Mom the Gadget Queen bought me a Pizza Dome. What is a Pizza Dome, you ask? Only the latest "must have" kitchen gadget. It's a table top clay oven designed for communal baking of mini pizzas.  Here's a photo from Target.com:




OK, maybe not exactly practical for someone looking to simplify her life, but for goodness sake one has to have SOME fun, right?

At any rate, The Man is a pizza fiend and was eager to try it out. So, we heated it up and dug out a few Stouffer's French bread pizzas that have been lurking in the freezer. Although the instructions talk about making fresh little pizzas, we figured we'd give it a try with what we had on hand.

Wow! The pizzas turned out GREAT!  They were a bit high and needed to be finessed out of the oven (the little arches are where the pizzas go in and aren't very high) but the bread was crisp and the topping nicely heated.  There are two heating elements; one beneath a metal disk that acts as the bottom where the pizzas are placed, and one about two inches above the bottom, sitting about at the level of the top of the arches in the clay top. The Man even commented that they didn't taste like inexpensive store-bought pizzas.

The instruction booklet gives all kinds of neat pizza ideas, including dessert pizzas and mini calzones. It even mentions baking cookies!

Now, I can imagine this would be an AWESOME goo-gaw for serving several people (it has six spaces and little spatulas for pizza). This would definitely take a "pizza party" to new levels; just provide dough circles, sauce and toppings and let the diners assemble their food as they want. The main downside is that the thing is HUGE. It's about 18" in diameter and a good 14" or more high. Storage is a challenge, especially in a small kitchen. We don't have a small kitchen, but plenty of gadgets from Mom and so storage space is a premium. Despite just being two of us, I really think the Pizza Dome will be a good addition to the kitchen and so I plan on making space for it.