Back on My Feet Grilled Cheese

Today, a cheese tribute.

This grilled cheese goes out to a reader named Carly, who emailed me from Back on My Feet, an organization that – in very loose terms – sets up solidarity-based running clubs around homeless shelters.

A number of my friends are part of this movement. They get up before dawn, drive to a city shelter, and run with whoever is waiting on the porch. The idea is to promote self-sufficiency among homeless men, but the group also serves to generate activism around homelessness and recovery.

Since the group formed in Philly back in ‘07 – thanks to a lone runner named Anne Mahlum -- chapters have popped up in other cities. Boston, Dallas, D.C.

If you see someone running in pajamas this weekend or a group of runners who glow in the dark, it’s all part of the group’s fundraising relays. All weekend long, their 20in24 events will be underway around the Philadelphia Art Museum.

Since Stroehmann’s Bread is the event sponsor, I accepted a loaf and made this sandwich. I wanted to choose an appropriate cheese – something with a little oomph, a wedge with attitude.

I considered Pondhopper, for the name. Then, I thought about cheeses that smell like feet. But that didn’t bode well. After much mulling, I chose a cheese with chutzpah, a spicy puppy called No Woman, from Beecher’s Handmade Cheese in Seattle.

No Woman, named after the Bob Marley song, is a sharp cheddar laced with jerk spices. Add a shmear of sundried tomatoes, and this grilled cheese sandwich is sweet and spicy. Imagine a few reggae beats as you bite in, and you may feel the call to start running.

Cheers to Carly and everyone out at the Back on My Feet relays this weekend.  

Back on My Feet Grilled Cheese

4 slices No Woman, or pepperjack 

Sundried tomato spread

2 slices wheat bread, a la Stroehmann's

1 tsp. olive oil  and 1 tsp. butter, for frying

1. Make a sandwich of sundried tomatoes and sliced cheese.

2. Add olive oil and butter to a hot skillet over medium heat. (The olive oil will keep the butter from burning).

3. Fry up sandwich. You may want to cover it so the cheese melts.

4. Eat. Reflect.