Can one kitchen appliance make dinner, I figured, if one appliance is smart enough, it can make a great holiday feast for four in my tiny apartment

I skipped the smart appliances in my smart home DIY renovation However, I have spent quite a bit of time at a residence in another city There, I don't have the Frigidaire set of high-end appliances or the Alexa-enabled faucet that my parents installed in their new, intelligent kitchen a few months ago Nor is there much space But I have maximized my cooking capabilities with the June Oven This 12-in-1 smart convection oven allows me to channel my inner celebrity chef without a showroom-worthy setup

Measuring 196 x 19 x 1275 inches, the June oven is the only countertop appliance I can place in my galley kitchen But it replaces the best toaster ovens, slow cookers, air fryers, etc Plus, it preheats faster than my age-old built-in convection oven Not to mention, I can preheat from my phone

As a lover of high-tech kitchen gadgets, I'm no stranger to app-enabled controls and other useful features But the June Oven is the most ambitious device I've tested in the kitchen Luckily, I'm ambitious, too That's why I wanted to host Thanksgiving this year by using this smart oven and its various settings to assemble a traditional holiday meal As luck would have it, I attempted a cook-through a week early Here's how it turned out

I've tried another kind of "smart" holiday cooking before, Alexa vs Google Assistant: Which is the best Thanksgiving dinner helperIn the showdown, I used each voice assistant's smart I compared how each display presented the recipe for my signature appetizer, baked puff pastry brie Alexa won in terms of creativity, but the Google Assistant was good enough

Open to trying something new (and by new I mean something I saw on TikTok), I chose air fryer baked brie bites to kick off my holiday meal marathon The June Oven serves as one of the best air fryers, taking advantage of the rapid air circulation provided by the built-in fan The mini brie wheels were topped with a spoonful of cranberry jam, wrapped in egg wash puff pastry, and placed in the June Oven's basket accessory

What emerged was a collection of lovely gooey pockets of cheese, protected by delicate, flaky dough These brie bites were the ultimate amuse-bouche, and I don't think I'll ever make them any other way once they've been air-baked in the June oven

Sweet potato casserole is an essential Thanksgiving dish, both a tradition and an excuse to eat plenty of marshmallows at dinner I roast peeled and diced yams in the June oven and mashed them with an exorbitant amount of butter and brown sugar

Then it was time to get to work When you put marshmallows in the oven, you have to watch them carefully, because they go from toasted brown to charred black in seconds Luckily, the June oven has a top-view camera so I was able to monitor the sweet potato topping with my smartphone In less than two minutes on the bake setting, I watched the mallow turn golden brown and perfect I think the super-satisfying time-lapse recording the app provided was more impressive than the actual taste of the dish

To be honest, I'm not a big fan of cooking or eating turkey When I spend Thanksgiving with just my nuclear family, I usually buy a breast instead of a whole roasted turkey The turkey breast I bought at Trader Joe's was perfect for the chicken cooking spatchcock function on my June Oven, if not already cooked This shortcut is worth it

June also partners with Trader Joe's (as does the Brava Smart Oven), so if you buy select pre-cooked foods at Trader Joe's, the oven knows how to cook them properly My bone-in garlic herb butter turkey breast was not on the menu, but with the reheat setting and an internal thermometer dongle, I was able to track down the heated meat for dinner

We kept the lid on for half of the heating time, then removed the foil to allow the skin to color and crisp up in the oven At counter height, I felt it was much safer to open the oven door to season the juicy bird than to stick my head inside a typical floor convection oven I noticed that the internal temperature of the June oven didn't waver too much, even with the app's clever temperature chart

Stuffing, dressing, whatever you want to call it, the carbohydrate mixture that accompanies the turkey is one of my favorite Thanksgiving dishes At the actual Thanksgiving feast, it is made from scratch with stale bread, mirepoix, and homemade soup stock For this experiment, however, I decided to make the stuffing from a box to save time I also splurged for a type of cornbread

I put the crumb and seasoning mixture into a casserole dish and left it to the June oven Knowing that the app would let me know when it was done, I finally stepped away for the best part of the holiday: a drink Last week I told you about my robotic cocktail maker, the Drinkworks Home Bar Classic You put the Old Fashioned in the pod and let the machine do the rest After sipping the smoky drink until the filling was complete, it was finally time for dinner

In addition to the above dishes, I made roasted green beans and cut out sugar cookies in the June oven Besides the gravy simmering in the pot, the entire meal was accomplished in the Smart Oven Now I know that when I host a real Thanksgiving, I don't have to rely on mediocre rental appliances to make delicious holiday magic happen

Yes, I took a few shortcuts, but that's not a bad thing; the point of working in the IoT world is to work smarter, not harder All the food on the table was delicious, and with the energy saved, I might actually enjoy hosting At least I have time to have a cocktail with my family before dinner And if I get full of charcuterie in the middle of prepping (brie cheese is addictive), I can bake a baguette in the June oven and make a juicy sandwich the next day