You need to make this grilled cheese for dinner tonight

Celebrate National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day. Here's Grilled Cheese and Soup at Tables of Contents Cafe inside Blue Jacket Books in downtown Xenia.

Celebrate National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day. Here's Grilled Cheese and Soup at Tables of Contents Cafe inside Blue Jacket Books in downtown Xenia.

Grilled cheese isn’t just for kids, and if you need an excuse to enjoy a sandwich full of melty goodness, you’re in luck because today is National Grilled Cheese Day.

The combination of cooked cheese and bread dates back at least to ancient Roman times. What we recognize as grilled cheese gained popularity in the United States in the 1920s, and the inexpensive concoction became a staple during the Great Depression.

Many restaurants serve grilled cheese sandwiches, and one of the very best I've had in a long time was at Tables of Contents Café. The walls of the restaurant are book shelves, because it's inside Blue Jacket Books, located at 30 S. Detroit St. in downtown Xenia.

A few weeks ago, I ordered the grilled cheese during my first visit at the café, and was pleasantly surprised to find bits of tomato and scallions inside the melted cheese. The bread was also nicely crisped.

If you elect to make a grilled cheese sandwich at home, I highly recommend Food Network guru Anne Burrell's recipe for Taleggio Grilled Cheese with Bacon and Honey Crisp Apples, featured in her book "Own Your Kitchen."

Taleggio, available at Dorothy Lane Markets and Whole Foods, is a semisoft Italian cheese that's extra creamy and tastes almost fruity. Limburger also works well, but isn't quite as creamy as Taleggio.

Or, you can use slices of cheddar. My personal tip for grilled cheese: slather the outsides of the bread with mayonnaise and cook in unsalted butter.