When Jhiva for Love was announced there was no doubt I had to dedicate it to my parents. My love for cooking has without doubt come from my mother, even when I was small she introduced me to international recipes, she would make the best ravioli from scratch at home and those days in India Italian was yet to catch up. I was and maybe am still a fussy eater, I would never eat what was made at home like if we had upma for breakfast and they put vegetables in it I would not eat it, I never liked most of the vegetables and till date do not like fruits. Being in a joint family I would always get you should learn to eat everything from everyone else, but mom would know and would always make something that I never fussed with a yummy Grilled cheese sandwich.

Papa who never entered the kitchen too, once when I was in the hospital after an accident, and would not eat the food there and mama could not go home to cook one day and get food came to the hospital with a big surprise. He had made a yummy grilled sandwich for me just so that I eat something and he knew I would not say no to a cheese sandwich. It was one of the best sandwiches I would have had that too from someone who never cooked.

The Grilled cheese sandwich has grown as I have from just amul cheese with salt and pepper to adding sun dried tomatoes. Here is one version of the grilled sandwich


Sun dried Tomatoes Grilled Sandwich



Ingredients
4 slices bread (I used rye bread as that was in hand on that day)
2 tbsp white sauce (recipe to follow)
chopped onions to taste
2 sun dried tomatoes, chopped (if using the dry ones, keep them in warm water for 10 minutes or as per the instructions)
2 tbsp olives, sliced
2 tbsp tomato ketchup
4 tbsp Cheddar cheese (feel free to use any kind of cheese available)
salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Apply white sauce to 2 slices of bread.
   
2. Top these 2 slices with the onions, sun dried tomatoes, olives, salt and pepper.
   
3. Apply ketchup to the other 2 slices and place them on the other 2 slices.
   
4. Grill them on the grill, sandwich toaster or on the tava.
   
5. Serve with extra ketchup or pudina chutney.
   

I was thinking that this would be a tribute to mama and papa who knew me the best and knew just the right thing to do to get a smile on my face, but I was in for a surprise. This weekend I was not too well and so could not cook anything so my husband ( my listen) offered to make dinner, his speciality being maggie noodles, an omelet or a sandwich which included mayonnaise and cucumbers. He asked me if he should make an omelet, I told him no since we just had one egg, he then said ok leave it to me. I usually would go in to investigate or help but this time was in no mood to do so, heard a lot of commotion in the kitchen but decided to just be happy that I am getting dinner. He came back with this yummy Egg Salad Grilled Sandwich, not sure if he read my mind or read this post which was in the drafts from one week but it reminded me of mama and papa and I could not complete this post by saying thanks to my husband too. Well he sat to explain how he came up with this egg salad, he used up all my left overs and emptied the fridge. So here goes the recipe

Egg Salad Grilled Sandwich



Ingredients
2 slices toasted bread
1 egg
4 tbsp white sauce (Recipe to follow)
chopped onions
4 romaine leaves
1/4 tsp garlic
1/4 tsp dry parsley
some ketchup
salt and pepper to taste.
little oil

1. Heat oil in a pan, add the garlic and onions. Fry till the onions are translucent.
   
2. Beat the egg and add it to the pan, stir in to scramble it.
   
3. Once the eggs are cooked add the white sauce, ketchup, dry parsley, salt and pepper. Cook till heated through.
   
4. Make the sandwich by placing the romaine leaves on a bread and then a big spoon of the egg salad. Top with the second slice of bread.
   
5. my husband served it with more romaine leaves and ketchup.
   

This post is a tribute to the 3 most important people in my life, who make life worth living. Thank you mama, papa and listen for being there for me in every step of life, god knows how I would deal with life if you guys were not around. Love you all. This is my contribution to the Jhiva For Love event hosted by Jigyasa and Prathiba.