waffled by cheese

After my success with cinnamon rolls and toast, I was feeling pretty confident about my waffle skills. At about eleven o'clock in the morning one day, I started to feel a little hungry. When I looked in my fridge I found a slice of processed cheese, a slice of deli mozzarella, some wilted lettuce, a bottle of beer,  half a loaf of bread and some mushrooms that were about to go stems up. I figured why not try a grilled cheese and mushroom sandwich in the waffle iron?
Since I wasn't making the traditional grilled cheese I didn't need butter, but I wondered if mayo would be good to put on the inside.

to mayo or not to mayo?

                                                      I mean, how would that taste while being grilled?  I assembled a half sandwich with mayo to try it out. I added a slice of the processed cheese and a few mushrooms. Then, I placed the creation on the heated waffle iron and closed the lid. Shortly after, I heard a lot of crackling and popping going on between the irons. When I lifted to lid to investigate, cheese was giving out on all sides and creeping out toward the edges of the waffle iron. At least now I knew what the commotion was. I wasn't sure if I should close the lid or not, so I did. What more could happen, right? More crackling and popping pursued so I removed the mess and river of cheese that would not coagulate or crisp. Ok, so processed cheese is no good. Got it.

When I assembled the next sandwich, I used the deli mozzarella, mayo and mushrooms. I placed the new sandwich on the irons and closed the lid. This time crackling and popping was very minimal. I peeked inside after about a minute to see that the cheese had oozed out but was crisping. I closed the lid and waited another minute. Now I lifted the lid and found a perfectly cooked waffle-shaped grilled cheese. My only problem now was, what, if anything, should I put in the "flavor holes"? If I had been able to use deli Cheddar, then I think a nice apple jelly would have been good. Since I had mozzarella, I think some marinara would have been good, but I didn't have any. Put that on the grocery list for next time.

So, in conclusion, I don't recommend processed cheeses, but deli slices seem to work great. The first sandwich gets a half of a square out of 4 and the second gets a 3, only because I didn't have anything to fill the "flavor holes".

the river of uncoagulating cheese

the good sandwich!