processing

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.