I have a mozzarella and pesto, but would like something with ham or bacon.

Any one wish to swap?

I was thinking of starting a thread like this, oddly enough.

I bought a small George Foreman like grill and have been making my own.

The Femme Folle:

Mesquite smoked turkey, thinly sliced
Pepper Jack cheese
Spicy Ranch Dressing (and mayo, if you like)
White bread (my preference, but not mandatory)

I like to spread a light coating of butter on the outside of the sandwich before smashing it in the grill.

I've just made myself hungry.

I was bought a panini press for my birthday a few years back.

I wanted a toastie machine.

C'est la vie.

I lived on Breville sandwiches at university. The best ones combined cheap filling with hot sauce, so you couldn't taste the cheap filling. Tesco Value Ham and extra-hot chilli sauce worked, particularly once the Breville heated the sauce to the temperature of the sun's surface, and tuna with horseradish also numbed the senses (especially the time I used shaved instead of creamed horseradish).

Now I'm really hungry too.

Surely you can make toasties in a panini machine, can't you? This is where I'm not very clear on what exactly a cheese toasty is. I'm never sure if you're talking about what we refer to as 'cheese toast', which would be a slice of cheese melted on bread and served open-faced, or what we call a 'grilled cheese sandwich', which is the same thing as cheese toast, but has a top slice of bread added to it. The latter you can definitely make in a panini machine.

A toastie machine is special as it presses the edges together, sealing the contents inside, like a tasty, bready prison.

I think this is one area where the USA is superior to the UK. We don't need to use anything to mask anything.

We have perfected the sandwich. Long live the Jewish deli!

I get it now, but that only means that a cheese toasty is basically identical to the grilled cheese sandwich.

Remember that next time you visit the US and crave a cheese toasty.

It's similar but not the same. Toasties are fairly special, and no grilled cheese sandwich can come close.