Foodbuzz 24x24: Grilled Cheese, Please! Party

A grilled cheese sandwich is such a simple thing... or is it?! At first thought, it may be simple enough. With two slices of bread and some cheese, how much simpler could it get? Well, I think there's much more to a grilled cheese sandwich so I hosted a special Grilled Cheese, Please! Party with family and friends. This party was all about taking the very simple grilled cheese sandwich and elevating it to something even more special. With an assortment of both sweet and savory fillings, we all gave the traditional grilled cheese sandwich a tasty makeover.

To make our event even more special, FoodBuzz is featuring our Grilled Cheese, Please! Party for their May 24x24 Food Event. The FoodBuzz's 24x24 Food Event showcases food blog posts from 24 Foodbuzz Featured Publisher bloggers of 24 unique meals occurring around the globe during a 24-hour period. I was thrilled to be featured this month!

 

Our party was all about the comforting grilled cheese sandwich, with a twist! We all know and love the traditional grilled cheese sandwich made with buttered white bread and American cheese slices. However, at our party, guests got their creative culinary juices flowing while making tasty sweet and savory variations of grilled cheese sandwiches with our Sweet & Savory Grilled Cheese Sandwich Bar. For our savory grilled cheese sandwich bar, we had...

Many might think grilled cheese sandwiches are more of a savory dish but there's also a sweet side to this simple sandwich! For our sweet grilled cheese sandwich bar, we had...

 

We set up two grilled cheese stations - one for savory sandwiches and the other for sweet sandwiches....

Before we got to work in the kitchen, each of our guests were given their very own apron which we made especially for the party. It was our little party favor to also encourage them to make interesting grilled cheese sandwiches at home! 

Even my son was pretty excited about watching the big kids make their sandwiches while he noshed on an ungrilled sandwich of his own...

We had the kids kick things off since they were pretty excited about making their own creation with the various ingredients available. And because we had so many fillings to offer, we encouraged our guests to make more than one sandwich. In order for our guests to take advantage of this, we had them make 1/2 sandwiches instead of whole ones. (But of course, they were more than welcome to make whole sandwiches if they wanted!)

As each person made their sandwich, adults were on hand to man the oven and help the kids put together their sandwiches. Because of the number of sandwiches being made, we baked our sandwiches in the oven. Doing so allowed each sandwich to toast up perfectly and slowly melt all the fillings together.

As our savory sandwiches were baking, we started making our sweet dessert sandwiches. It was great seeing the reaction on the kids' faces when I told them grilled cheese sandwiches could be sweet depending on what ingredients they used. They had a blast making up their sweet sandwiches as seen in these pics...

By the time the savory sandwiches were done baking, the sweet sandwiches were ready for the oven... and we could finally try our first batch of tasty creations! Perfect timing, I'd say! As we plated our savory sandwiches, we got to help ourselves to the buffet of meal accompaniments I prepared. Besides, having these amazing sandwiches wouldn't be complete with accompaniments!

Here's our complete menu in addition to the sandwiches we made:

 

After finishing up our savory sandwiches, we were pretty full. However, we still managed to make room for dessert! Our sweet grilled cheese sandwiches were fresh out of the oven and as they cooled, I got out some homemade ice creams I made (chocolate & vanilla). The ice cream went so well with our sweet grilled cheese sandwiches... and the kids especially loved the contrast in textures and temperatures. (Although my little guy wasn't so sure how to dig in...)

Overall, it was a deliciously successful party! Everyone had a wonderful time making their sandwiches, trying out new ingredients and flavor combinations. The best part was that everyone has a better appreciation of grilled cheese sandwiches and we've been able to open their mind and palates to other tastier ways to make them! Stay tuned to recipes for some of the menu items I prepared for our Grilled Cheese, Please! Party this coming week...