What is your favorite small kitchen appliance.

I love my little Black and Decker mini chopper for onions, garlic, nuts. Just bought a coffee bean grinder - Dunkin Donuts coffee lover.

Now looking to buy a stick blender for soups and smoothies. I have a regular blender but, it's such a hassle to clean it. It's over 15 years old and still works but, I understand that the stick blenders are great because you don't have to transfer the soup from pot to blender and back to pot and they are much easier to clean.

Been checking reviews on the net and seems Kitchen Aid gets top billing followed by Cuisinart. Saw this one on Amazon KitchenAid KHB100OB Hand Blender, Onyx Black for $39.

and don't often use the old blender unless I'm making chile sauces. The immersion blender just doesn't have the oomph to puree soaked chile pods, tomatillos, and whatever else I'm throwing in.

I have a hand food mill that I always used to use when I made potato soup or anything else that had to be pureed while hot. The immersion blender is quicker and less likely to leave me with scalds.

In addition, it's a pure joy to be able to make smoothies in the glass instead of in a blender and having to transfer them and wash both.

I remember my Mom having a grinder that she attached to the table or counter to combine cooked potato and cod fish for Bolos de bacala - cod fish cakes ;) Wouldn't be Christmas Eve without fish.

I always use it for my smoothies too!

I had a smaller mini chopper that was part of my immersion blender and it was annoying not to be able to chop an entire onion at oonce. I readall the reviews of mini choppers and the B&D was far and away peole's favorites. What I like the best is that it actually chops and dices as opposed to smooshing.

The mini is good for us - just me and the hubby.

10 years ago. I love it. I have to say though, that the Kenmore stand mixer my husband got me for X-mas is my favorite. It cost a fraction of the price of a Kitchen Aid and works great. I use it often.:)

;-)

Very similar to this model.

My Foodsaver might have a few more buttons than that pic. However, the machines just keep evolving and ain't that grand.

*****

In the early 1970's I used a Daisy Seal-a-meal. Same idea, but it didn't vacuum. Still it was an extremely good idea that worked great! I still have it and the bags stored somewhere...

I am on my second Foodsaver these days. I wore my first one out. I use it more than once a day. Recently started using Foodsaver containers. All work great except the rectangular one w/the cheese grater - but that might have been my fault - I tried to vacuum it with the grater still inside. They sent me a new one and that works great.

My hubby would love that. He's always buying extras of whatever is on sale and I'm get annoyed because they always get freezer burn. We've talked about this - guess it's time to start looking for one. Maybe I'll surprise him and get it for Father's Day :bounce:

Costco had them yesterday for (I *think*) $129. MSRP is $179. The three big advantages in this design that would get me to buy it even with a good, but older, one in house are:

Tall and thin - less counter space if you want to leave it out.

Holds a roll of bag *inside* the unit, which is a huge convenience if you use it a lot.

Has a built-in cutter and feed path that allows you to seal an edge, play out as much bag as you need, and then cut it off. Once cut, you fill it and seal it. If you have used an older unit, like mine, you'll appreciate how big an improvement this is.

I also understand it has a wet and dry sealing setting. This is a biggie, too. They all "dry" seal, which involves pulling a vacuum, a process that sucks any free liquid out of the bag, too. This means you couldn't, for example, seal a pork chop pouch with marinade or brine on in it. Or any sort of soup. I am imagining it can also seal soup.

Here's why sealing soup or wet products is such a big deal: you can boil in these bags. I know no better way to reheat damned near anything than in a bag in boiling water. It is fast. The temperature is gentle. And by keeping the water separate from the product, there is no fundamental change in the product. Right now, I do Italian sausage this way. I boil it in the bag until pretty much done. The result is a cooked sausage sitting in a bag of its own juice - mostly rendered fat. Once done, open the bag, pull the sausage out, drain it or even pat it dry with a paper towel, and then finish it in a frying pan or toss it into your gravy while tossing away the fat. Mmmmmmmm!

Thanks for all the info. You sure you don't work for this company ;) I like all the features. I don't have a lot of counter space, the unit holds the bags so that's a big convenience - don't have to store the bags and insert them in the machine everything I want to you it and being able boil in the bag - fantastic! Wow, what's not to like.

This puppy goes to the top of the list.

Sprakly - Give this guy a big hug!

I went to amazon & read the reviews. Some say you waste too much of the bags & it's tricky to feed, but others had no problem. Probably depends on your skill level & getting used to it.

No, I would NOT say we waste bags.

and I think he wasted a few in his early days too.

The complaints about the new model went ....whoosh.... since I don't think I've ever used either of them. It's his department. I just like the look of the roll inside the unit.

I got it years ago at a Pampered Chef party but I've seen them at Bed Bath and Beyond. I have terrible knife skills due to my arthritis and it's a life saver for me in finely chopping veggies for my beloved chopped salads. I also love love love my electric pressure cooker which doubles as a slow cooker. I use it at least 4 or 5 times a week. I eat alot of pureed veggie soups so between the pressure cooker and the Kitchen Aid immersion blender (great product) it's easy to pop out soup every day. Asparagus is still really cheap here so I'm doing alot of that lately. I cook it up with an onion and some celery and lots of black pepper. I throw some swiss cheese and ham in it for the SO----I just eat it plain.

My favorite of all time though was my Capresso Grind and Brew. When it died I replaced it with the Cuisinart Grind and Brew which is just not the same. I hope it dies so I can just justify biting the bullet and spending the bucks for a new Capresso. It made the BEST coffee.

or having a Pampered Chef party. I'll ask to get that chopper for me. Think I'm going to get that KitchenAid stick blender. For what I want to use it for it will be fine. We don't own a lot of kitchen gadgets or appliances. Very basic kitchen here. Toaster, coffee maker, mini chopper, blender, and hand mixer.

Just started to get a few items like the coffee bean grinder.

Thanks Lovey :hug:

the time when the current one bites the dust(thanks to a yard sale). I'm not sure they make it any more but any small processor would do. I don't cook enough any more to use the big one.I gave it to a neighbor.I can't tell you how many things I use the Oscar for. Many uses are rather non-traditional.

Being of the very old school, I even save thin, worn bars of soap. Break them into chunks add a tiny bit of water and whip it into a new, fairly pulverized bar of soap. About 4 worn bars will turn into a slightly moist concoction which I mold in a plastic 1 cup measuring cup. Press down hard to compact it, pop out, mold a little by hand and allow to dry out for at least a week. Now I have a new round bar. hey, a penny saved......

we are such a wasteful country. I like your idea about the soap. I have some small fancy molds - voila! guest bath soap ;)

Thanks!

Even gotten DH to do it after the 1st 20 years.