Minuto makes a difference
356552
Dean Minuto makes it clear that sales goes well beyond the traditional sales models that we all know.  CEO's, VP's, sales managers and salespeople will all benefit from this power packed fast read. Minuto proves he's an EXPERT on why people buy or don't buy. This book will really make a difference as you quickly learn to use a new tool that really works!  Buy it now.
3355579
I am glad these are nitrites and nitrates free.  These pepperonis are uncured.  With that may mean less flavor that what I am used to in pepperoni, but I believe it is not much less flavor and that may be intensified by the caramelizing of the sliced pepperoni in a pizza oven on a pizza stone.  I have given pieces to each of my pizza experts and all of us agree this pepperoni is somewhat milder than what is normal for us.

We are definitely looking forward to using this pepperoni along with our fresh made mozzarella and homemade Italian pizza sauce on a fresh made pizza crust and test its flavor and texture where we will use it most often.
2767235
I read all the reviews and really wanted the famous, larger machine but kept wavering about spending money on something about which I had absolutely no experience.  I never, ever made pasta before owning this machine and my two friends who had made pasta told me it is too much work and they would never do it again.  Was this just a passing fancy for me?  What if I had all the troubles that many of the reviewers had?  What if I spent a bunch of money and never used that machine?  So when I saw this smaller machine at the Home Hardware in Ashland, I decided to give it a try, since it comes with two cutter heads and is around $30 to buy.  Here is my assessment:

1.  Read the manual.  I think many reviewers did not clean their machine with dough before using it, as it instructs you in the manual.  I used the basic egg pasta recipe in the manual and judged the stickiness based on reading many reviews.  I used my KitchenAid mixer to make the dough.  Then I read the manual again and other cookbooks, so the next time, I let the dough rest longer in between rolling and cutting.  Rest helps the consistency of the dough.  Also, I used 1/3 semolina flour, 1/3 white whole wheat flour, and 1/3 all purpose flour-it was a pleasing combination for me.

2.  If you get the dough right, clean-up is easy.  Storage is easy, because the machine is small.  The handle falls out once in awhile but it is made to move back and forth, so just be careful.  People complained about the clamp, but I had no problems with it.  I clamped it to the counter of my very ancient house.

3.  Great for making crackers!  I have made wheat thins and olive oil crackers.  I love crackers and never make them because I hate rolling out the dough.  This little machine makes it a breeze.  I like my crackers on setting number four.

4.  The machine is simple and easy for one person to use, because the sheets are less than six inches wide.  One batch of crackers or pasta lasts me a week or so.  Let me assure you, there is no comparison to the store bought pasta.  My stash of boxed pasta went to the food pantry, because fresh is so delicious.  Tomorrow I am making more crackers-cheaper, tastier, and healthier at home and less waste of packaging materials.

This machine is a great way to try a new a new cooking skill. Now I am dreaming of grinding my own wheat and selling pasta at the farmers market...maybe some day when I am a famous pasta maker I will buy the big, fancy machine, but this one is just fine for now.
3848946
When I first saw this Useful Mincer I thought "oh how tiny and compact". I own a large name brand food chopper that works great but it's annoying taking it out all the time because it is so large and bulky. I figured I'd order this mincer for the small mincing jobs. It is smaller than I thought it would be and was quite happy with the size.

After it arrived, I proceeded to try to mince some onion as I ran out of garlic the night before and haven't had the chance to get more. It worked well with the onion as long as I kept the blades in the chopping motion. If I took a few seconds in between pulses then some of the onion would stick to the blades. I bought my garlic the next day and tried to mince garlic for that night's dinner. I'm pleased to report that ALL of my garlic was minced in a matter of seconds.

I noticed when placing anything in the chopping container and placing the red lid over it, didn't work as well for me. It's a great mincer but I had the best results when I placed the food item and a cutting board and didn't use the red lid for chopping. My only guess would be that if you have a harder surface the blades might cut easier instead of the blades hitting a thick rubberized plastic. Overall, this mincer works great for me as long as I do not use the red lid it comes with!

