processing

[owlmoose]

We got a boffo wedding gift in the mail from T's aunt the other day -- a food processor. It seems like every time we crack open the new Cook's Illustrated, there's at least one recipe that we'd like to try but can't because it requires this appliance. So I'm pretty excited. I know some say you shouldn't use wedding gifts before the blessed event actually occurs, and we might have held out, but the box was munged in shipping and there were labels on the outside advising us to inspect the contents for damage. So we had to open the box, and take out the food processor, and check all the parts, and as long as we were at it, we figured we might as well test it out. Last night, we made lasagna and used the processor to chop the onions and fresh basil. Oh my god. The onions went from wedges to minced in a matter of seconds, and nobody teared up or got the smell of onion all over their hands for the next three days. The basil chopped even more easily (if not quite as evenly, although it was a million times more uniform then when I try to chop fresh herbs with a knife), although we had to be careful not to process it into mush. I've only used it to make one dinner, and I'm already a convert. Now I'm all excited about using it to make all those things I could only dream about before, and wondering why on earth we held out this long.

Comments

[luvmoose.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I should have gotten one ages ago. It's a cheap one from Target and I don't use it for much more than pesto, but it's still divine. I imagine the day I'll actually make fondue here and it will be very handy. But I really want that magic bullet thing, because it had so many simple 1 or 2 person recipes for things like fresh sorbet. Then Scott reminded me about how not perfect the Perfect Pancake was. Maybe I'll just try that mini-chopper Susan's been asking about onList.

[anonamys.livejournal.com]

I haven't read the posts about the magic bullet thing, but, um... it doesn't sound like a kitchen implement. (Especially if you regularly see ads for Toys in Babeland.)

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

Hah! :)

Maybe we should have done wedding registries *there*...

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

I don't know what attachments they make for the lower-end food processors, but ours (it's a KitchenAid) came with a mini bowl that fits inside the regular bowl and a smaller blade for it. That's actually what we used on Friday, since we only needed to chop small amounts of onion and basil. Then you only need to wash the lid and the smaller bowl. So you might look into whether it has something like that.

[luvmoose.livejournal.com]

It's a Black&Decker, so it's not totally "cheap". But I also don't see it having attachments. I think I'll either spend another $40 for a mini one (because I don't think this one cost more than $40), or I'll look into a higher quality one sometime in the future.