While I might trade someone else’s soul for a Reuben, I gave up mine long ago for a beer, so my trading days are over. Reubens are one of the many dishes that have made their way into dip form. This time of year, with “The Big Game” right around the corner, salty, cheesey, rich dishes are often the order of the day. A big crock pot full  of dip is the easiest way to bring your own thing to a party. Making a dip from a popular dish can be your ticket to a bowl of something super.

In addition to reuben dip, there are a number of other recipes that are easy conversions to bring along with you.

Chicken wing dip seems to be at every pot luck or party I go to nowadays. Wings were already a party food, particularly around a football game, so why would they need to get transformed for a party?  No mess. Thats what I’m talking about. Now I won’t pretend that chicken wing dip gives you that same crispy chicken skin awesomeness that you get with wings but it packs a ton of flavor and you can make it as hot or mild as you like. It also gives me an excuse to eat Chicken in a Biskit crackers.

If you have never opened a box of these things and gorged yourself, go get some, now. And yes they have some form of actual chicken in them.

Pizza dip is another one that has spun its way into my world. It reminds me of my days in a  pizza shop as a kid, putting a pile of Mozzarella onto a pan, topping it with whatever other ingredients I might want and baking until the cheese was brown and crispy on the edges. (Pardon me, I need to wipe up some drool)

I like mine with crackers (Ritz please) but it you want to fancy it up, feel free to slice up some baguettes and spread it on the bread. Though if you are going to go that far you might as well make pizza.

How about some Philly cheese steak dip?  All of your favorite flavors from a cheese steak ready for scooping, preferably with soft pretzels as a vehicle for shoveling it into your face.

Last but not least, another classic sandwich as a dip, BLT dip. Everyone has been soundly beaten over the head with how amazing bacon is. Needless to say, I’m a fan. Outside of eating it alongside eggs, a BLT is the dish from my childhood that cemented bacon as a staple in my cooking. Once you hit that perfect ratio of bacon, tomatoes, crispy lettuce and toasted bread it is tough to beat. It is a challenge to get that ratio right for a dip that is invariably far more cheesy than a sandwich would be. Try serving it with some melba toast or another cracker that will bring that flavor into the mix. Or skip the crackers and scoop it up with some bib lettuce.

So this Super Bowl weekend, or any weekend, try turning one of your favorite dishes into a dip and enjoy.

As any sports fan knows, based on the recent barrage of commercials during football games, sandwich chain Subway is now offering many of its 6-inch subs for $2. This limited-time offer replaces the previous price of $5, and has more than one person excited.

However, from this chair, I am less inclined to celebrate. When something is too good to be true, it usually is. Except in this case, there is no mysterious explanation. In fact, it only reaffirms my belief.

Subway uses the cheapest meat imaginable. Cold cut combo? Gross. Meatball Marinara? Sick.

If you have ever given a close look at the lump of processed, salted, smushed animal parts that your sandwich artist puts on your roll, you know what I mean. There is a reason they promote their “fresh-baked bread” and their “healthy” options – because neither focuses on the meat.

Moreover, this price point should clarify the question you should be asking yourself, if you find yourself in a Subway this month, sucked into the deal-seeking vortex of a $2 sub: Do I seriously want to eat a sandwich that costs $2? Please reread that question. The answer? No – you most certainly do not – especially when there are a bevy of local sub shops doing it right, for a fair price.

Seriously, for $2, what kind of sandwich are you expecting? Quality ingredients? Please, you can’t even make a decent sandwich at home for that amount. Your instincts are telling you something here, so don’t ignore them. This is not a $2 mini-sub – this is the same thing they have been selling for years, except for much less. This is what they call a red flag.

My new slogan for the chain: Subway – Eat Somewhere Else.

Take that Apolo Ohno.

H/t to Getty for the photo.

Show your taste buds what they’ve been missing. Try our all-new Bacon Cheddar TOASTER MELT^™ on Texas Toast. Grilled onions, crisp bacon, cheddar cheese, pickles and hickory BBQ sauce stacked high on a 100% pure beef patty.

Take on the savory Mushroom Swiss TOASTER MELT.^™ Two golden slices of Texas Toast on a 100% pure beef patty loaded with grilled onions, sautéed portobello mushrooms, mayo and Swiss cheese. It’s the best thing since toasted bread.

For the purposes of my review, I went with the dynamic duo of Bacon Cheddar. Upon inspection, I found a couple of jalepeños hidden inside. I double-checked the website to see if that was listed as an ingredient. It was not. I also found the Texas Toast to be very soft, and barely toasted. That there was only one piece of bacon was disappointing as well.

