By Shane Kearns, Grilled Shane
Ingredients for butternut squash & cranberry orange chevre pumpkin bread grilled cheese…
Spiced Butternut Squash
Mackenzie Creamery Cranberry Orange Chèvre
Pillsbury Quick Bread Pumpkin Bread
The cheese: mackenzie creamery cranberry orange chèvre
After trying Mackenzie’s Toasted Pumpkin Chèvre , I thought, why not try another Mackenzie original for this year’s Thanksgiving grilled cheese sandwich? Cranberry Orange sounds, at least to me, very festive and Thanksgiving-like. It seemed like a perfect base for a Thanksgiving grilled cheese sandwich. Plus, it was 50 cents off at our local grocery store, Heinen’s . Not a bad deal.
I won’t bore you with the details of chèvre (aka goat cheese ), but I will tell you about this particular cheese. This cranberry orange chèvre was creamy and had a nice tart, strong flavor to it. (It worked really well with the other ingredients/bread of this grilled cheese. More on that later.) I am still not sure if there were cranberries mixed up and large pieces or just pieces, but that is irrelevant. The cheese really is fantastic and was a perfect choice for this sandwich.
The bread: pillsbury quick bread pumpkin bread
Besides making beer bread in January, I haven’t made bread since the family bought a Sunbeam bread maker about 10-15 years ago. Those were the days! When I was at Heinen’s and saw the Orange Cranberry Chèvre, I also saw a pumpkin bread kit. I thought, hmmm, why not make pumpkin bread for this year’s Thanksgiving grilled cheese? The sous chef returned to Heinen’s while I was working, asked about the kit and the clerk actually said that Pillsbury Quick Bread mix is a better choice and what he uses. I would say he is 100% correct. The pumpkin bread had the perfect mix of flavor and spice without being too strong or overpowering. Fantastic enough that I have continually been nibbling on the leftovers…
This may not be that much of a secret ingredient, but when baking and the recipe calls for water, the sous chef mixes some orange juice with the water. She says it adds something. I personally don’t know the difference since I have grown up on it so you will have to let me know what you think.
The ingredient: spiced butternut squash
Whole Foods gave me this idea when I saw they had butternut squash on sale. It is a very fall-like ingredient and not something I have used much at all. This was the third and final piece to this year’s Thanksgiving grilled cheese.
After baking the squash to get it soft on the inside, it was time to add the many secret ingredients.
Included with the squash in a sauté pan was cinnamon, nutmeg and some of Mackenzie’s Cranberry Orange Chèvre. (I added cheese to the squash and separately on the sandwich.) I warmed it just a bit until all the ingredients were mixed thoroughly. I didn’t measure any of the added spice/cheese, just added until I personally thought it tasted good.
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