Fig and Brie Grilled Cheese

Remember when I told you that food in Hawaii is expensive?  It is, I promise.  If you're really in the mood to go broke, just stop by the organic, all-natural, vegetarian friendly, hippie-type stores around town and your wallet will be empty faster than you can say "Alooooha"!

Last night, I did just that.  My debit card and I stopped by at Down to Earth and picked up 4 items: an iced tea for immediate gratification, a small carton of figs, a small jar of sun dried tomatoes, and a bag of chocolate flavored chips.  The damage: $20.01!

Figs are a food that are near and dear to my heart.  My Pap Pap always grew figs in his yard and we used to love eating them together.  I constantly miss Pap, but have been thinking about him even more so this week while making some BIG life changes, more on that in a few days :)  It hurt to pay $7.99 for about 10 figs, but I did it anyway for good measure!

Meanwhile, back home in the fridge, I had some brie cheese leftover from the mini brie-stuffed turkey burgers.  That's 2 of my all time favorite items!  I had to find a way to combine figs and brie...

Today during my lunch hour, while perusing through the farmer's market downtown, I spotted this roasted garlic loaf and had to have it!

No longer did I ponder what to make.  It was certain that a fig and brie grilled cheese on roasted garlic loaf would be my dinner tonight!

The loaf of bread was (physically) very heavy and the aroma of roasted garlic filled my office all afternoon!  Needless to say it's lingering on my breath now and I'll have to brush twice before bed.

After meticulously slicing the bread, brie, and figs, I was ready to get started.  Just look at the garlic cloves in the bread - yum!

Do you need to be reminded to use real butter for a grilled cheese sandwich?  I didn't think so.  Over medium-low heat, layer the brie on the bread.

Add the figs and let it melt!

After a few minutes, top the sandwich and flip to cook the other side.

There you have it: a fig and brie grilled cheese on roasted garlic bread!

The brie was melted just perfectly and the garlic from the bread put the flavor over the top!  After a few seconds you taste the richness from the figs and the butter from the outside of the crispy bread.  I'm not sure if I'll ever enjoy a regular-old-American-on-white-bread grilled cheese ever again!

This is truly the best grilled cheese I've ever had!  It's filled with expensive and indulgent ingredients so a quality sandwich was expected, but this was really quite impressive.  I was very pleased with the combination I'd thrown together and savored the sandwich slowly, enjoying every bite and celebrating my yummy sandwich and my recent success!