Bit of cereal

Apple Grilled Cheese

Recipe by Katherine Cowger If you’re looking for a way to celebrate fall flavors without adding pumpkin puree to everything, you may want to turn to the humble apple. Versatile, delicious and crisp, apples are a great fruit to add to any meal. Chop and add as a salad topper, have an apple as a snack or for your breakfast, or, yes, even add it to your grilled cheese. Did you know that apple pie was originally meant to be served with a slice of melted cheddar on top? Right, I didn’t either. However, there’s an old saying that goes, “A slice of apple pie without the cheese is like a kiss without the squeeze.” Clearly, cheese and apples were meant to be together. And we can kind of see that in the way that charcuterie boards are constructed. Typically, these boards feature a variety of cheeses (soft, firm, sharp, mild, etc.) and fruits, including fresh grapes, dried cranberries and apples. Together, these two foods make for the perfect, satisfying bite. So why not as a warm and melty sandwich?

Ingredients:

• Your favorite type of apple, sliced thin • Two slices of sharp cheddar cheese • Two slices of your favorite bread (sourdough would work great here) • Butter 1. Heat a pan to medium-low heat and butter one side of a bread slice. Once the pan is hot, lay the slice butter side down and layer one cheese slice with the apple slices. Top the apple with your second cheese slice and cover to let steam for 2-3 minutes. 2. Once the bread is toasted, put the other butter slice on top.

Flip and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

3. Let rest on a plate for 1-2 minutes before slicing. Enjoy!

Movie Preview: Ticket to Paradise

BY RANDAL C. HILL Some movies are all but predictable, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t good, enjoyable films. Was there ever any doubt about the outcome of the beloved Rocky when we all flocked to theaters nationwide to vigorously cheer on a bloody and battered Sylvester Stallone, who painfully hauled himself off the mat again and again? No. We all knew how that story would end. Or what about Titanic, the first movie to gross one billion dollars? Never did we hear of any shocked theatergoer exclaiming, “Hey! Wait a minute! The ship is going to sink?” Ticket to Paradise is as predictable as the sun rising tomorrow, but it also looks to be a fun rom-com romp with two of Hollywood’s most bankable names lighting up the big screen. In starring roles, we have George Clooney (once named “the Sexiest Man Alive” by People magazine) and Julia Roberts (People has called her the most beautiful woman in the world five times). The film fun begins right away, when an overseas jet shows us Clooney and Roberts (at ages 61 and 54, respectively, and both still impossibly good-looking) thrown together on a flight to Bali. (Filming actually took place in Queensland, Australia.) In a clever bit of exposition, an exasperated Roberts asks a passing

steward to allow her to sit elsewhere, as she and Clooney used to be married. This prompts George to grumble, “The worst 19 years of my life.” Julia immediately corrects him. “We were only married for five.” “I’m counting the recovery,” was Clooney’s dour response. The paper-thin plot revolves around the ex-couple’s concern that their daughter is rushing headfirst into a marriage with a foreign young man she has just met and is in danger of throwing away a promising career. (Apparently this is what Julia’s character did herself 25 Image from IMDb years earlier, when she tied the knot with George, a man she barely knew.) After the exes deplane and sit together at an outdoor bar, Roberts suggests, “As much as it will pain us both, we need to call a truce to make this work.” Clooney, squelching grumpiness, agrees. In the meantime, daughter Lily (Kaitlyn Dever) is having a blast on the island with her best pal, Wren (Billie Lourd). It may be worth the price of admission just to see a tipsy Clooney in a nightclub doing what could be filmdom’s dorkiest (and most embarrassing) “dad dance.” This prompts embarrassed Lily to exclaim to her friend, “I’m praying for an asteroid.” Ticket to Paradise opens on October 21. See it. Have fun.