Dinner and Gadgets- The Stick Blender

I am sorry to say that I have not made any good dinners this week except for Monday, when I made poached salmon, millet, broccoli and spaghetti squash. Other than that, I have made nothing at all since we did not go shopping last weekend. I am planning on baking some banana- seed muffins and whole wheat sugar and spritz cookies over the weekend, though.

One thing that I notice every time I turn on the TV is that there are lots of gadgets for sale. Also, if one is into cooking, one can't help but feat over the myriad of "helpful" gadgets available that the home cook absolutely "needs".

If one has money enough to buy these gadgets- great! But for those of us of modest means (ie. poor) or those of us who are trying to live simply (by choice or chance), the fact that we can't have everything we "need" can be upsetting.

I have a few gadgets; I have accumulated them over the past 10 years or so. Some have been truly useful while most have not served any great purpose for any significant length of time. I think I'd like to blog about some of the gadgets I have in order to help others who are thinking about getting some of these gadgets.

The kitchen gadget that has been the most useful is the Stick Blender. I now own a Cuisinart stick blender that is OK but I think that the Kitchen- Aid I used to have  worked much better- until it literally sparked a few times and then died in my hands (scary!).

I make lots of soups and I like to make apple sauce and apple butter for canning. The stick blender can also make baby food, smoothies and shakes in a flash. I find that it is much easier to use a stick blender for pureeing than it is to use a blender or food processor and puree in batches. Clean up is quick and easy- which is an added bonus.

The Kitchen- Aid blender had variable speeds/ strengths and I could use it even when I had a small amount of something to puree because the blade was lower and thus could get closer to the bottom of whatever it was I was pureeing. It did the job perfectly and there was never any pieces of anything left after I pureed.  However, I am still afraid to get another Kitchen- Aid model because it really was very scary when it began to spark like crazy while I was using it...

My Cuisinart Model has not sparked and died as of yet but it just doesn't do as good of a job as my Kitchen- Aid did. It seems like it takes forever to puree anything and often there are lots of tiny pieces left over. It also has only one speed and the blade is higher up than the Kitchen- Aid, making it difficult to puree small amounts of things. Still, it is the gadget I use the most in the kitchen and it has been well- worth the cost.

So, if you are looking for a useful gadget that will be well- worth the expense, a stick blender may be the right gadget for you. They are not very expensive considering how usefull they are...