Grilled Cheese with Kale and Caramelized Onions

Happy Emancipation Day, everyone! Hope you're all enjoying your day off as much as I'm enjoying mine! Wait...Emancipation Day isn't a federal holiday? Only DC government employees get the day off? And I'm the only one of my friends who gets to stay home today? Oh man. That sucks, guys. (I love you all, don't kill me!)

Anyway, being at home all day isn't as great you'd think. Dan had to go to work, so it's just me and the cats. The furry little bastards woke me up at 8:30am and wrecked my plans to sleep in, and now that I'm awake and bored, they have mysteriously disappeared. So now I'm tired, bored, and grouchy. Ugh. 

Well, if I can't be well rested, I can at least be well fed. One perk of being at home all day is that I get to cook myself something delicious for lunch instead of buying a cold sandwich or salad at the cafeteria. My lunch decision today is inspired by this website, which my friend Smriti sent me yesterday. Forty unique grilled cheese sandwiches? Drool. And considering that about half the sandwiches featured on the website came from Kevin of Closet Cooking, and I had already previously bookmarked a bunch of his grilled cheese recipes to try...well, it's pretty obvious that I was going to have to make a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch.

I haven't eaten a grilled cheese sandwich in years. Probably not since high school. What was I thinking? These things are delicious! Toasted bread and melted cheese are delicious in every instance, but when you throw some onions and kale into the mix (because you're feeling guilty about eating cheese sandwiched between buttered bread)...kaboom. Flavor and texture explosion! 

Grilled Cheese with Kale and Caramelized Onions

Ingredients:

- 2 slices of bread (I like whole wheat, but any other kind should work)
- 3 slices Colby Jack cheese (Obviously, you can use whatever cheese you want)
- 3 slices Butterkase cheese
- 1 large fistful of kale
- 1 tbsp mayonnaise
- As much chopped onion as you feel  like eating

Steps:

(1) In a large pan, cook onions until caramelized. Then, throw your kale into the pan with the onions and cook until just wilted. Set aside.

(2) Slather each side of both slices of bread with mayo. (Yup, mayo. Weird, but delicious. I got this idea from a Salon.com article)

(3) Toast both slices of bread on one side until lightly brown. Then, flip each slice over and layer cheese on the freshly toasted side. Colby Jack cheese on one slice, Butterkase on the other. 

(4) Spoon kale/onion mixture on top of the cheese on one slice of bread, then place the other slice, cheese-side down, on top. Press the whole thing down with a spatula, then flip the sandwich over.

(5) Finish toasting the other side of the sandwich, then pull off the pan. Cut in half and eat while hot and gooey.

One year ago: Simple Artisanal Bread