Food Hacks
Grilled Cheese Sandwich
Let me slip in a couple of food hacks here. I want you to think differently about how to do things. I am encouraging you to think differently about everything! You can do this! It’s easy once you practice it!
Let’s start with the traditional Grilled Cheese Sandwich. Everybody’s favorite comfort food. Seriously, who doesn’t love a hot bowl of tomato soup and an American cheese, perfectly grilled cheese sandwich on a cold winter day?
I’ll be right back. I am going to make one now.
OK… I am back. That was really good!
Problem
However, if you’ve ever attempted to make the perfect grilled cheese, you know it’s always burnt on the outside and cold on the inside. the cheese is never melted or the bread is burnt. That’s because you keep making it the way you mother showed you. She messed you up!
Solution
Let’s take a close look at what makes a great grilled cheese good. You want the bread to be crispy and the cheese to be hot and melty. Let’s start with the bread.
What you really want is the sugars in the bread to “caramelize”. It’s the heating of the sugars that cause that crispy crunch and dark color. Oh yeah, a ton of butter also helps add to the flavor.
Just Ask Paula Deen about butter.
So how do you get the caramelization, which doesn’t take long, but still transfer enough heat to the center, enough to melt the cheese? Cook them separately. Have you ever heard of Texas Toast? It’s where you make the toast on a griddle, not under heat.
To make the perfect grilled cheese, take the two slices of bread, butter one side and place them butter side down in an iron skillet. You can cook that nearly as hot as you like. I cook mine on “4”. Check it from time to time and bring it to that perfect brown texture and taste.
Once browned (caramelized), take one slice and put it brown side down on a plate., add your cheese, now place the remaining slice on top, brown side up. Place that in the microwave for 30 to 45 seconds and when you open the door… You have a perfect grilled cheese! Sandwich!
Try it yourself and let me know if you can tell the difference. If you think outside of the bread, you will never burn a grilled cheese again.
Taco Bell
One of my favorite Taco Bell commercials they have done is the talking Chihuahua. It’s was one of my favorite and I never gave it a thought about being offensive. I thought he was cool.
One of Taco Bell’s advertising campaigns was “Think Outside Of The Bun”. I love it! If you look at nearly every fast food restaurant on earth, their main food source is always severed on a bun; McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Jack-in-the-Box, Carl’s Jr., all of them. With undisclosed meat on a bun.
Taco Bell appealed to those who wanted something different from the same old fast food. They needed a way to differentiate themselves from the competition. The thing that made them completely different, was there’s never a bun. You got to love those Madison Avenue types! I don’t hear the campaign anymore. It must have offended someone with big buns and they were forced to remove it.
I also liked their “Tacos In The Bank!” slogan. It was a good metaphor for investing in the future. Anytime something doesn’t work for me, I just say “Tacos In The Bank!”, because I know it will pay off someday.
Lon Safko
Serial Innovator, Keynote Speaker, Trainer, Innovative Thinking
Tags: innovative thinking, creative, creative thinking, Innovation, critical thinking definition, innovation definition, critical thinking skills, creative process