NLDline

Grilled Cheese

When I was little, my parents had a Toaster Oven. My mom called it the "toaster." We used to make grilled cheese in the toaster oven all the time ... butter two pieces of bread, put cheese on one of them, and lay them side by side on the rack. Well, when I was about 8, the toaster oven broke, and my parents replaced it with a pop-up toaster, also referred to as the "toaster."
(You can probably see where this is going by now). One morning right after we got the pop-up, I woke up early (and hungry!) ... so I decided to make grilled cheese. I buttered both pieces of bread, put cheese on one, and stuffed one piece of bread in each slot of the toaster and turned it on. It had never occurred to me, since both objects were called the "toaster" and I knew you
could make grilled cheese in the toaster, that it would make any difference where the coils were located relative to the cheese. Well, three minutes later, there was smoke coming out of the toaster, and my grilled cheese still hadn't appeared. After my parents were woken up and the toaster declared ruined, the difference between a Toaster Oven and a pop-up toaster was explained to me. After that day, my parents were much, much more precise in how they referred to things (and I learned to ask before I did anything with a new appliance!). I was blessed with very patient parents with a good sense of humor, so we still get a great laugh out of my flamed grilled cheese recipe.

-anonymous