This is straight up comfort food, y’all! Moving from South Carolina to Colorado was tough enough, but there are some things that Coloradans don’t get the pleasure of enjoying, two of them being Cheerwine soda and Duke’s Mayonnaise.

One thing they do get the pleasure of enjoying is Palmetto Cheese, one of God’s delicacies. If you know how to make your own pimento cheese by all means do that, but if you think that pimento cheese that rhymes with “Booth’s” is real, you’ve been sorely mislead.

Just like my last post, a good grilled cheese is all about how you cook it!

Ingredients:

• Texas Toast
• Palmetto Cheese, regular or jalapeno. Whatever you like.
• One or two Roma tomatoes
• Applewood Smoked Bacon
• Unsalted Butter or whatever you have on hand

Tools:

• Cast Iron Skillet
• Electric Griddle like this one
• Flexible Metal Spatula
• Butter Knife
• Cutting Board

Directions:

1. Begin by turning on your electric griddle to 400 or as high as it will go, leave it alone while it warms up.
2. In a cast iron skillet, cook your bacon on medium low (level four) on your stove. I like to cook my bacon “low and slow” to avoid burning it and smoking out the house. It also helps control splatter outside of the pan. Cook the bacon to your liking, remove and drain on a plate with a paper towel to remove excess grease from bacon. Turn oven off and sit skillet aside.
3. Once the bacon is done, turn your attention to your grilled cheese. This is where the magic happens. Begin by taking a small amount of butter from the block and cutting it in half down the middle. You’ll use one dollop for each piece of bread. By now your griddle should be piping out. Add butter, moving it around the griddle with the knife until it’s almost completely melted. Take your Texas Toast and add it to the griddle. Cook your bread until it’s golden on the bottom, check it every few minutes.
4. Remove the bread from the griddle and place on a cutting board, golden side up. Take both sides of the bread and spread on the Palmetto Cheese and add the bacon on top. On the other piece add the tomato.
5. Slice off some more butter and add it back to the griddle. Move the butter around to make a large working area for the sandwich.
6. Take your bread and add it back to the griddle, with the uncooked side on the bottom. As the sandwich continues to cook, the heat will rise through the bread, melting the cheese. Once almost golden on the bottoms, I join the sandwich sides together and finish cooking it.
7. When done, remove, cut diagonally and serve immediately and enjoy.

This south in your mouth goes well with tomato soup. Use any kind you like. Instead of water, I use milk to make my soup creamy. To each their own though.

If you’re feeling adventurous:

Substitute the Roma tomatoes with some fried green tomatoes, it will not disappoint you. You will want to make the fried green tomatoes first, or have someone help you make them 5 - 10 minutes before the sandwiches so they are piping hot when you eat them. Your call.