'The Real Housewives of New York City' recap: Let the Drama Begin - Entertainment Weekly

We took the steep drop into St. Bart's last night, for the first episode of a three-parter that finally promises some actual action. Pirate style! I'm unclear again why we went to St. Bart's in the first place. Did Carole have to go to the island for work? For a hook-up with her hot shaggy-haired Aerosmith player? Did Bravo just need these bitches to get out of town and under the generous spouts of a wine dispenser? Whatever the reason, the house was gorgeous—"I'm speechless and I'm never speechless," spoke Ramona—and totally worth that rickety plane ride where passengers appeared to stand smushed up against one another like it was the 6 train.

At the house Ramona angled for a master suite while Sonja stuck her hand down the pants of the chef and butler.  The views were extraordinary, the pools inviting, the hangers in the master closet plentiful, which meant at least we wouldn't have a repeat of Moroccan drama. Carole and Heather smartly decided to hang their fedoras in private bungalows and leave the master suite to Vegas newlyweds Ramona and Sonja. Sonja promised Heather that she would serve as a buffer between her and Ramona, between Ramona and the world even! Such was her responsibility in life. Meanwhile Ramona started squawking at the staff to cough up the key to the pool toy closet. If she wasn't floating on a noodle with a glass of pink champagne in each hand within five minutes she would write down in her notebook a reminder to herself to have the lot of them fired.

Poor Heather then ran nose-first into a sliding glass door, holla! The camera guy missed the moment but did get a close-up of some oil and foundation smudged on the wood beam. (Though I thought she ran into glass?) She laid on the bed as her red boxer's pug swelled. "I do want a nose job some day," she said by way of consoling herself. Of course you do, honey. LuAnn pretended to want to take care of her. "Once a nurse always a nurse!" the least nurturing woman ever explained, before quickly excusing herself to join the drunks up at the pool.

Ramona's eyes widened, twirled around her head a few times, then exploded into rainbow happy tears at the sight of wine vending machine in the kitchen. Sonja broke down the size equivalents for her inebriated friend. A small pour is one Carole's breast worth. Medium is Sonja-sized, and a large is Ramona's generous cup. But Ramona objected to the idea that she had large breasts. She has perfect breasts, as Sonja would find out later when Ramona made her massage them with lavender oil before the two fell asleep.

"Tony can you squirt Ramona...some wine," said Sonja with a horny giggle. "Just a little squirt." Sonja, my former favorite New York housewife, has been acting like a bit of a little squirt all season. Her displeasure over a lack of spring roll dipping sauce reminded her that she was still peeved at Heather over the toaster oven photo shoot. "This is the most talked-about toaster oven in the history of nonexistent toaster ovens," said Carole, in one of her many fine zingers of the night. So Sonja started bleating about logos, Heather tried to defend herself in a reasonable tone of voice, and Ramona kept barging into the conversation with karate chops of nonsense.

NEXT: Russ plays a one-night show for Carole.

