I had to switch Thursday for Friday this week, so this week's Thursday Lunch Report is a Friday Lunch Report.  Mark your calendars accordingly.

Since it's the end of the week, I decided to use up the remaining workday sandwich meat, and spice it up a bit with some habanero cheddar and sweet hot mustard.

Today's lunch is Grilled Swiss and Habanero Cheddar with Ham.

2 slices of bread

Sweet Hot Mustard (or any other kind of your choosing, or even a little mayo)

Ham

Cheese (whatever you like and in any quantity)

Butter

Construct your sandwich by spreading the bread slices with mustard, then layering your ham and cheese (make sure the cheese contacts the bread - so cheese, ham, cheese).

When I was a novice in the ways of grilled cheese preparation, I used to try to butter the outside of the sandwich before adding it to the pan.  This never worked well and didn't provide enough butter coverage.  So, here's my proven technique:

Place a nonstick pan over high heat for at least 3 minutes.  Now, a lot of people probably use too much butter in their grilled cheese recipe, leading to a heavy, greasy mess.  You can get away with a tablespoon or less of butter.

When the pan is nice and hot, place a half tablespoon of butter into it and let it melt until the sizzling stops and the butter begins to brown.

Using a spatula, place your sandwich into the pan, and use your fingers to rotate the sandwich so that the melted butter is absorbed into the bread.

Lift the sandwich out of the pan using the spatula, and place another half tablespoon of butter into the hot pan.  Let that melt as you did before.

Place the unbuttered side of the sandwich into the pan and repeat as before, rotating the sandwich to ensure that the butter is absorbed into the bread.  Now you have a sandwich that is evenly buttered on both sides.

This is important - lower the heat to low-medium low.  You don't want the bread to darken too much before the cheese melts.

Wash your dishes while you keep an eye on your sandwich.  The kitchen should smell pleasantly of toast and butter - if you begin to smell burning, your sandwich is cooking too fast, or you are taking too much time washing dishes.

Using the spatula, lift the sandwich up and check the bottom.  Once it's to your liking, flip the sandwich over and brown that side.  Your goal is to have both sides of cheese melted and the ham warmed up.

Slide onto a plate.  Eat and get back to work.