Cleaning was the easiest part! Take the red lid off if it's not off already. Twist the clear plastic piece and remove. Then pull the red plastic blade covering off and rinse the body of the mincer. Either hand wash carefully watching the blades or do what I did and throw everything in the top shelf of my dishwasher.

Disclaimer...I received this product at a discount in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.  The opinion posted above is 100% my own.
4651999
After reading the negative comments about this machine, I was worried: should I have bought it?  Did I waste my money?  Now that it's arrived, I found it very easy to use.  I sucessfully made spaghetti and fettucine my first try, although I threw it out per the instructions, because this was the very first time I used it and this runthrough cleaned the manufacturing residue out of the machine.  Here are my tips:
1.  Make sure your pasta dough is well kneaded until it is smooth.  Let it rest covered in plastic wrap at least 20 minutes.
2.  Cut your dough into pieces.  If you're making 1lb of pasta (about 2 cups flour, 2 eggs in most recipes,) cut the dough into four pieces.
3.  With rolling pin, roll each piece into a rectangle.  Make sure it is not too thick. Very lightly dust with flour if necessary.  I rolled mine to about twice the thickness of the widest setting on the rollers.  If the end of the rectangle is too narrow, cut a bit off to square it up somewhat.
4.  Let the dough rest another 10 minutes.  Cover with plastic wrap.
5.  Very lightly dust the first piece with flour, both sides.  Run it through the machine slowly.  If the dough feels very smooth and dry, flouring doesn't seem to be necessary. If your rectangle is too thick, the machine will pull some through while most of it bunches up on the rollers.  This will cause your rectangle to tear and form holes as it passes through the rollers.
6.  When it comes out, fold it in half (take the back end that just came out of the machine, fold it up to meet the front end.)  Run it through the machine again.  Do this at least six times. Very lightly dust with flour as necessary.  The dough should be very smooth by now.
7. Turn the dial in one setting.  Run the pasta sheet through.  Make sure the piece goes in square so that it's not running to one side of the rollers, otherwise it may bunch and tear.  If it is pulling towards one side, you can guide it with your free hand to the other.  Don't worry about the dough folding on itself as it comes out.  It seems very resiliant.  I had no problems doing this by myself.
8.  Repeat step seven until you run the piece through at the narrowest setting.
9.  Repeat with the rest of your dough.  Let the dough rest a bit, then run the first piece through the cutter attachment of your choice. As the pieces coming out get to the length you want, very lightly cut the rectangle of dough just before it enters the cutter rollers.  Use a very sharp paring knife. I tried cutting the pasta as it was coming out, but that was awkward.  The sheet of pasta you're working on now needs to be put back into the cutter rollers (because you've just cut it loose. )
10. Repeat with the other pieces of rolled pasta.
I did one practice run with some dough to clean out the machine, as per the instructions. This was my practice run. The very first runthrough was not successful, and then I hit upon the idea of rolling the dough into a rectangle as in step 3 above.  Then I hit upon the idea of using smaller pieces of dough to prevent getting unmangeably long sheets.
I would give this machine five stars if it were stainless steel, and washable.
1667578
Not as good as grandma makes, but these keep the italian in my life happy.  The individual wrapping keeps these crisp and also helps with portion control.
2543973
It is a nice pasta maker. I have to get used to it much lighter that the old one I have.
2496911
It's a little different then the one that was originally in my oven in the connections but works just as well and you can see the minutes as they count down on this one.
3088630
The Ovente has been working great. Its not being heavily used but none the less it has been performing quite well. For the price, its value is equal. Not heavy in construction, but again its balance with its retail price. To make a quick cup of coffee/tea or some instant cup noodles, the Ovente heats up the water pretty fast. Faster than me grabbing a pot and turning on the stove. Peace of mind also comes in play, cause now I don't have to worry about a running stove as I hustle around the kitchen and house. A quick hustle cause before you know it, the water is ready!
1529759
The quick change is very helpfull.
Square corners in small sizes are easy to produce. Practice first but after that it was easy to controll.
973948
Like the other reviewers say, the wheel is slightly tight.  You do have to put in a little muscle and press down as you cut to get it to spin properly, but it cuts pizza just fine from my experience.  If you ask me, it's worth it to watch a monkey on a unicycle cut my pizza!
1120726
This little guy is great, the only thing I would say is that it minces rather than chops.  I frequently make pesto, or I like to mince cilantro with shallots for guac, and this is terrific for that.
441247
This is a great machine. For years I made pasta with an Imperia machine until lately my arthritis won't let me do the hand cranking. This machine also does a great job. The most challenging thing is to get the moisture level just right, unlike the manual method, where you can eyeball it. So that's about the only drawback. But I found out the secret to the perfect mixture from the other reviews, which is to go by weight, instead of volume. Since measuring in grams I have had success.
1712318
I was curious why this product got some single star reviews. I can only conclude that the users of this item didn't RTFI (read the following instructions). Chopping onions and garlic was a snap when utilizing the instructions provided, which consisted of using the low setting and pulsing until the desired size was achieved. I'm very happy with the performance of this mini-prep and for the price it is an outstanding buy. Oh, and the complaint about having to chop food items up before putting them into the mini-prep is without culinary merit. If you've every had to mince garlic or onions or fruit to prepare a meal then having to make a few 1/2" chops wouldn't be an issue. I'll take making a few cuts at an onion over having to mince one by hand any day of the week. The mini-prep minces so well that it really takes a lot of the manual labor out of preparing a meal to cook for the family.
3172032
Really good.  A more coarse grind than I'm used to with Italian brands.  Won't be waiting to reorder
4885284
The Black & Decker oven is much, much more than a pizza maker. There was a short learning curve and some very crispy food at first, but once I understood how it works, I was successfully using it to cook anything that was frozen.

