Kitchen Accoutrements Series--The Hand Blender

I love to cook. I love it more when I have the right tools to cook with. I want other people to know that when you have the right tools to cook with, it can be so delightful and easy to make delicious food for those you know and love.

In that spirit, I bring you my Kitchen Accoutrements series. Today I am going to introduce you to my friend, the Hand Blender, AKA the Immersion Blender. Once, there was a girl who loved black bean soup. But her recipe called for pouring the soup--in batches--from the pot to the blender, blending it, pouring it into a different container, and so forth and so on until all the soup had been transferred, blended, and transferred back again. That girl was ME. I loved that soup, though, and so I made it. I transferred and blended, transferred and blended... until I happened upon my Cuisinart hand blender in a store... in RED no less. So I bought it. Now I hardly touch the big blender. Why bother? With this I can have smoothies in an instant, my favorite black bean soup with no hassle and--get this--I can even blend up extra vegetables into various sauces and soups so that my kids get extra nutrition. Mwah ha ha! Mwah ha ha! Oh, and it also is easy to clean and takes up a LOT less room in the dishwasher.

Here's to you, Immersion Blender. You will always have a place near my soon-to-be blended foodstuffs.bowl of healthy stuff (i don't know why the picture is on it's side. tilt your head, you're grown.
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one immersion blender
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delightful smoothie--drinking this with a handful of almonds this morning meant i had consumed three 'superfoods' before 8 a.m. this smoothie had blueberries, orange juice, yogurt, tofu, and kale. YUM.

Coming soon from the land of kitchen accoutrements:
--the bread maker
--the KitchenAid mixer
--the food processor
--the popcorn maker
--and, if you are very lucky, the electric griddle.

Please people, calm down! I know, it's very exciting. Just be patient.