Trina regularly covers food at her site and Ann often grabs the topic at her site. We do a TEST Test Kitchen feature here. But that's not what this is.
Cheese, we all love cheese -- or most of us.
Growing up, my mom made the best grilled cheese sandwiches and then I got old enough to use the microwave. At which point, after school grilled cheese sandwiches were whenever I wanted. I'd make them for myself and my younger brother in the microwave. I'd toast four slices of bread in the toaster. Then I'd use a plate and put two pieces of toast down on it, drop two slices of cheese on -- one on each piece of toast -- and top each with the last two pieces of toast.
I'd put them next to each other and not on top of each other. Why? The bottom slices would be moist. No, I didn't like that but I wasn't going to give the bad one to my brother and I wasn't self-centered enough to grab the best one for myself. So I'd make it that way so that we both got the same sandwich.
I'd put the plate in the microwave and cook for one minute. That was enough.
And because it was easy to make and I could do it myself, I was excited and didn't really care or notice that the taste was less than what I'd become used to.
In the last month, I've learned another way to cook it.
I was on the phone with my mom and noting I wish I could grilled cheese like she did for my kids. She reminded me that she made it in the skillet on the oven and that she used butter. So I tried that, dropping butter in then putting two pieces of bread (non-toasted) in the skillet, topping each with a slice of cheese and then each with a second piece of bread. After browning the bottom slice of bread, I add more butter and flip each sandwich over.
And it actually works. However, two a skillet is rather slow and I lack the patience my mother had and has.
Lesson learned: Do not use an air fryer.
I thought that might make it quicker and I could fit two in my air fryer basket.
Even buttering the outside of the bread did not help. The bread was still dry, like toast, and flavorless, like toast.
Title of the piece is a riff on Wally Lamb -- his books I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE and WE ARE WATER.