My New Toy

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I recently purchased a new 7 cup Cuisinart for a steal. I had been watching the price steadily go down at Macy's over the last few months and one Saturday it was under $100 and I decided the time was right. Wouldn't you know it, this last weekend the price went down to $89. Oh well! I do want to thank my sister Linda for the use of her food processor she received as a wedding present some 30 years ago and she gave to me probably 20 years ago when she got a new one. It's been much used and much appreciated.

I wanted to put my new one through it's paces this last weekend so I made two recipes that utilized the majority of it's functions: grating, slicing, and dough making. I made coleslaw and I made a fruit tart which I will share in a future entry. Let me say first of all that I am not a mechanically inclined person. I snickered aloud as I typed that last sentence as that is the biggest understatement in the world.

Luckily The Husband is very gifted in this arena (or maybe he is just average but to me he performs miracles next to my terrible mechanical inadequacies.) Between the two of us it probably took 10 minutes to get this machine put together in order to slice up the cabbage for the coleslaw. I swear I could have had it all chopped by hand in the time it took us to figure this machine out. He actually had to look at the instruction book, something that is a total last straw for him. We both agreed that I would get the hang of it with use.I will say that once it started working it processed the cabbage and carrot like nobody's business. Very slick indeed! Now for the unfortunate part of this story. I have never made coleslaw before and found a recipe in a most reputable cookbook of mine, which will remain nameless as I don't want to get sued for slander. But it was HORRIBLE. It was too salty, too mayonnaisy, too mustardy, too much dressing altogether. So I implore you dear readers, if you have a decent coleslaw recipe, please send it my way as I would like to give making it another try someday. The most embarrassing part of all is that my Mother-In-Law stopped by and I sent a bunch home with her prior to me giving it a good tasting. When I served it for dinner, I immediately went and threw the rest away.

Needless to say, no recipe will be shared but I certainly look forward to getting to know my new toy better and becoming proficient in it's many capabilities to make my life in the kitchen easier.