I grew up in a family that preferred toasted cheese sandwiches over grilled cheese ones. I credit this melted cheese and toast phenomenon to the fact that my mother was always looking for ways to make meals healthier. Butter was typically the first casualty under her command. However, not knowing that there was a world of buttery, grilled cheese sandwiches out there, my sister and I were perfectly content with the toasted version that our parents provided. These sandwiches were made easier by the fact that we were toaster oven people, making it easy to get an initial toast on the bread before adding a layer of cheese for melting.
There's a new product on the market that could revolutionize the toasted cheese sandwich and make it accessible for everyone, even those who own pop-up toasters. It's called the Toastabag and it is intended to be used for toasting entire sandwiches. I do see some problems with it, though. The most notably the fact that once cheese is melted, it runs to the lowest point. I imagine that if you toasted your sandwich in this gizmo long enough to sufficiently melt the cheese, you'd end up with a puddle of melted cheddar on the bottom of the bag and two greasy pieces of cheese-scented bread. Secondly, you'd never really be able to get a good toast on the bread, as it wouldn't be exposed directly to the heating element. Lastly, unless you've got a wide-slot toaster, wouldn't you be hard-pressed to actually get a full-on sandwich into the toaster slot?
Despite my concerns, I do have to give the Toastabag folks credit for clever thinking. What about the rest of you? Do think this is genius or insanity? Does anyone out there have a Toastabag of their very own?
[via CNET]
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