​SALUTE TO THE GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICH

Excerpted from Homegrown, by Mairlyn Smith. Reprinted with permission of Whitecap Books, 2015.

Get your Canada day brunch started with a build your own grilled cheese bar. Gather ingredients from some of the delicious Canadian combinations below and the spread will  be a hit! Comment to let us know your favourite combo!

Grilled cheese sandwiches are about as Canadian as you can get and without a doubt one of our favourite comfort foods. Here are 10 ingenious spins by the members of OHEA, all made with Canadian cheeses:

• Old cheddar with a Branston pickle on homemade multigrain bread. (Susan Donaldson, PHEc)

• Applewood smoked cheddar, maple mustard and thinly sliced red onion on sourdough bread. (Heather Howe, PHEc)

• Mild white cheddar, Granny Smith apple slices and crisply cooked bacon on sourdough bread, served with homemade sweet tomato relish. (Evelyn Hullah, PHEc)

• Sliced Havarti—plain or Jalapeno—with crispy bacon and lots of thin slices of ripe pear, on the Good Bread Company’s Walnut Whole Wheat bread (made in Vittoria, Ontario) and served with spiced red wine jelly. (Mary Etta McGraw, PHEc)

• Extra old cheddar, sliced homegrown tomatoes and sliced dill pickles on caraway/rye bread. (Margaret Murray, PHEc)

• Brie, sliced pear and peach chutney on pumpernickel bread. (Linda M. Reasbeck, PHEc)

• Brie, sliced Granny Smith apple, a few dried cranberries and a slice of roasted turkey on multigrain bread. (Jennifer Rennie, PHEc)

• Mozzarella, sliced tomato and fresh basil leaves on pumpernickel bread. (Stephanie Varriano, RD, PHEc)

• Swiss with kosher dills on pumpernickel. (Susan Wheatley, PHEc)
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• Thinly sliced Niagara Gold with sliced red onions and spinach leaves on homemade Sour Cream bread. (Nicoline Williams, PHEc)