A panini in the pan and a stove-top smothering

Is it inelegant to smother a sandwich?

Is it considered crass to press the lid of a pot onto the face of a turkey on rye, pressing it into a hot pan and simultaneously smashing it into toasted submission?

I guess I don't care if it is. Smothering makes a good sandwich better.

It's a little tip I culled from a cooking segment on the morning news a few weeks ago. If you're pining for a panini, but don't have any panini-specific kitchen appliances at your disposal, you can use a lid in lieu of a press.

So I tried it.

I bought some fresh bread, sliced it and drizzled a bit of olive oil onto the outside of the slices.

I gathered up some flavorful ingredients like specialty cheeses, fresh spinach and fruit. I piled my sandwich together and placed it on a hot skillet.

And then I squashed it with all my might. And that's some might.

My first sandwich was over-stuffed, and the insides spilled out onto the pan.

My second experienced a splitting of the crust, I believe because it was sliced too thick.

But no matter what internal ingredients spilled out onto the pan, and no matter what sort of demented shape the sandwich took on, they were still good paninis. They made every untoasted sandwich of my past look like pale, flabby, couch-lounging lumps of bread. But then again, I tend to be overly dramatic with my descriptions of things.

Two fine panini ideas:

Rachel panini: A twist on the Reuben using sliced turkey, Swiss cheese, cole slaw and thousand island dressing on marble rye bread.

Apple, spinach, brie and fig panini: The trio of spinach, apple and brie has been a long-standing favorite of mine...in the three months that I've been learning how to cook. But the addition of some fig preserves I stumbled upon at the store gave this sandwich some additional dimension.

For more panini inspiration: 50 Panini ideas

Keep It Simple. Sandwich! (A grilled cheese sure beats a broken femur)

Enthusiasm is awesome. It's an encourager - the cheerleader of the feelings family.

It's also like an older brother who builds up your confidence only to trick you into leaping off the garage with nothing but a pillowcase parachute and your own eagerness to keep you airborne.

Enthusiasm sometimes ends badly. Or at least not how you had planned, even if no one shattered a femur in the driveway.

Following the stuffed poblano attempt, it occurred to me that enthusiasm and I might have gotten ahead of ourselves.

So I decided to reel it in, start with what I know, build on my existing expertise. What is in my realm of expertise? Mashed potatoes. Rice. Sandwiches.

More specifically: Grilled cheese sandwiches (or as a friend in college used to call them, toasty cheeses).

The slice-of-American version is a classic, and it pairs well with a bowl of tomato soup. It also tastes great if you're 11 and it's a school snow day and you're famished after spending the morning building the most intricate snow fort ever seen before, complete with booby traps.

But it's also possible to take time-honored fare and fancy it up a bit - give it grownup feel without forgoing what made you love it as a kid. I can do that.

Enter the brie, the honeycrisp and the spinach. I stole the idea for the appetizing trifecta from a quesdilla recipe in a magazine.

I worked in some inspirational layering, buttered the bread, toasted it like one toasts a grilled cheese.

And there you go. I even made a bowl of tomato bisque. And by "made" I mean heated up. One thing at a time.

For more stellar grilled cheese combinations, check out this Beautiful Mess blog entry: Fancy grilled cheese 9 ways