we? Who knows. We've discussed it. A judge's worst nightmare is going up on appeal. Our case has so many holes in it that perhaps we could win. What would we be winning? A costly legal battle? Dragging it all through the courts again? Why? I know... justice? Yeah. Perhaps justice has already been served. Don't really know. I do know that we had a great time this past summer and plan to continue enjoying all the best of Lakeside. I hope that everyone who has read this tale will do something about protecting their ownership rights. Whether that means making sure that they can remain an owner for however long or, make it possible to change the terms so that one may "get out" of the cottage family. The times ahead may challenge the notion of "keeping things as they were". I know from a number of conversations that steps are being taken within many "cottage families". Good. Then the purpose of this blog was met. Thank you for reading, commenting, standing up and standing by. If nothing else, we sure know who are friends are!!! And we are blessed to have many....

An announcement coming........