Mark's Everything Blog of Goodness: The World’s Greatest Kitchen Gadget

I felt that I should really take a moment and sing the praises of one of the best products I’ve ever owned. I’m not usually one to totally pimp a product like this. As a husband and father of two (about to be three), and being monumentally lazy, I have learned one thing. I hate using the stove. Give me a grill any day and I’ll cook the hell out of something. That’s not a problem to me. However, if pans and recipes start getting involved, I get skittish.

Presto managed to invent the Pizza Pizzazz. Now at first glance, I was thinking, wow, what a stupid invention. That’s where my mother comes in. My mom has a penchant for the latest in kitchen gadgets and trends. Chances are, if you’ve seen it on the Food Channel, my mother probably has it or has owned it. So one night we came over for dinner and my mom decided to make pizza. But she was going to use the Pizzazz and I was all for seeing if this thing was a “miracle” appliance or not. She added on extra toppings and cheese and away she went. I had NEVER had frozen pizza turn out and taste so good. I knew then I had to have one.
Now, I’m a big fan of pizza in general. I’m pretty sure I could eat it every day and still want more. I has everything in life you need, meat, bread (dough), vegetables, cheese, and occasionally fruit. It is the most perfect food in the world and is very hard to really screw up. But I never really cared to eat most frozen pizzas as they were usually fairly bland and cooked unevenly. But the Pizzazz really gets a nice crispy crust on those pizzas and that’s always a good thing. I know some people swear by their pizza stones and those are fine if you’re making your own pizza, but they still don’t do it for me with frozen pizzas.
The ensuing Christmas proved to be very good to me and Becca as my mother got every family their own Pizza Pizzazz. I was pretty enthusiastic about getting this as I had been eyeballing it pretty much everywhere I went. It seemed a little pricey to me and I just wasn’t ready to spend the money on it. After all, I had only seen it in action once. After we got it for Christmas it was in use almost immediately. Ever since, frozen pizza has been even MORE of a mainstay in this household. I’ve really loved the thing.
Sure, this thing works for pizza, but I started to wonder why I couldn’t use it for other things? Well, on I went with trying chicken nuggets, jalapeno poppers, breaded chicken patties, fish sticks, pizza rolls, and the list goes on. There was even an ill-fated attempt to cook hamburgers on it (the only problem, nowhere for the grease to drain) and it took that licking and keeps on going. And why does I use that instead of the oven? Easy clean-up, I’m guessing it uses less electricity, so it just seems more efficient. I’m not heating up a huge oven to do a few chicken patties. And it gets all that breaded stuff crispy, so who can argue with that?
I’ve found that one of the few products that can make life easier is Presto’s Pizza Pizzazz. I use it at least once a week if not more (depending on the week), and it has lasted (I believe) at least 4 years. That’s pretty good for a product like this considering the amount of use it gets. So it seems durable as well. Just make sure you set the round tray on it correctly or you tend to burn things. My friend Bart found this out the hard way when that Dutch fun loving Dennis didn’t put the tray on correctly. If you don’t have one, you really should!