{ranai}

Is there anything more comforting and amazingly melty than a grilled cheese sandwich? It is the perfect food that can be tailored to meet your breakfast, lunch, or dinner needs. We usually make more appetizer and snack type foods for New Year’s Eve, but this year decided to add in the magical world of a grilled cheese bar.

First: Grab some bread. I like sourdough for a grilled cheese, but there are a plethora of options. A firmer bread is better.

Second: Get yourself some cheese. I live next to a cheese factory that specializes in gouda so I picked up some black pepper and jalapeño goudas, as well as havarti, colby jack, brie, and sharp cheddar from other local stores. Next time I want to try some jalapeño cheddar!

Third: Add some fixins. We used two types of pepper jelly, fancy mustards, green apple, and avocado. You can go super crazy and add meat (like bacon!) and any other toppings, but we kept it pretty chill. I really wanted to just eat piles of cheese so I was happy. Do a Pinterest or google search to find amazing combinations of flavors.

Fourth: Build and cook that sandwich! I like butter spread on the outside of the bread, some people like mayo inside and then just have puddles of melted butter in the pan for grilling. Do whatever floats your boat! I wish we had pictures of the sandwiches we assembled. We were just too enamored with the melty goodness to remember to pick the camera back up…oops!

Besides the grilled cheese we had pizza dip, salami, brie, crackers, grapes, bruschetta dip, and fresh berries.  We added a few cute decorations like the sign Jessica made for a festive night!