grilled cheese and a red onion jam thing

i set out this afternoon to finish a post on the crucial gathering of the world's leaders and leading environmentalists taking place in copenhagen these next couple weeks, but figured it just might be of slight importance to eat first. with that, my first kitchen post in quite a while.

all we have in the house is salted focccia bread and cheese, so making a grilled cheese was obvious. but since the bread was already salted, and we only have an aged white cheddar and fresh mozz in the fridge, i wanted something sweet on the sandwich. enter the bag of red onions on our butcher block.

i used half an onion and sliced half-moons, then cooked them in butter and chili flake until they caramelized. that's when i added red wine vinegar, honey, and sugar, and after a minute, red wine. the end result wasn't technically a jam, but my goal was to make something like a jam, and as you can see in the picture, it's pretty close to what i wound up with.

with the cheddar and a little bit of the mozz, i let the thing go on low heat—this melted the cheese nice and slow and crusted the bread without burning it. while the top side cooked i tossed my go-to salad—which is a couple handfuls of fresh arugula, olive oil, and balsamic (the point is to use an acid, which i usually use fresh squeezed lemon for with a dash of vinegar, but in this case stuck solely with the balsamic)—which is such a fast, and healthy, salad to whip together.

i seasoned the onion, the raw cheese before i covered it with the jam, and the arugula with salt and pepper. that's three different times i seasoned, and all for such a simple lunch. but for me, seasoning is crucial. literally, i season any time i introduce something raw or new to my cooking, pretty much no matter what point i'm at, even if it's cheese. what about you? is seasoning something you avoid for health reasons? is it something you've just never cared about? or maybe do you taste the difference, and so you season frequently too?

if you're not sure about tasting the difference, next time you're cooking with tomatoes, try slicing a raw sliver and take a bite without any seasoning, then take a bite after you've dressed it with a pinch of crushed black pepper and kosher or sea salt. i promise, you're understanding of seasoning will completely change, and you'll be sure then.