Lo, How a Toaster E're Ticking (or, Sauron's Oster 6297)

I've been toaster shopping.

The toaster oven in the Pinch kitchen is a workhorse. It's used for everything from making toast to baking a handful of fresh-baked cookies. In a given week I've used my toaster oven to make crostini for hors d'oeuvres, oven-roasted marshmallows for s'mores, slow-roasted Roma tomatoes for panini, or roasted a few chicken breasts to serve atop a salad or in a pasta dish.

Why? For small jobs, running a mini oven is way more energy efficient than firing up the wall oven. It's become a mandatory appliance over the years.

I wish they'd last a bit longer, but I generally only get about 18 months out of a toaster oven. When the door on my old model, a Cuisinart Classic, no longer shut, I decided to shop around for a new brand. I consulted reviews all over the web, mostly at Chef's Catalog and Amazon. About ten days ago I made a purchase - an Oster 6-slice model from Amazon. And today, after about a week of cuffing my ears to avoid listening to its insidious ticking timer and applying aloe to the burns I got, unbelievably, from simply opening the door, I packed it up and requested the UPS guy to cast it back into the fiery chasm from whence it came. Among the things Brown can do for you, it so happens, is transport a toaster oven between Lincoln Park and the depths of Mordor.

Then I went back online and found my old timer-less buddy of an oven. It's not perfect, but it's way better than anything else on the market. A toaster is only as good as the toast it produces, and this one really does the job easily, with buttons and dials than anyone in the house can easily operate. Brown should be bringing it to my doorstep in a few days.