"villaware" news and stories

It looks like the Slate missed out in their toaster test by excluding specialty and novelty toasters, but if "cute" had been one of their categories, these Disney toasters by VillaWare would have won hands down. Not only is there a Cinderella toaster, which prints a heart on one side of toast and a glass slipper on the other, but there are Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse toasters, too. Perhaps the most interesting toaster is one that will really appeal to children while annoying the heck out of parents: the Mickey Mornin' Toaster. It prints the unforgettable image of Mickey Mouse on the toast and it plays the Mickey Mouse Club March when the toast pops up. This toaster would make a great gift - that way you get to see it in action without having to live with it!

I know Christmas must be coming when I break out one of the few unitaskers in my kitchen: the VillaWare Prego Pizzelle Baker. I'm sure if I thought hard enough I could come up with something else to make with this small waffle iron (small waffles, maybe?). Last weekend I devoted an entire afternoon to cranking out dozens and dozens of pizzelles--thin, crisp wafers studded with fennel seeds. Up until now, I'd used the recipe from the instruction manual that came with the iron, but since I wanted to make a larger batch to give to friends, I decided to try the pizzelle recipe from Mario Batali's Holiday Food. The batter is a simple combination of eggs, flour, sugar, oil, baking powder and fennel seeds.

All in all, I turned about roughly five dozen pizzelles, two at a time. Since the iron took several minutes to reheat between batches, it was slow going. Still, I kept reminding myself that it could be slower, I could be using the single-pizzelle stovetop model pictured in Mario's book. I also recently noticed that VillaWare now makes a four-pizzelle iron. I don't know that I can justify buying another one though.

[Photo Nick Vagnoni]