Simple..I have two slices of buttered toast every morning with an apple for breakfast. I am a creature of habit. I used to have a banana, but I think I may be allergic to them so I switched to an apple. Not just any old apple either a Raeburn..tart and crisp.
When we used to go camping I missed my toast. We never splurged and bought one of those baskets that you could toast bread with over the campfire.
I have made toast in the oven on a cookie sheet under the broiler..but given my history with burning things under the broiler I am glad I don’t have to do it that way everyday.
Far Guy likes toast..he likes his peanut butter toast at night and in the morning too..so does Chance.
One day our toaster gave up the ghost. It had toasted it’s last slice of bread, it was about time, it had only been toasting one side of the bread for years, you had to flip it around to achieve equal toasting or just be happy with one sided toast. It was a plain old white toaster. Easy to clean..you could tell when it was dirty.
We went shopping and bought a Oster..yup an Oster Toaster..brushed stainless steel. It has a retractable cord, whoopee..and a button that says cancel just incase your toast is burning and you need to pop it up manually.
For comparison..there is an old electric toaster sitting next to it..a very pretty stainless steel one that is an antique..Far Guy needs to rewire the electrical cord. Times sure have changed.
I am sure that this new brushed stainless steel lummox of a toaster was designed by a man. You know how I can tell? All along the top of that toaster between the black and the stainless..there is a ditch..a road for crumbs..a place for every little crumb to try and make a home. When it is about to drive me totally nuts..I drag out the Q-Tips and wet them and go crumb chasing. I have not decided what is worse..chasing crumbs in that toaster ditch..or having a toaster that when moved even slightly would spew all its crumbs from its bottom all over the counter…or the one that would get so hot on the outside that if someone put the plastic bread bag too close it would melt to the outside of the toaster creating its own artwork.
I know my toaster problems and opinions might seem small in comparison to all the problems in this troubled world..and some people even have worse toaster problems than me..like Karen at Wyndson Farm.
Do you ever look inside your toaster? I do now:)
Oh yes. I am a toaster cleaning fanatic. Instead of Q tips I buy cheap toothbrushes just for cleaning little spaces like that. And of course I can't stand to have finger smudges on the outside stainless steel so I wipe mine off with Windex or alcohol to make it shine.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Far Guy...peanut butter and toast...yum!
I love toast! I'm impressed that it has a retractible cord and that you can cancel it. I have to unplug mine to get toast out if its burning. Can't believe you have that old toaster sitting there. Love it.
ReplyDeleteThey call this progress? I don't think so. And the cost that goes with it? Phooey. Its only missing a computer to adjust the temperature according to the type of bread. Ooops starting to rant. I'm going to write several post on "progress" starting with my computer operated pick up truck that thinks it smarter than me... well maybe it is since I bought it.
ReplyDeletebtw peanut butter toast has been my "midnight snack" of choice for years. :)
Hope you like it, I've gone thru 3 toasters in the last 6 years, can't stand any of them. What happened to the good old ones where (like you) crumbs don't sit in cracks, etc. I'm dumping crumbs evern couple of days. Steve's bro Germ collects old toaster too Gene.
ReplyDeleteIs there no "Mouse Indicator"? I'm still reeling from Karen's post! Jo
ReplyDeleteI know that "art" work well! I think it is funny that cars are so much smaller now but things like toasters are ginormous! (That word won't pass spell check.)
ReplyDeleteI'm not a toaster cleaning fanatic, that would require me to be a cleaning fanatic at all. Only once a quarter it seems, if Dirt is lucky, do I become a clean freak, rubbing and scrubbing everywhere, chasing everyone with a mop and cloth. Then, after a week or so of crazed frustrations I'm slapped back into reality. My early life as a new bride and by-gone days of a mis-spent youth got that intense cleaning silliness worn right out of me.
When I was single and on my own I was so much more like my mom. Cleaning to a high polished shine everywhere at all times! Then always leaving a little thing or two artfully sprawled to give a sense of lived-in-ness, like a carefully open magazine, never opened in the center, half on a carlessly tossed afgan. I never folded my throws, I threw them. Constantly. Rearranging for just the right artful look. You could never know when House Beautiful might stop by to do a spread on tiny apartment living. Imagine my dismay when I marry an aircraft mechanic who thinks his take home work of aircraft cylinders can just idly sit by the front door in the living room! Enter the messy years, and a whole new definition of "lived in".
Mis-spent youth? We would wake on Saturday morning to carefully itemized lists for each child at home that day (some of my brothers would go to work at my dad's service station). My list always held the job (among many) of dusting the base boards in the whole house including door and window casings. Every Saturday. Dusting baseboards. In a basically dustless house! Then the General, exhausted from keeping her troops on tasks would melt into a heap (a tidy heap) on the couch with her latest novel, after excusing us from the house of course, lest we dirty something. Memories of her playing with us are far and few between and only connected with vacation trips, barely. But when she did play it was marvelous, utterly divine, she was after all, a Drama teacher in her early life. I wish I had more memories of her playing.
