Sunday, February 3, 2008

Giddyup: horsepower processor

Since my wedding in 2006, I have made some (long overdue) household purchases to equip my kitchen with the necessary basic kitchen tools and apparatuses. We did not have a wedding gift registry. We told our 15 guests, "no gifts please" as we did not plan to host a dinner reception afterwards. We went to a restaurant. Everyone paid for their own meal. As a result, no wedding gifts meant that we had to start from scratch. Well, almost. My husband and I had a couple of things from our own bachelor and bachelorette kitchens...nothing matched...a lot of it was getting old. We had to start anew.

One of the first things I longed for was a food processor. (And, just to digress - the second kitchen item I have been longing for is one of these.) Although not really a kitchen "must-have" I had been eyeing the Cuisinart and KitchenAid line of kitchen processors and admired them for their aesthetic appeal and selection of funky colours. It's their design that won me over. Of course, I expected the device to also kick ass in the kitchen! I trusted that Cuisinart or KitchenAid would make me a happy homemaker. It also had a good reputation to back it up.

I never did get my 'fancy-schmancy' Cuisinart or KitchenAid food processor because I could not afford the steep price. A few months ago, I purchased a Black & Decker 10-cup food processor in stainless steel and black - and I am enamoured by it's strength and power. Vrooom!! It has MEGA horsepower. It pulverizes food with its blade and creates the most amazing, smooth and creamy garlic hummus and black olive tapenade in the blink of an eye.

Granted - it's not as pretty as a Cuisinart or a KitchenAid and does not come in a choice of red, or pink or blue but aesthetics aside, I am very happy with this purchase. The good thing is that it only has 3 blades that you can use...not a lot of excess parts to fuss over which means, not a lot of washing afterwards. Hurray! The first blade slices and grates. The second blade minces and mixes and the third blade is a dough blade (!) That is all. I can certainly live with this simplicity. Like I always say: keep it simple and you can't go wrong.

Oh yeah, one more thing: the price was good to my bank account too!

My rating for this product: 4.5 out of 5

  • Convenience (1)
  • Durability (1)
  • Functionality (1)
  • Aesthetic (0.5)
  • Safety (1)