Left-over Gruyère and Cider Fondue Sandwich

This post is in honor of Kathy's Grilled Cheese Pageant at her blog Panini Happy.

She gave plenty of time for all to enter. I had some great thoughts and ideas. Who doesn't love grilled cheese. And it is SO easy! But with my own "Open House", Easter etc... Time danced quickly away from me and the last minute was nearing. I didn't have everything I needed to make a Croque Monsieur like I wanted. I didn't have fresh mozzarella so my favorite tomato, basil, mozzarella was out. Plus that is fairly common. The good news? I had some left-over cheese fondue. Maybe I could do something with that. And I had some homemade bread. But when I woke up, there was NOT much of that even left! Paul had eaten some for breakfast.

So what you see above is ALL of the bread left in the house! The filling is left over fondue from Easter. I had made Bon Appetit's Gruyère and Cider Fondue from the March issue for an Easter appetizer. It was fantastic on Easter and I hated to throw away the left-overs, but each time I stared at the sad lump of cheese in my refrigerator, I was uninspired. The pageant was a good opportunity to use it. It was a more spreadable texture given the alcohol it was cooked with. And it did not look very appetizing at first. As it cooked though, the cheese gained back some of its sheen and melted around my panini press. Still it didn't look all that pretty. I paired it with bacon as originally I served it with sausage and thought it was a nice change yet complimentary. It was good. But something seemed missing. Maybe the bacon should have been inside?

I wish I had taken photos of the original fondue. It was great paired with bread (of course), small potatoes, green apples and kielbasa sausage. But we were so busy with the Easter egg hunt, scavenger hunt, jumping on the trampoline, eating candy, visiting with relatives, swimming, two big birthdays (my sister's 40th and my cousin's 30th, and eating more treats and goodies than anyone needs, that I totally got sidetracked and forgot!

Yes! My son opened all of his Easter eggs and candy onto the trampoline and began to eat and then jump, eat and then jump. Everyone was cracking up! He is SUCH a Dennis the Menace!

Click on the collage to see the images better if you like!