Recycling a Toaster Oven and Grilled Pizza Tips

When my toaster convection oven broke, instead of throwing the whole thing out, I took a long look at it to see what might be salvaged and put to good use. Asked DH to see if it had any aluminum to recycle. The baking trays could be reused, the racks I donated (no market for them on eBay), thinking someone might want to build an outdoor BBQ that needed racks.

The steel crumb tray has taken on a new life as a small cookie sheet. I used it last night when I made a grilled pizza that didn't turn out so well, but was able to salvage the food because the crumb tray fit inside the gas BBQ grill. I put the chunks of crust that had fallen apart on the greased baking tray, plopped on the pizza sauce, sprinkled cheese over the top and continued cooking it. The pizza crust was too large for my inexperienced hands, and so when I put it on the grill, it twisted, got out of shape and stuck to itself. The mess actually resembled nachos and was quite tasty.

Next time, I am going to make individually sized crusts. They'll be easier to handle and will fit on my smallish pizza peel, eliminating some of the difficulty. One tip I learned, was to put the THIN dough on the heated grill and after a minute or so, to flip it over, put on the toppings and continue cooking until the cheese melts.

I'd made pizza on the grill several years ago and vowed not to repeat the disaster, but after watching two pizza cooking shows on PBS, felt I just had to try again. If we had decent (NY style) pizza near Richardson, TX, I wouldn't have to do this.