The main problem with this burger is the Texas toast. The bread-to-meat ratio is ridiculous. There may as well not have been any beef at all, because I couldn’t taste it. The other thing about the toast is that it was quite soggy. If it had been toasted more, it wouldn’t have soaked up so much sauce, and the added crunch would have been nice. The fact that Sonic uses foil wrappers didn’t help that either. As a whole, it kind of tasted like the McRib, due to the barbecue sauce-pickles-onions combo. The jalapeños added quite a bit of heat, as you might expect. For me, the best parts were the bacon and cheese because, well, bacon and cheese.

In the end, I came away disappointed. Texas toast is not suited for burgers or sandwiches. My taste buds are not suited for jalapeños. Yet another dud.

What’s your favorite sandwich?

Option #1: You can never eat burgers again.

Option #2: You can never eat sandwiches again.

Let’s not get too technical here and say “oh but a burger is a sandwich.” You know what a burger is, you know what a sandwich is, as traditionally defined. This includes ALL burgers, not just beef, so bison, veggie burger, lamb burger etc. Ditto sandwiches. Anything between pieces of bread, i.e. turkey, veggie, cheesesteak etc. is a sandwich.

Share in the comments why you made the choice you did.

This is what the sandwich looked like in the press release:

…and this is what it looked like in real life:

Not too different – so far, so good. Although I do feel a little threatened by that hunk of roast beef lurking in the background of the top picture. Back off, buddy.

Anyway, this is how Arby’s describes their sandwich:

Inspired by classic sandwich shop subs, the Angus Cool Deli sandwich is lean Angus Beef served cool. Topped with crisp lettuce, tomato, red onion, Swiss cheese, mayonnaise, dressed in vinaigrette and popping with banana peppers and pickles.

Indeed, eating the classic sub-shaped bread/meat/vegetable combo felt virtually identical to eating at Subway.

The bun was nicely toasted and provided a nice wheatey nest within which the roast beef could expel its flavor. The roast beef was smoky and rich – a little better quality than your typical Arby’s roast beef, or your average Subway roast beef for that matter. The meat was a little dry, but the mayo offset that nicely.

The lettuce, tomato and onion were of the typical fast food caliber – weak and relatively tasteless, but not unpleasant. As far as vegetables go, pickles and banana peppers were the real winners. The combination of bright banana peppers and savory roast beef is truly one of the holiest deli sandwich pairings out there, and I’m glad Arby’s can recognize this.

So sad for the swiss cheese – the Angus Cool Deli Sandwich added yet another chapter to a lifetime of irrelevancy for this bland caseus formatus. The strength of the roast beef and banana peppers all but overpowered it. And I kept wishing it were melted, then had to keep reminding myself this was a cool deli sandwich. But seriously, it would be so much better if it were melted.

As far as price goes, at $4.99, it’s a little cheaper than Subway, but the sandwich is a little smaller, too.

Overall, I would say the roast beef, the bread and the banana peppers render this sandwich a success. But you might as well go to Subway and get to choose your own toppings.

For a chance to win a $20 Arby’s gift card, leave a comment letting us know an item on Arby’s menu you love, like or absolutely despise and why. We’ll pick one of the comments at random to win!

Update: A winner of the gift card has been chosen. Congrats to Jenny Loveridge!

As a result, I have sampled many forms of sandwich spreads, from spicy horseradish mayo to red pepper hummus and many things in between.  I am generous with my additions, and as a result, there is often much cleanup to be done (post-sandwich, of course).

Therefore, when I saw the invention below, my jaw hit the table.  It is truly for the sandwich king that has everything.

Developed by Japanese company Furukawa Kiko, the device called SWITL can take blobs of “semi-liquids” right off the counter, seemingly untouched, and can even put them right back (or onto a sandwich).   I’m not sure what the practical application is here, but it is really cool, and if you can’t wow them with your sandwich, you might just have to wow them with the clean up.

H/t to Fast Company’s twitter feed for the scoop. And for more on sandwiches, the So Good archives is packed.

Via GeekOSystem.

You have four options:

1. In half (triangles).

2. In half (rectangles).

3. In four triangles.

4. Keep it whole.

How do you cut up your sandwiches, So Good readers? Does one seem to taste better or make the sandwich last longer? Do you have a totally different sandwich-slicing method? Choose your answer and explain in the comments.

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