Toaster oven a good choice for gourmet-minded single-serving cooks

By Malina Brown
Knight Ridder Newspapers

My grandfather was nearly 80 years old before he stepped into the kitchen to do anything more than pop a couple of pieces of bread in the toaster for breakfast.

Almost every meal of his adult life was prepared by my grandmother, whose two greatest culinary achievements were creamy mashed potatoes and Jell-O with floating banana slices.

After my grandmother passed away, he realized he couldn’t rely forever on the endless stream of tuna casseroles the elderly women of Century Village left on his doorstep.

He would have to learn how to cook. Too stubborn to figure out those mysterious dials on his oven and too proud to ask for help, he reverted to the one kitchen appliance he already understood — the toaster oven.

My grandpa developed a small repertoire of meals revolving around lamb chops, baked potatoes and hamburgers that he made in the toaster oven. Thanks to that little metal box, my grandfather finally attained his culinary independence, no small achievement at his or any age.

While an epicure he was not, my grandpa had the right idea. There is no reason to relegate the toaster oven to insipid tasks like melting cheese for English-muffin pizzas or tuna melt sandwiches.

It is still an oven, after all, with precise temperature settings and the ability to bake, roast or broil. A toaster oven can be a godsend on a hot summer day when a regular oven would overheat the kitchen.

It can also help out in a pinch when you need additional oven space for side dishes. Moreover, it heats up faster, uses less energy, and is easier to clean than its big brother.

Given the size limitations of the toaster oven, it’s most practical for preparing meals for one or two. Still, a surprisingly large number of recipes can be adapted to the toaster oven.

In fact, the many ways in which the toaster oven can be used to create upscale cuisine is the premise of a new book called “The Gourmet Toaster Oven” by Lynn Alley (Ten Speed Press, $18.95). Alley offers 50 sophisticated recipes for the toaster oven, such as coffee cake muffins, chicken potpies, and chocolate lava cake.

It makes me laugh to think I am taking cooking cues from my grandpa, a man who derided all salad greens as “foliage,” and topped everything he could with a large heaping of “white” (his code name for whipped cream in a can).

But as he often liked to remind me, we should listen to our elders. They can be very wise.

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