Not only is April National Grilled Cheese Month, but today is National Grilled Cheese Day!  One way to celebrate is to sign up to compete in the Third Annual Wisconsin Grilled Cheese Competition, scheduled to take place Sunday April 27, 2014, in Dodgeville.  (How this competition moved from Mineral Point to Dodgeville, I do not know, but I’m sure that in time we will forgive this decision, just as we have with other such incidents.)

Here are a few things to know about this year’s competition:

• You have until April 24th to sign up to compete.  Click here to register.
• You can sign up online to get VIP tickets, which will allow you to try sample sandwiches during the competition.
• This year’s host will be Wisconsin Foodie Kyle Cherek.
• From 1-3pm Mineral Point’s own Point Five will be playing at the event.

I will be competing again this year.  For the last two years I have received a second place finish in amateur grilled cheese competition. This year, I’m stepping it up by preparing two whole weeks in advance.

Last night, we were invited to attend a grilled cheese practice session at the home of friend and fellow competitor, Dave Lawson.  Actually Dave and I are in different categories so we’re not really competing.  Dave will be in the “extras” category which has no limit to the number of ingredients, so long as 60% of the grilled cheese is made up of cheese.  I’ll be competing in three categories – Classic (just one cheese), Classic plus one other ingredient, and Dessert (any number of ingredients so long as 60% is cheese).

The evening began with a gathering of the cheeses.

Then Dave dazzled us all with his creativity. I don’t want to reveal his plans for the competition, but each one had a theme and a complex list of ingredients. We rated the grilled cheeses to give Dave some feedback.  Almost all of the feedback was positive.  Posted below is the one exception.

I received some excellent ideas on how to sweeten my dessert entry. This week I’ll be experimenting with Pop Rocks to see if I can incorporate them into the grilled cheese without having them pop. I’ll keep you posted.

Contributed by Lisa Hay