Hi.
I’m Kate, and I’m Sydney’s best friend. There are a lot of things that are similar between us, but here’s a short list of ways we differ:
1. Sydney cooks very well. I do not.
2. Sydney eats healthfully. I do not.
3. Sydney takes beautiful pictures. I do not.
4. Sydney lives in America. I do not.
I’m currently livin’ it up in my first apartment in Utrecht, The Netherlands. I’ve never cooked for myself before (what up, meal plan!), so it’s extremely intimidating to try to learn in a foreign country.
Y’all, I don’t know if you know this or not, but Europe doesn’t use cups and tablespoons. They use this weird milliliter junk. Also, they use Celsius. WHAT IS THAT?!
Cooking for myself has not been going well. I’ve eaten a lot of nasty frozen pizzas, burned several chicken breasts (including one I almost set on fire in my microwave), and freaked out the entire European Union with my idea of taco salad (taco meat on Doritos).
One thing I’ve perfected, though, is grilled cheese. I’m super awesome at making grilled cheese, guys. Unfortunately, in my limited culinary world, super awesome tends to equal the only thing I ever make ever.
So, I took to The Cuppycakes to spice up my life. Sydney tends to reblog pictures of meals with a lot of green junk in them. She loves green junk. So does her boyfriend. They’re kind of freaks. I don’t eat green junk, unless, of course, it is colored with green dye no. five.
However, one time, she linked to this recipe called Baked Potato Grilled Cheese. I like baked potatoes and grilled cheese, and I am secure in my ability to make both. An added bonus to this recipe is that I was easily able to find all of the ingredients in Dutch supermarkets—something that is not always the case.
Also, the recipe was written by a Canadian guy named Bob, which is only like the greatest ever.
I set off on my culinary adventure, naturally forgetting to take pictures until after I was done. So I’m going to steal pictures from Canadian Bob. My apologizes, dude.
Alright, so the first thing you do is get the ingredients. Canadian Bob says to get the following:
- 2-3 Strips of Bacon
- 1 Potato
- 2 tbsp of Sour Cream
- Cheddar Cheese
- Green Onions/Chives
- 2 Slices of Bread
- Butter
- Canola Oil
- Garlic Powder
- Salt & Pepper
Except here’s the thing: I don’t know what sour cream and garlic powder are in Dutch, so I left those out. I’m morally opposed to chives, so those were out. I used sunflower oil instead of canola oil (don’t know what canola oil is in Dutch), and that worked just fine.
The first thing you do is slice your potato into four or five slices. They should be roughly the same thickness. You should also pull out your bacon—I used precooked because I’m awesome like that.
Take out two frying pans. Coat the bottom of one of them in your oil, put the potatoes in it, and put it on a burner on medium-high.
Put the bacon in the other pan, and do whatever it is you do to cook bacon. I really don’t know. I flip my pre-cooked bacon a lot because it makes me feel more like Emeril, and when it’s warm, I take it out of the pan and yell, “BAM!”
Eventually, the oil in your potato pan should start crackling and bubbling. This is good. Check your potatoes, and flip them until they are brown and crackly on both sides. This is how they should look:
I sprinkled some salt and pepper on my potatoes as they were frying. If you use garlic powder, you could also put it on your potatoes at this point.
Now you’re in normal grilled cheese territory. Take one of your slices of bread and butter both sides of it (yeah, that’s right. Both sides. Secret McPherson technique!), placing a slice of cheese on it. I use Kraft Singles because a) I believe them to be superior to all other cheeses in the world and b) gouda/goat cheese/edam/other Dutch cheeses do not melt as well, and you really need that melty sensation for grilled cheese.
Go ahead and lay all the slices of your potato on top of the cheese, making sure that you’ve blotted the grease and oil off of them. Stack your blotted bacon on top of that.
Then, take your other slice of bread and butter both sides of it. Put cheese on it. Put it on top of your sandwich, and you’re done!
Well, not really. You need to cook it. So, do that. Cook it like a grilled cheese. I restrained myself from flipping it too often in order to keep the potatoes on the sandwich.
And then you’re done!
Y’all, I am not joking: this sandwich was a religious experience. It tasted exactly like a baked potato, only in sandwich form. It was perfect.
Here are some pictures of me alone with my sandwich.
Make this sandwich immediately. It’s awesome ‘cause it’s like a billion food groups at once: dairy, grain, meat, vegetable. I ate mine with some apple slices to hit fruit, too, which is like ALL OF THE FOOD GROUPS, YOU GUYS.
Except junk food, which is why I’m off to eat some Ben and Jerry’s now.
Thanks for the link and recommendation, Sydney!