Toaster Ovens and Greasers

 We've been using toaster ovens for decades, I believe we're on our third one.  They don't last forever, but they're easy to replace unless you get one of the fancy ones with a bunch of extra features that you will never use.  Thirty bucks sounds about right.  They do run hot, and they draw a lot of current, so you may not want to run it and your microwave at the same time.  Ours has two control knobs, but a digital one should work the same way only different.  One knob selects the mode of operation, toast, bake, or broil, and the other knob is a timer.  Our timer is the old fashioned ticka-ticka kind, and you turn it off by rotating back to zero until it dings like it would do if you let it run its course.  If the toast is overdone, just set the timer to a lower setting next time. The toast will come out hot, so grabbing it barehanded is not advisable.  If you are doing garlic bread or brown-n-serve sausages, don't put them right on the grate, use the aluminum tray that came with it, but first put down a sheet of aluminum foil, which prevents sticking and makes the tray easier to clean.

Speaking of pizza, a few friends and I stumbled upon a real Italian pizza joint one night in Berlin.  Lucky for us that one of those few friends was the guy I told you about who spoke fluent Italian, because none of the workers or the other customers spoke much English or German either.  There were these small round tables and no chairs, everybody ate their pizza standing up.  I don't think they sold anything to drink there, just pizza.  I saw some pitchers on a shelf behind the counter and figured they were for beer but, when I pointed to one, the proprietor said, "You wanna da extra grease?"  I politely declined.  As we were eating our pizza, I saw one of the other customers take one of those pitchers and pour something all over his pizza until it ran off the edges of the table, which was probably why there were no chairs around the tables.  Our Italian speaker inquired about it, and reported that it was olive oil.  I had always wondered why Italians were sometimes called "greasers", and now I knew.