Oops, sorry I wrote so much, I think I'm avoiding bundling up in layers to prune trees.
Glad you have your new toaster for your toast needs and a crumb trough to keep you busy and off the streets! Yay for peanut butter!
I love peanut butter toast. I have an Oster toaster, too, in a spiffy metallic red.
ReplyDeleteWe have Toast restaurant in town that's open only for breakfast and lunch. The walls are decorated with vintage toasters and the food is pretty fabulous. I think you'd like the place.
I hear 'ya! I hate to chase crumbs! Far Guy is the first person besides John that I know of that eats peanut butter on toast! I enjoyed your humor and your pretty and unusual antiques in this post.
ReplyDeleteI remember a version of the antique toaster by your new toaster. We used it a few times at my grandparents when we were children. It is fun to see how appliances have evolved though. Toast is okay but I prefer just a plain piece of homemade cinnamon wheat bread that I heat in the microwave. I like breads like that and muffins better. - - - and I read the mouse story -- - rodents sure can havoc with our homes.
ReplyDeleteI have a non electric...for the gas stove toaster for when the power goes out. I'm a creature of habit too......two slices in the morning. We had to get a new one too and it's a four slice.....so we can both eat at the same time.....one side won't stay down so I have a Mickey Mouse deal to hold it down.....they sure don't make 'em like they use to.
ReplyDeleteI love my toast with or with out peanut butter, Miggy well she like the peanut butter! I have a gas stove but an electric toaster but we also have alot of camping gear from back in the day so if I need toast and the electric one cant work due to power outage I use the camping toaster as well as the camping kettle ! Have a great day !
ReplyDeleteI had peanut butter n toast for breakfast.
ReplyDeleteMy toaster has a bagel button. But everything else on is broken. You need pliers to change the dial.
And I have the crumb ditch, too.
I remove the slide-off bottom every couple of weeks and shake it over the garbage can.
We had soup night with some friends and she had her bread machine on the counter. IT WAS HUGE.
And it makes the same size loaf mine does at half the size.
Headed over to read of mice and men
I think that I haven't really found a toaster yet that I am happy with! You should try coffee pots, I have been through three in the last year and finally bit the bullet and bought a 100 dollar bun coffee pot and love it!
ReplyDeleteYes I look inside the toaster. We have a four slice toaster and it too has a cancel button and a bagel button, a reheat button, and a defrost button. I clean the trays every other day and turn the toaster upside down so it can get a thrill and at the same time the rest of the crumbs fall out into the trash can. I take good care of our toaster; a clean toaster is a happy toaster.
ReplyDeleteWow, Connie, thanks!! Lots of visitors came my way, and when I clued in that they were all coming from your blog, I had to check:)
ReplyDeleteThankfully our new toaster http://wyndsonfarm.blogspot.com/2011/01/clueless.html doesn't have a crumb catching groove. I had to give it the once over after reading your post. It is a smooth white, one piece, and the top is actually sloped a bit to direct any crumbs back into the toaster. It too has a retractable cord, yeah, whoopee, although since it is parked right in front of the electrical outlet, maybe that is a good thing. Has the cancel button, which I love, and the bagel button which I'm not bothered about, but it toasts fast and well. Yep, it is monster too, but overall I give it a big thumbs up.
Those little toasters in the first picture, we had one of those when we went camping. I don't think the toast clips on with the wires, it just sat on the little wire lips at the bottom, and the rest of the wire just held it slightly away from the metal sides. It worked well enough if you didn't get distracted and forget to turn it around at the right time:)
And I've never said it before, but I love your sense of humour:)
Oops, must have been all glassy eyed about all the blog visits today. There is actually a seam where the sides meet the top of our toaster, but when I looked there wasn't a crumb to be found.
ReplyDeleteI gotta go visit.
ReplyDeleteOkay, catch this. We have a little microwave...and part of it is a toaster. That's the way to save space on the old counter!
I love modern toasters! If you look at the bottom of the toaster, there should be a tray you can remove. All the crumbs end up there, so it's easy to clean the toaster. Take out tray, shake out crumbs, put tray back in...
ReplyDeleteAgreed! Toasters and coffeemakers aren't making much progress. And I like a toaster with one long slot for longer slices of French bread, etc. and they're nearly impossible to find. Try this weird combo if you like PB toast: toast, PB, any purple jelly (but it must be purple), and a slice of American or Velveeta cheese. I know, it sounds revolting but it's oddly yummy. It's called a "Gene" after the family friend who ate them growing up. His family also ate fried potatoes with chocolate pudding but I'm not going there...
ReplyDeleteto 'I'm Crayon'...We used to make a sandwich that was crunchy peanut butter (there is NO other kind!), jam (any kind), cheese and dill pickle. Sweet, tangy, savoury and peanutty, and with lots of texture. MMMM...:)
ReplyDeleteI love the old toasters. and peanut butter toast...Yum!
ReplyDelete