The oven has a ceramic cooking tray that heats up fast; there are heating elements above and below the tray for even browning. There is a dial with multiple settings for thin or pan pizza, frozen snacks, or baking, but the actual temperatures are either 600F or 375F. However, with the ceramic tray, the food will cook much faster at either temperature than it will in a standard oven.

The first food I cooked was a frozen thin crust pizza  it was done in 4 minutes. We had set the timer for 5 minutes so it got a little crispy on the edges. I tried a couple of brands of pizzas and they each cook differently, plus several different flatbreads with excellent results.

Here are some of the foods I've cooked in the month I've had the oven - all were frozen foods and cooked in half the stated time or less.
 - Thin crust pizzas, 4 min, good
 - Flatbreads, 4 min, good
 - Fish fillets, good
 - Breaded shrimp, very good
 - Chicken pot pie, ehhh - soggy using the bake setting
 - Egg rolls, very good
 - Tater tots, very good

The timer is on a dial, and therefore not 100% accurate. This is an oven where seconds make a difference between burned and tasty. So now I also set the timer on my stove, this way I know exactly how long the food has been cooking.

I would have liked more settings on the temperature dial. There are only two choices375F (bake) or 600F. I can understand why, since this is geared towards pizza making. But the oven is so versatile, a 500F setting would be a nice extra, especially for cooking fish.

The oven ships fully assembled and ready to use. In the photo it looks like a toaster oven, but it measures 21x18x10. It is a bit hefty and takes up more space than I was expecting, so be aware that if you don't have a lot of counter space, this will need to be stored somewhere else.

I like the convenience of quick cooking and not having to heat up my kitchen using my conventional oven, especially now with the summer heat. Overall, the oven has been a positive addition to my kitchen and I'm using it on a regular basis.
2744726
This product is great when you need it mince small amounts of garlic and ginger.  I'm sure it's great for other things as well but those are my primary items at this point in my culinary life.  I'm not sure my full size Cuisinart would do the job as well for small amounts. If it did, I would have had to take it out, put it on the counter, then have the task of washing all the large parts.  It's a great machine, but not worth it fr small jobs.  The small Cuisinart works great.  Easy to use. Easy to clean.  Doesn't take up much space.