Tag: food

Cuisinart Indoor Pizza Oven (Mini-Review)

Post author By Pete Prodoehl
Post date 2026-08-21
1 Comment on Cuisinart Indoor Pizza Oven (Mini-Review)

First, I work at a great place, with an awesome boss. I came into work a few months ago and he said “Hey, people were asking about getting a pizza oven for the office…” and I was like “Hell Yeah!” and then I had some comments and eventually I offered to make some recommendations.

And now you’re like “Hey man, you don’t even own a pizza oven!” and you’re right… I do not! I use my home oven. Whatever, man. Someone reminded me I offered to do a mini-review so that’s what you’re reading.

We got the Cuisinart Indoor Pizza Oven at work. It was listed at $284.99 USD.

First of all, it’s small. That’s okay. It can bake a pizza quickly. It goes up to 700° F so that’s a quick bake for a Neapolitan style pizza. My home oven goes to 550° F so baking takes about 5 or 6 minutes with a 1/4″ steel. This oven has a stone. I will say that sliding things on and off of the stone doesn’t seem as nice as the steel…

I tend to bake my pizzas on parchment paper, which works fine at 550° but will probably burn quite a bit at 700°. I did try a 600° bake and definitely got some burned parchment, so I typically just set it around 550°/575° when I use it. Just because that is what I’m used to. If this was the pizza oven I had at home I’d work on baking at the full 700°.

You also get a (foldable!) pizza peel, which is metal (mine at home is wood) and a pan that fits perfectly inside the oven, which is good, because it’s an odd size and they maximize the space with the pan. (I have not used the pan yet.)

One more thing. The oven is loud. It uses fan when running, either to distribute heat, or keep something(?) cool inside while heating. It also uses the fans to cool it down, so when you are done using it you need to leave it plugged in until it cools properly. Maybe it cools the electronics so they don’t cook. I don’t know. It’s noisy, just be aware of that.

Okay, so how are the pizzas? Great! The one thing I need to get used to is to rotate the pizza 180 degrees! I often forget this because I don’t need to do it at home in my normal oven. The back is definitely hotter than the front, so rotate halfway through. I probably baked the one pictured above at 550° for 5 or 6 minutes. Ideally I’d do 3 minutes, then rotate and do another 3 minutes. (If I remember!)

Would I get one for home? I would not, but only because I don’t have room for more specialized appliances, and my home oven pizza game is solid. If you don’t have a home oven that can go to 550° F it might be worth it, but a pizza steel is cheap and a great way to get started making better pizzas. Okay, that’s it. Mini-review over.

Note: This post may contain Affiliate Links. Read More.

Tags food, pizza

Uncategorized

I made some Bagels!

Hey, look! I made some bagels! I was a bit intimidated by this one, but I’ve made those pretzel buns a few times now so these were not too different from those.

I got 8 bagels, just around 100 grams each, which seems a little smaller than the ones we’d get from a bagel shop.

The boiling water had barley malt syrup in it, instead of baking soda which I use for the pretzel buns.

The topping I used were “everything bagel seasoning” and kosher salt. I did a poor job here. I learned that when you buy bagel seasoning to sprinkle on top of things, well that’s the wrong thing to use for this…

The seasoning has garlic and onion pieces that are too small, and tend to burn. So you need to make your own. Also, “bagel boards” are a thing, which are cedar board with “food grade” burlap attached and then soaked to prevent seasonings from burning.

The ones on the right side were weird ones where I just sprinkled on things like Old Bay, and other random seasonings from the cabinet. They didn’t add much, but hey… it was an experiment! Toppings are the most difficult part of this process. (I would love to do asiago parmesan bagels!)

So… yeah. Here’s what happened when I tried to hold one in my hand to slice it. I did not use an egg wash and press the bagels into a seasoning bowl. So more things to try next time.

There are a few of the recipes I looked at. I tend to read a bunch of recipes and use bits and pieces from each.

I just made another batch today, but I think with practice it’ll become easier and I’ll get the hang of it. I’d also like to try a long(er) fermentation time with less yeast like I do for pizza dough.

Note: This post may contain Affiliate Links. Read More.

