Introducing The Butler

 I struggle with buying things.  I have a love/hate relationship with spending money.  I despise throwaway items, and would rather "make do" with something that I already have than replace it with a better/newer/faster model.  My reasoning is that if something is performing adequately, than why replace it?  I've never been one to get the next best thing.  Spending money on things that we already have drives me batty.  Upgrading makes me nuts.

On the flip side of this, I truly love quality items.  Items that are built to last.  And we know that in order for an item to last, it must be treated well.  We have both had great shoes resoled, or, in the case of my favorite summer wedges, the elastic in the strap replaced.  We drive older than average cars, but maintain them well.  The knives are sharpened on a regular basis.

So a few years ago, I bought a Kitchen Aid combination food processor/blender.  It sucked.  I tried making a milkshake in the blender.  Nope.  Not powerful enough to blend ice cream.  The food processor part was okay, but merely okay.  The bowl was small, and it really couldn't do dough.  (I looked for a link to this monstrosity machine on Amazon, but it is possible that they are no longer being made.  Good riddance to bad rubbish, I say.)

Anyway, this a long winded way to say that I've finally replaced that stupid purchase with a true Cuisinart, one that I've longed for/coveted/desired for years.  And I've named him The Butler, because he can do anything I want him to do in the kitchen.

The Butler, resting after a long day.

Right now, The Butler lives on the counter.  He might move into a condo cupboard soon, but some rearranging needs to happen. (i.e. the Kitchen Aid thing needs to go.  Goodwill, here we come!)  As with most fabulous purchases, I cannot believe I waited so long to invite him home.  We bought him on Sunday, took him out of the box on Monday, and since then I've used him four times.  It's Thursday.  That makes for an average of once per day, although one day he sat idle.  That's right.  Twice in one day.  So far I've made two batches of peanut butter hummus (so delicious!), salmon croquettes, and the filling for crab rangoon.

And for those wondering, why The Butler:  the kitchen appliances are named after characters in Clue.  The mixer is Miss Scarlet, the blender is Mr. Green, and the toaster oven is Mr. Black (he lies to me all the time.  Medium toast?  Don't think so.)