Burns me up

About six months ago, our 4-slice toaster died. It had served us well for 8 or 9 years. But when it gave out, I decided to upgrade to a toaster oven. So I did my research -- read up on toaster ovens on ConsumerReports.com, talked to people about their toaster ovens, went several times to the store to look over the options.

Basically, I spent way too much time obsessing about a kitchen appliance the size of a bread box. Finally, I made my selection and brought home a EuroPro toaster oven big enough to cook a 12-inch pizza.

And it does cook a 12-inch pizza pretty well. It's great for bagel bites and french fries. Chicken nuggets for two small-ish kids. No problem.

But what my toaster oven can't seem to handle is toasting. It doesn't toast evenly on top and bottom, so you have to reach in and flip your bagel or bread or whatever. Never had to do that with my dearly departed 4-slice toaster.

Most regrettably, it doesn't have a "doneness" sensor. In the past week, I have burned 6 frozen waffles, 2 pieces of bread and 1 bagel.

And then I did what as a child I swore I would never do when I was a mom.

I took out a knife and attempted to scrape the burned layer off the top of the waffle, bagel or whatever, smothered it with a condiment -- syrup or peanut butter generally -- and tried to pass it off as breakfast. Never mind that the waffles were so hard they could have been used as frisbees, the bagel for a hockey puck and the pieces of toast as stone tablets for the 10 commandments.

So, here I sit. Pining away for my old 4-slice, while my kids have started asking for "just cereal" for breakfast. Can't say that I blame them.

(PS -- Another thing that burns me up is that I was going to share with you a picture of this morning's waffle disaster, but Blogger won't let me upload the photos. Use your imagination!)