Happy Saturday, O-HI-30 readers!  I am currently waiting on my dear friend Cullen (and fellow spin instructor!) to arrive from Cleveland.  We are going to the OSU game tonight, a somewhat annual tradition that we’re both really looking forward to.  I’m not sure if we’ll meet up with friends for a beer on campus before the game, or enjoy a nice red wine dinner like the 31-year-olds we are 🙂  Either way, it’s sure to be fun!

I don’t have much time, but thought I’d try quick blogging as opposed to the 1.5-2 hour posts that I’m accustomed to.  Something is better than nothing, right?!

I’ve been working nights this past week.  My shifts at Northstar Cafe are either open (7-4, in theory) or close (3-12, in theory), and are typically varied throughout the week.  But sometimes I have a string of days or a string of nights in a row, as I did this past week.  Tuesday – Friday I closed, which means my days looked something like this:  wake up around 8:30-9, exercise, run an errand or two or meet a friend for lunch (I had lunch with my old co-workers on Wednesday!), and go into work around 2:30.  Get home around 12:15-30, eat, and go to bed around 1.  Repeat.  Basically, everything I used to do in the evenings after work I do in the mornings before work.  Not too shabby.

Since I’m eating a meal around 1-1:30 before I go into work, it’s no surprise that by the time I get home after midnight I’m starving.  We don’t take formal meal breaks like I did in the corporate world, which is something I’ve adjusted to easier than I expected (future post).  We simply can’t stop serving dinner to our guests just because we want to eat our own!  Of course, there is always time to step away after the dinner rush to drink a quick smoothie (we make them fresh) or house a granola bar – or one of our amazing, butter laden cookies (I had more than my fair share this week).  But even so, I’m always ready for something more substantial when I finally get home after a long day.

Enter this grilled cheese sandwich.  And I’m not talking just any old grilled cheese.  I’m talking grilled cheese, Laurie Chait style – I could write a whole post on my Mom’s grilled cheese sandwiches!  But I have Bobby Flay to credit with this idea (sorry, Mom).  On Wednesday morning when I was getting ready for work, rather than watch CNN as I should, I watched Cooking Channel’s “Brunch at Bobby’s”, one of my favorite shows.  Bobby Flay’s (or as my dad pronounces it, Filet) food always looks SO good.  On Wednesday, he made a grilled cheese sandwich with apples and brie on cinnamon raisin bread.  Sweet & Savory!  Brilliant!

So when I got home after work on Wednesday and was contemplating what to eat, I realized that I actually had cinnamon raisin bread, thanks to my Mom who brought me some from a local bakery (they make the BEST bread.  The cinnamon raisin and english muffin bread are my favorites).  And I also had cheddar cheese.  And honey crisp apples!  And this amazing grilled cheese was born.

Just thinly slice up half an apple or so, butter your bread, and layer on your cheese and apples.  I also added a very thin smear of mustard, because everything is better with a little mustard.  Grill over medium-low heat for ~5 min per side (patience is key here), until the cheese is melted and the bread toasty but not burnt.  Enjoy while catching up on your favorite blogs (O-HI-30, perhaps?), then crawl into bed full and happy.

What’s your favorite late-night snack?