~~ PANINIS ON ME ~ ENJOY THE CUISINART GR4 INDOOR GRILL ~~

Author's Rating:

Pros: Great food, easy to clean, choices, safe

Cons: Too small

The Bottom Line: 
The best cooking tool in my kitchen when I am in a hurry! Say goodbye to dry, microwave junk food!! Beautiful model!

Author's Review
I haven't always been a kitchen-friendly person....

As a teenager, I went out with friends. As a young single adult, I grazed while running in and out of my apartment, and as a young wife and mother, I ate whatever was left-over from the hubby and kids, if I had time. Now that I am in my young thirties and my kids (and husband, respectively) can pretty much lean on their own understanding, I find myself drawn into the kitchen. I know the semi-recent remodel and updated and change of appliances have a lot to do with it, but I also contribute it to the line of products that have come on the market in the last 2 ~ 3 years.

Take for instance, the Cuisinart GR4 Indoor Grill, which puts it's competition to bed. I love this stainless steel brushed (which means it is coated with liquid stainless steel, but is not made of, or durable/heavy as the real thing) grill. Not only is it gorgeous and matches everything in my New York Pub style kitchen, but it cooks the food faster, more even, and more juicier than any other indoor grill I have had. I have had several sizes and models of other indoor grills that actually ended up in the trash, from the grill's lining peeling, and losing the "drain drip" and so forth. This is just much more elegant, and easy to clean.

The inside of the grill has a non-stick set of 2 different plates to choose from depending on what you are cooking. You can use a flat surface for things like eggs, pancakes, or hamburgers, and then it becomes a sandwich maker, for large meat sandwiches like the new fad of Paninis. I make a wicked panini, without burning the toasted bread or having soggy veggies in the middle with this function. They are easy to take out and clean, and put back. It is safe for any dishwasher. You won't have a problem when inter-changing your choice of cooking methods. No other grill that I have seen has a choice like this. It saves you counter space from having two different devices.

I have cooked meats, roasted veggies, make out of this world grilled cheeses, and I haven't had one complaint with how the food turned out. It has a built in temperature control that you can adjust, as well as a special controller for choosing between the grill or griddle so that it may cook accordingly. There are lights to let you know that the meal is cooked the way that you choose, i.e., well done, etc....The grease drains much like any other indoor grill into a drip pan, but it hasn't overflowed that easily for me the way other models have. That was always one of my biggest complaints with the others as well as the drip pan being hard to clean. This does not seem to attract grease to it's sides and washes and rises out with no problem. Included is also a scraping leftover tool to get stuck on hamburger, veggies, etc. It is so smooth and stick free that I have not had any problem thus far. The handle is huge, and cook to the touch. It makes it very simple to get and out of there while your food roasts, toasts and grills.

How does the food taste?? Heavenly. Before I had this, which was when I was "done" with indoor grill/sandwich makers, we had a lot of microwave food when I didn't have time to cook from scratch, and our diets really went out the window along with our waistlines. Terrible, just terrible. So I am glad I caved in and gave this way of cooking a 2nd look. Now I can throw chicken breasts, asparagus, onions, ground turkey, anything, even bratwurst dogs which I normally put in my toaster oven taste better on this baby!

If you are in the market, you couldn't find a better one. The only downfall is that it is not bigger and I can only make a few things at a time, which is a backwards compliment! Indulge in your taste buds!!