Thursday, November 10, 2011

For the Love of Toast

It's been a while, I know, and I promise I will attempt to write something thoughtful and coherent and interesting(ish) soon.

In the meantime, I have a question for you: can anyone out there recommend A TOASTER? Nothing fancy, nothing special (i.e. no egg poaching compartment(!?) required), just a toaster that TOASTS. A toaster that reliably makes evenly toasted toasty toast without crazy bipolar mood swings that lead to pale, floppy bread some days and burned smoking ash other days?

Ditto a toaster oven?

Because for every review on Amazon that declares "This toaster toasts perfectly!" there is one that insists the same toaster can't toast worth shit. Why are there so many options? Why are they all so crappy?

The smell most likely to make me barf this pregnancy has been the chemically/burny smell of a gas grill or charcoal barbecue or LAME, CHEAP, SMOKY, PIECE-OF-SHIT toaster or toaster oven.

I cannot tell you the number of times I've barfed after Dr. Husband or I have attempted to make toast in the past few months. (At least five! Make that six seven!)

I'm SEVENTEEN WEEKS (and three days) pregnant—I should not still be barfing, dammit. And if it takes replacing our toaster and toaster oven to make that happen, by god, then new small appliances, here we come.

photo courtesy cohdra, morgueFile

6 comments:

  1. Sorry, I also have the bipolar toaster... no recommendations from me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have had several (lots of moving and commingling/donating/repurchasing has occurred) black and decker toaster ovens from target and each of them has been a good consistent toasty toaster. And perfect toast is a little bit sacred in my family.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm a pretty big fan of our Hamilton Beach Toastation. It's a two-in-one toaster and toaster oven. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I got a big-ass toaster oven by Breville at Sur La Table, and I love it. Perfect toast, and everything else. I rarely use my regular oven anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for the recommendations, everyone. I'm weirdly partial to pop-up toasters (perhaps because they're less likely to get stuff like cheese baked on and then stinkily burned off), but maybe it's time for me to reconsider. I do appreciate minimizing my gadgetry/small appliance collection.

    ReplyDelete
  6. We have a Breville toaster we've loved for years and recently added the Breville toaster oven to our appliance collection. Love them both to pieces. The nice thing about the toaster oven is that you can also refresh your croissants in nearly the same time you would toast your toast. Ahhhh is it time for breakfast yet?

    ReplyDelete