Get toasted! It's Grilled Cheese Month

April is the best time of year to get toasted, and we're not saying that because of tax day. April is National Grilled Cheese Month, and here are a few places to celebrate:

You can now create your own custom grilled cheese sandwich for $4 at Patinette, the MOCA café. Their new Grilled Cheese Workshop lets you choose your bread (white, wheat, rye, walnut currant or ciabatta), your cheese (mozzarella, Gruyère, chipotle cheddar, Point Reyes blue, Fontina, Brie or goat) and your condiments (mustard, pesto, garlic or yuzu aioli). Extras like vine-ripened tomatoes, grilled onions, dill pickles, grilled chicken, Pullman ham, bacon, oven-roasted turkey and lettuce will cost you $1. Patinette, 250 S. Grand Ave., L.A. (213) 626-1178, www.patinagroup.com

During weekday lunch hours (11:30 a.m. to  3 p.m.), Rush Street is serving a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of tomato soup for $6. Rush Street, 9546 Washington Blvd., Culver City. (310) 837-9546, www.rushstreetculvercity.com

Heat up those irons. Registration is now open for the Grilled Cheese Invitational to be held April 25 at an as yet undisclosed location in downtown L.A. Bring your creativity (but not your flame thrower) to this grill-off, which is divided into three categories: the Missionary Position: bread, butter and cheese; the Kama Sutra: a free-for-all of savory ingredients; and the Honey Pot: dessert-style grilled cheese sandwiches. Only 300 competitors will be allowed to register and they MUST do so in advance. Judges, on the other hand, can only register on-site, and there's room for 1,700 of them. Click here for more details or to sign up. This year's event also includes a beer and wine garden, with proceeds going to an as yet unannounced charity. www.grilledcheeseinvitational.com.

[More grilled cheese madness after the jump.]

Sampler Platter: Rivera, Humboldt Creamery and Chocolate Salon

Thursday's most tantalizing food news...

• The definitive guide to whether or not to throw something out. From a former Canadian food inspector. Still Tasty
• Jonathan Gold visits Rivera to check out John Sedlar's return to the kitchen and likes what he finds.
• Financial irregularities put Humboldt Creamery in peril. New York Times
• Food Gal Carolyn Jung details her gorge-a-thon at last weekend's Chocolate Salon in S.F.
• Culver City's grilled cheese mecca Meltdown shuts its doors. Eater LA
• Wedding cakes of the undead. Cake Wrecks
• LAist's latest Recession Obsession: Mexican pastries at La Adelita Panaderia y Tortilleria in Hollywood and La Adelita Panaderia in downtown.
• Eater's Ben Leventhal to guest blog for a week on Grub Street starting Friday. The Feedbag

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo: From top: Rogue Creamery Smokey Blue, Sonoma Cheese's Sonoma Jack and Cypress Grove's Humboldt Fog chèvre. (Credit: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)