Don't Forget What You Buy - It Could Result in Sandwiches

Man, sometimes I'm so foolish. Or forgetful. Or flaky. Or all of those things, as I realized I've been until tonight. You know what I forgot I owned? A sandwich toaster!!! I don't know why I remembered this tonight, but all of a sudden, the thought popped into my head that I'd bought a sandwich toaster some time in the last year. I was with my Mom at Target and it was on sale for $6. Yeah, I definitely got a deal there. Apparently I brought it back home and put it away in a cabinet and forgot all about it! How foolish. And forgetful. And flaky. Such a sad story.

But here's a happier story: in college, I had one of these sandwich toasters in my dorm room. My friend Helen and I made hundreds of toasted cheese sandwiches in that thing. We needed only three ingredients: square-shaped bread (such as Wonderbread), Velveeta cheese, and margarine. I kept them in my mini-fridge. Yuck. But really, delicious. I remember the day of Helen's senior cello recital - the day we got to play Prince covers! She came over and, in order to calm her nerves, painted her toenails while I made us toasted cheese sandwiches. Yes, with Velveeta and margarine. Look, that Velveeta just fits perfectly into the compartments. And the cheese melts so well...sigh.

So, I'm thankful that I had that memory of sandwich toasters float into my brain tonight, and just before I needed a little snack! I knew exactly where the sandwich toaster was: in the cabinet behind the hand mixer. This is embarrassing because I go in that cabinet pretty often to get either the hand mixer for baking or the Magic Bullet for making hummus and being awesome. In fact, I used the mixer earlier today to make cookies. Whoops a daisy. Anyhow, there it is! Hopefully I'll be opening that cabinet a lot more in the future to make those donuts, too.

Here's what it looks like, all clean and cute. The cord is even tied together! So new!

Here's the inside. See the sandwich half compartments? Look how organized! I obviously love it.

If you do it right, you'll end up with two (or four) perfectly toasted sandwich triangles. With a ton of melted cheese inside. Maybe Velveeta.

I learned the hard way (when I used this appliance as a teenager and again in college) that you really need to separate the ingredients as you make the sandwich. That's smoked turkey breast.

If you just sloppily lay on all the ingredients, there will be a gross burned line of meats and cheese down the middle of the sandwich because of the triangle shapes. Take the time to separate; it's worth it. That's salami, by the way.

And white american cheese, in those same lovely triangles! Apparently I was just too excited to add any vegetables. Seriously, the thought didn't even cross my mind until right this second.

After putting the sandwich in the toaster, it wouldn't close all the way, but I wasn't too worried.

Well, okay, I was a little worried. My nerves get the best of me when sandwiches are involved. I just want them to be wonderful and delicious!

The finished product! See that diagonal line? That's where you'd have burned meat and cheese if you hadn't been so organized earlier. A little goes a long way, when it comes to sandwich ingredient organizing. Please also note that extra part at the end. My bread was too hearty and not tiny and square enough like Wonderbread.

I used a knife to take it out because I'm too lazy to move two feet over to get a spatula.

Look, there's hardly any mess at all! Just two globs of cheese that I'll let harden and scrape off later. Wah wah!

Look at that beautifully toasted sandwich.

The inside - no burned mess!

And the cheese was melted just enough.

Delicious! Believe you me, I'll be making plenty more toasted sandwiches this winter. Can you imagine a peanut butter and jam in there? Or Nutella and banana? Or something involving tomato and spinach and cheeses? Maybe I'll even buy some Velveeta...