Lost in Suburbia: This Toaster Oven is toast - Independent Press - NJ.com

Goldilocks has nothing on me. She couldn’t find a chair that wasn’t too hard or too soft.
Me? I’m on my fourth toaster oven in two weeks. Yes, it’s an addiction. I have major toaster oven issues. I am officially ready for toaster oven rehab.
It all started when the first toaster oven – the one we’d had for pretty much our entire marriage – gave up the toast, I mean the ghost. One day it decided that everything we put in should come out blackened. We decided differently.
With heavy hearts, we said goodbye to old toasty and I went out to find a new one.
The store had a dizzying array of choices. Our old toaster oven had two settings: bake or toast. But in the twenty years since we bought our old toastmaster, the toaster oven industry had really ignited. We could get a convection toaster oven, a digital convention toaster oven, a toaster/broiler, a toaster/broiler/rotisserie, and even a toaster oven that offered conventional calrods and infrawave technology. Certainly I didn’t know what calrods were, but they sounded very impressive, so I was in.
I plunked down the equivalent of a down payment on a car and brought home a new toaster oven with all the bells and whistles I could pronounce. I proudly set it up to demonstrate it to my family. But when I plugged it in and turned it on, the kitchen lights went out.
“What the heck?” I wondered.
“It’s too powerful. It’s overloading the circuit breakers,” said my husband. “Bring it back.”
I stroked the gleaming black and chrome exterior. “Maybe we can get a generator to handle the extra power?” I suggested hopefully.
“Bring it back.”
I packed and cushioned all the calrods and infrawaves and brought it back to the store. Then I picked another toaster that wasn’t nearly as fancy or powerful. Truth be told, it was kind of big and clunky looking and I felt a little sorry for it. It was the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree of toaster ovens.
When I got it home, I plugged it in and was happy to note that the kitchen lights stayed on.
“Success!” I crowed. I unplugged the toaster oven and put it in the slide out drawer where we keep our toaster oven when it’s not in use. But much to my horror, it didn’t fit. It was too big.
“Argh! The other one was too powerful. This one is too big. I need one that is just right!”
Back to the store I went.
“I have to return this toaster oven,” I said to the salesgirl.
“Is it defective?” she asked reasonably.
“No, it’s too big. And the other one was too powerful. I need one that is smaller and weaker.”
She looked at me sympathetically, the way people do when they know they are talking to someone who is mentally unstable.
…Which brings us to our fourth toaster oven.
“Do we like this toaster oven,” my husband asked, eyeballing the new appliance.
“No,” I said definitively. “This one is too small.”
“Does it make the lights go off?”
“No.”
“Does it fit in the drawer?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Does it make toast?”
“Uh, yeah,” I admitted reluctantly.
“Sounds like a winner to me.”
I brooded for a couple of days over the lack of largeness and fanciness of our new toaster oven, debating whether or not to bring it back and try another. Then, about a week later, my husband approached me again.
“So, are we keeping this toaster oven?” he asked cautiously.
“Yeah. Whatever. It’s fine,” I responded.
He looked relieved.
“…But we need a new fridge.”

Note: To become a fan of Lost in Suburbia on Facebook go to http://www.facebook.com/LostinSuburbiaFanPage

Toaster oven icons know the menu - CNET (blog)

The Panasonic NB-G110P Flash Xpress Toaster Oven features automatic cooking modes. The countertop appliance has preset buttons for pizza and more.

Push-button toasting and leftovers reheating.

(Credit: Amazon)

A toaster oven is one of those devices in the kitchen that are seemingly useful for everything. In fact, it gets pressed into service so often that we can practically use them blindfolded. (Do not use your kitchen appliances blindfolded.) It may be easy to forget how versatile a toaster oven can be, so that means a cheat sheet can help.

With icons to guide users through common tasks, the Panasonic NB-G110P Flash Xpress Toaster Oven ($127) makes the countertop appliance even easier to use. The preset functions are divided into two intuitive sections, one labeled "bread" and the other "food." Each section has three (mostly) recognizable icons, including pizza, hash browns, bread slices, and frozen waffles.

The approximately 10-inch-tall appliance has a footprint a little larger than a square foot and is capable of incremental temperature adjusting from 250 degrees to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. The infrared oven heats up quickly and is rounded out by inclusions of a timer as well as an interior light. Capable of adjusting cooking time to suit the need, the appliance makes quick work of common countertop-cooking tasks. And that does include just making toast.

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'RHONY' Sonja Morgan Talks Toaster Oven Feud - Gather.com

Sonja Morgan is talking about that toaster oven controversy which ended the last episode of The Real Housewives of New York City. It is Sonja's toaster oven and brand so she should have the final say, but Heather Thomson took many hours out of her days to set up the photo shoot and make sure that Sonja had everything she needed to get it done. Also, Heather did all of this for free.

Sonja insists that she does not "know what all the fuss is about."

Well, it appears that a friend helped her with a huge thing for free, and Sonja Morgan was kind of ungrateful. She really acted like a diva, and this is just not cool when someone is helping her. A quick thank you and a less snotty attitude would have made the outcome of this situation far more pleasant. Then, add Ramona making it all about her and things just really blew up.

For more news and commentary, follow Rose on Twitter @Rose_Kitchen

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