Wednesday, January 27, 2010

New Food Processor

I really like watching the Food Channel and all the cooking competitions. Finally the other day I broke down and bought myself a food processor. I went on the internet first and read the review and comparisons and decided on a Kitchenaid which was rated just a little higher than Cuisinart only because it came with a small bowl as well as the large one. OK, I thought, small bowl would be handy since there's only one of me eating here most of the time. Also the Kitchenaid had a thingy to hold the blades. So I got it home and son of a gun, it only had 1 speed. On and Off...that's it! Well, it did have a pulse. I went back on the internet and looked at the Cuisinart again and it has an automatic adjustable speed with the dough blade so took the Kitchenaid back and got an 11 cup Cuisinart. No little bowl but oh well....also no holder for the blades. Well--I bought a plastic bowl with lid to hold the blades. That works.

So I hooked the thing up, took out a couple boneless chicken breasts and proceeded to chop for Biscuit's dinner. SON OF A GUN... that sucker had the meat chopped faster than I could blink. YEOW, watch out for the fingers! I then decided to try to make some Cottage Fried oven baked potatoes. Got the recipe off the internet. It called for grated parmesan cheese so off I went to the store for that (yes I had some in a can but wanted to try grating cheese after all :-). Got some garlic and some butter also called for in the recipe and went home. Whoops, forgot the brush to brush the potatoes with the butter sauce. Oh well...proceeded to clean the potatoes and chop. I couldn't get it to chop the whole potato. Well...it did come with the DVD but who had time to watch a DVD, I wanted to CHOP! Ended up cutting the potatoes into 4ths and then chopping into very skinny little pieces. NO GOOD but cooked them anyway. Unfortunately I didn't believe the person who wrote the recipe who said it took 1/4 TBS butter and I plopped some butter into the pan, added the garlic and salt/pepper and melted the stuff. Poured it over the potatoes. YIKES they came out so greasy I had to throw them away. Got out some more potatoes and proceeded to make them again. These came out ok (yes I used 1/4 TBS butter this time) but they weren't all that good. I had shredded a lot of Parmesan (more than called for, of course) and didn't bother to use it because I already knew the potatoes were too skinny and didn't taste all that good. Oh well.........

Next day I watched the video. There just had to be a way to chop a whole potato. Sure enough, there was. I chopped up a potato and took it over to show my neighbor who also has a food processor and didn't know she could chop a whole potato.

Now I've ordered a book from Amazon, The Food Processor Bible. Can't have this expensive thing sitting on the counter every day doing nothing.

Oh, tonight's menu? Grilled Tilapia with Latkes (require food processor for best results according to the recipe) They also say: "The best latkes are golden and crunchy on the outside, soft and tender on the inside, and perfectly seasoned". Think I'll follow the recipe to a "T" on this........

Will post the results (if they turn out decent).SmileyCentral.com