It's a Mystery

Last weekend, I threw a Murder Mystery dinner party for El Hubby's birthday. In the past, we never really celebrated his birthday because it was so close to Valentine's Day and it was difficult to get people together. This year, I decided to make Valentine's Day weekend all about him. My friends and I have talked about throwing a murder mystery for a while now so I thought his birthday would be the perfect opportunity to do it.

I purchased "Murder at Franklin Vinatra's Birthday Party" from Amazon, which is a cool instant download kit. I just printed out the document, assigned characters, and emailed everyone their first set of clues. It got a bit scandalous (in a PG-13) kind of way because of cross-intruigues and affairs so it might be better to do this for an all-singles party. There's a bunch of different themes available, like this Christmas Murder one: Murder Mystery Party Game Instant Download: Twas the Night of Pandemonium - a Christmas Murder or this funny pirate one: Mystery Party Game Instant Download: Ahoy Mateys! The Mystery on Bootstrap Bluebeard's Pirate Ship. I might do something utterly ridiculous next time, like a Pride and Prejudice and Zombies theme muah ha ha.

Since this party was a 19050's Hollywood Glamour themed, I served mostly 1950's era food and drinks. It was a bit challenging getting the timing of food down because I had to use the oven for most of it. Hubby promised me two ovens in our next house and probably a professional range but yeah...that might take a while haha. In the meantime, I'm on the lookout for a countertop convection oven/toaster oven. When it is just the two of us, it is a pain (and inefficient) to heat up the entire oven to make 2 servings of food. We got rid of our microwave for health reasons (completely based on conjecture, and not science) so we only heat up food on the stove or oven. Also, we have lots of people over, it's nice to have an extra oven unit around to bake appetizers or keep stuff warm until it is ready to serve.

I have my eye on this Cuisinart Oven, which is $142.99, shipped:

Cuisinart TOB-195 Exact Heat Toaster Oven Broiler, Stainless
It received hundreds of reviews and still managed to maintain a near 5 star rating. Hubby's coworker recommended this unit too so I think it will be a good, reliable bet. The only downside is that this thing is HUGE. I like to keep things in proportion to the scale of the surroundings and this might be overwhelming. Also, the "negative" reviews are few but disconcerting. Lots of talk about burnt fingers and confusing digital buttons and poor toasting qualities.

There's also this sleek Breville Toaster oven for $249 (Or $299 from Williams Sonoma) that has received good reviews.

Breville BOV800XL The Smart Oven 1800-Watt Convection Toaster Oven with Element IQ

It has sleeker lines and looks a bit more compact, which I like. The negative reviews on this one are also relatively few (18 out of 453) but that's where I learned that you can't heat foil or oven-proof glass in it. It also mentioned shattered glass doors. Hmm. And these two are the high-end, highly rated units too! Does anyone have a good convection toaster oven to recommend?