When I was a kid, my dad used to always make us his famous grilled cheese with a can of peaches on top. To this day, I can’t imagine eating grilled cheese without peaches. But back then I remember all my friends being completely baffled by the idea of peaches on a grilled cheese. “That’s what poor people do,” I recall one child critically saying… clearly that kid didn’t end up following the wild adventures of anything Anthony Bourdain. Have fun in your boring existence, kid. I decided to take one of my favorite childhood meals and turn it into a fancy version… you guys know how I like fancy.
Childhood Grilled Cheese and Peaches
Truth be told, I don’t know where this dish is ‘from.’ It has a healthy bit of Japanese sake, some Georgia peaches, French thyme charm, and Greek feta flatbread. Sometimes that need to define a dish stops me from posting it, but I’m working to shed that compulsion. In reality, this dish is just a leveled up peach grilled cheese from my childhood… it can kind of take you anywhere. Like one of those romantic cliff hanger books where they never tell you if they end up together in the end… maybe it’s up to your own imagination. Maybe not everything has to be defined, and it can just be what it is and up to each person to decide what that means to them.
Joys of Japanese Sake
If you don’t keep a bottle of Japanese sake stashed in the darkest corner of your cabinet, I highly urge you to start. Often times I skip the rice vinegar or the white wine for a flare of Japanese sake and it never proves a mistake. Sake is alcoholic fermented rice drink that you can sip on (never done as a shot…we are not frat boys) or use to cook with. I stopped drinking over 2 years ago (wild how time flies when you’re thinking clearly), but I still romanticize the aroma of a warm sake rushing through my body on foggy asian street corner. For this flatbread, I simmer fresh peaches in the cast iron with a healthy portion of sake, thyme, and ground peppercorns. I absolutely cannot wait for you to try this.
Vegan Feta Cheese Brands
If there is one type of cheese that vegans know how to make… its feta. There are many recipes out there for you to make your own, or you can simply go buy some. Trader Joes has a great block of feta that I like to crumble for this flatbread. The larger grocery stores carry brands like Follow Your Heart or Violife which are 100% plant based vegan. This is not a difficult cheese to find and one of my favorites to use- who thought that being vegan meant not eating Caprese Salads anymore? Hardly.
I’ve always felt like daydreaming is just the minds way of leading you down the path you’re suppose to follow. As we get older, the imagination is pounded out of us. Sometimes it’s in a graceful coming of age, as you’re rewarded with this delicate pat on the head for walking down narrow pathway. Other times, it is not so graceful. Like a thousand barreling trains coming at you from all angles trying to push you on this path that you never asked to be a part of. But if you just trust in yourself, the trains start to disappear after awhile. I think they call that freedom? The point is, don’t even lose that part of you that likes to eat peaches pouring over a grilled cheese.
“Darling, don’t quit your daydream.”
Lily Meola