Tags bagels, food

Uncategorized

Dining with a Baby

This is a short post about something that happened, which is in no way remarkable, but I thought it was important to write down and share.

Last week my wife Dana and I went out to eat. After we were sat a man showed up with a stroller and a small child. He got the child out of the stroller, folded it up, and stowed it out of the way. (It’s a restaurant without a lot of space.)

A height chair appeared and the child was sat in it. And then I realized this guy was on his own. I thought perhaps his wife would join him and three people would have dinner.

Did you catch all the wrong assumptions I made?

I’ll also note the child was very well behaved, and pretty cute! She gave Dana and I a few stares and we waved back at her. I don’t think the man said anything to the child. (At least not anything loud enough for us to hear.)

I said to Dana it seemed weird to see a man (probably a father?) going out to eat with a toddler. At one point the guy took the child out of the height chair and put them on his lap. He was eating, making sure the child was eating, and seemed to just go about his business all on his own.

She said “You probably see it all the time, but it’s a woman, and you either don’t notice, or though nothing of it.” And damn… she was (probably) right! She continued with a bit about the unseen labor of women, and how men should not be praised for doing the bare minimum or for caring for their own children. (I know these things, and agree with them, but sometimes a reminder is helpful.)

Later, after thinking about it again I said “I think maybe I sort of identified with the guy since he was, (A) a man, and (B) had a child with him. It’s been decades since my kids were small, and I remember going out to eat with them, but only when they were a bit older, or at least along their mother. Maybe I felt it wasn’t something I could handle on my own?

Of course the stroller could have been a clue… maybe they lived in the neighborhood and it was easy to walk there for dinner. And the child was very well behaved.

I also felt like we mostly made meals at home when the kid(s) were little, as money was always tight.

It seems wild I put that much thought into the whole thing but… here we are.

This post was shared on Mastodon.

Tags food, kids

Uncategorized

Hey, it’s Bread!

After making a small loaf of bread I made this massive loaf of bread. I’m kidding of course, though this bread is twice the size of the last one. (Laser-cut banana for scale.)

Here’s the ingredients list:

240 grams flour (bread flour or all-purpose flour)
6 grams kosher salt
2 grams instant dried yeast
200 grams cool water

You can see it fills out the 2 quart Dutch oven a bit more. This is probably a good size to make in the little pot. I could probably go a little larger but then I’d need to do some real math and I’m not a fan of that.

But honestly, this might be the appropriate size for our household. In the past when I’d suggest to Dana we get a loaf of bread for grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup we’d grab a loaf from the grocery store and it seemed like we could never get one the right size, or the right shape, or just a loaf that seemed to fit our modest needs.

This was a great sized loaf that lasted just over two days and was enough for two good-sized sandwiches and some left over for a couple of pieces of toast.

Obviously I need to start making a bread like this the night before (or perhaps first thing in the morning) but I’d prefer making my own bread—with just four simple ingredients—over buying a loaf at the store.

When I make it at home I know exactly what goes into it and how it was made… and that’s worth something to me.

Tags bread, food

Uncategorized

Aldi Cast Iron Dutch Oven

Post author By Pete Prodoehl
Post date 2026-04-03
No Comments on Aldi Cast Iron Dutch Oven

I picked up this little 2 quart cast iron Dutch oven from Aldi. I think I saw this blog post and knowing how expensive high quality cast iron Dutch ovens are, I figured for $20 USD I’d give it a try. I made this Small Batch Crusty Bread because it was the smallest loaf I could find. (And I was too lazy to do baker’s math for other loafs.)

I’m not big on many of the meat recipes you find for a Dutch oven, but I have been making a lot of bread lately, so I thought I would give that a try.

(Note: I did bake in on/in parchment paper, though I pulled it out for the photo.)

Tiny loaf! This only used 120 grams (1 cup) of flour. I let it rise overnight, about 12 hours, and it’s one of those “no knead” recipes. It turned out pretty good! I may try to double the size for the second attempt.

I was pleased with the crumb on this loaf. I ended up eating the whole thing in one day, not surprising I guess. I toasted up two pieces for a sandwich at lunch and damn, it was good! I look forward to making more bread and possibly exploring other recipes with this thing.

Tags bread, food, tools