Comfort Food for a Rainy Day

Today was the perfect day for some yummy comfort food. It was a cold, wet day in Georgia, so we warmed things up inside with an all-time favorite that even Ethan gobbles up every time - tomato soup and grilled cheese. I have changed things up a bit though from how I ate it as a kid. Don't get me wrong, I still like American cheese on wheat sandwich bread with condensed tomato soup. I grew up on it! But, I have found a way to make it a bit more fancy...perfect for a nice family meal and even one that I would serve to company! :)

I recently discovered Campbell's Select Zesty Tomato Bisque soup. I love that it has nice, big chunks of tomato in it and some great seasoning to give it that zesty kick it needs. To perfect it, I add a bit of heavy whipping cream (probably 1/8 - 1/4 cup per can) to it while it is heating on the stovetop. It gives it a great creamy texture and richness. Once I dish it into the bowl, I add a sprinkling of shredded parmesan cheese to the top. It looks pretty and tastes yummy too. There's no such thing as too much cheese in a meal, right?

For my grilled cheese sandwiches, I like using Publix's white mountain bread, which can be found fresh in their bakery. It is incredible. I will definitely shed a few tears when I have to leave Publix behind for our move north. :'( I am hoping they continue to open new stores in TN, as they can only be found in the Chattanooga area right now. I generously butter each slice of bread. For Ethan's sandwich, I use good old American cheese because he likes it. For the adults, I use asiago cheese, sliced fresh in the deli. I love asiago cheese. Side note: We don't usually eat fast food much, but with all the traveling we have done in the last few months, we have had our share of it. My absolute favorite right now is Wendy's asiago ranch chicken sandwich. So tasty! Anyway...for my sandwiches, I get two thick slices of cheese for each sandwich. When it melts, it melds together the two pieces of bread perfectly. I use a grill pan on the stovetop to cook my sandwiches and give them those perfect grill marks. The sandwich is absolutely heavenly with the smooth, mild, gooey, creamy cheese sandwiched between the crisp, buttery pieces of bread. Yuuuuuum. The perfect comfort meal for today! Notice how ooey, gooey that cheese is! :)

Even Ethan's little meal was looking yummy! :)

To top it all off, Ethan and I decided to make dessert earlier in the day. I love double chocolate Ghirardelli brownies. I have blogged about them in the past. They really don't need anything extra to make them delicious, but there is one thing that can make chocolate even better...peanut butter. Oh yes. I decided to make a peanut butter cream cheese icing to put on top of the brownies to kick them up a notch. :) To make the icing, I used about 2 ounces of cream cheese (softened in the microwave for 1 minute on 50% power), about 1/4 - 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter, about 1/4 cup granulated sugar and a splash of milk to thin it out some. I didn't actually measure anything, but just added stuff until I got something that tasted good. :) I mixed everything together until it was the consistency that I wanted. When it was time to eat them, I spread some of the icing on each brownie individually. Heaven.

What's your favorite comfort food on a cold, rainy day?