November 28, 2007
 

Hoping for
a Cheesy Winter

Cold weather.  Finally.  The fall just past bordered on discouraging to frigid weather fans. Day after day of 65 and sunny made winter seem AWOL.  But now, thanks to a Canadian chill that rolled into the Rockies, the best season of all is at hand. 

Not only did last week’s temperature dip bring the lung tingling delight of frosty mornings, but also heralded the opening of soup season.  True, one can experience “is it soup yet?”  any time of the year.  But it’s those wonderful blustery, slate gray, twenty-degree days of winter that supercharge the taste buds into max efficiency and bring out the full flavor of split pea, cream of potato or beef stew.   

The ultimate winter soup, the crème de la crème of the broth and bisque set, has to be tomato.  Especially when paired with a grilled cheese sandwich.  They go together like Abbot and Costello, St. Paul and Minneapolis or Hill and Bill.   

Winter naysayers continually sing the praises of fall, relishing autumn as perfect for not only outdoor activities but also cool evening meals on the patio.  What the unending spell of sunny days actually accomplished was to delay the transition from bacon, lettuce and tomato to gooey, bursting with cheddar or jack, grilled cheese in the “mmm good” world of sandwiches. 

Warm weather foods reflect their season, all mellow and lazy.  Baseball on the radio accompanied by potato salad, Olathe sweet and burgers from the barbie washed down with a cold, frosty Guinness, are tastes to soothe the soul on a warm summer day. 

But the foods of winter almost command one to get out there and get after it.  Let’s hear it for the perfect winter day. Start with scalding hot oatmeal accompanied by toast coated in peanut butter.  After a breakfast at dawn, head out the door and into the hills for a day of cutting “freshies” through new powder in the back bowls of Vail or the trees of Snowmass’ Big Burn.  This perfect day would only be interrupted by a noon break for beef stew and black bread.  Following 8 hours of champagne powder what better way to relax than amid a hot tub’s gurgles while sipping Jamison’s on the rocks.  Then comes dinnertime hopefully with comfort foods like meatloaf and mashies plus a salad overloaded with olive oil and feta, all highlighted by a robust red.  Forget about streets of gold, this is the heavenly environment hopefully awaiting winter aficionados on the other side. 

Last Friday, following Thanksgiving with the clan, was a perfect early winter Denver day.  Gray skies, snow spitting on the landscape and a wind gusting out of the north announced to one and all it was grilled cheese weather. 

A suggestion was made to wander towards Chedd’s Gourmet Grilled Cheese Restaurant, a Pearl Street eatery where the menu is limited to a wide variety of grilled cheese sandwiches.  

The idea met some resistance. “Let me get this straight, I couldn’t have heard correctly. You want to walk over ten blocks through the cold, in blowing snow, dodging traffic at every intersection, for a grilled cheese sandwich?”