Appliance Junkie

There are few things I love more than food, Bikram, and Kev&Lish car dance parties. Ok, Real Housewives of NY and NJ too. (Am I the only one who wishes they could hire Caroline Manzo as their body guard???)

I've got a serious soft spot for gadgets of the kitchen variety: appliances, kitchen trinkets like ceramic measuring cups, mini-tart pans, Le cruset mini-pots, multi-coloured silicone cupcake molds, etc. I window shop at William-Sonoma and Sur La Table like an OC Housewife at Bloomies.

Luckily, I also suffer from a pretty bad case of shoppers remorse so there is no impulse buying going on in this nerdy kitchen.

With that being said, I've been eyeing those Blendtec Blenders with the BPA-free 96 oz carafes /4 inch blade for quite some time. Bigger green smoothies? Ability to pack that thing solid without having to use a plunger to blend? No more dirty sleeves as I try and scoop out every last ounce of food from the VM carafe? Simply having another high-speed blender to work with? HELL FREAKING YES! Don't get me wrong, love my Vita-Mix, but anyone who watches Matt & Angela's TV Show: Raw Food World can see the differences between the Vita and the Blendtec. By the way, making ice cream (w/nanners and ice) now takes 2 minutes instead of 25 + a whole crap load of cursing.

So, for my very belated birthday my grandparent's generously bought me this beauty which is currently on sale at The Raw Food World store!

And you thought my appliance in-take had reached its max for this week? Well, so did I...until my class on Wednesday...

 Rewind to Saturday Night:

Kev and I went to Au Lac (without a doubt, the best, raw food I've ever had!) with two women, Louann and Kim, who have been coming to all my classes - we've gotten to be good friends as they are so sweet and I just adore them! It seriously felt like easter dinner with la familia - I was waiting for someone to bring out the big cannoli or something - tons of delicious food that was passed around and shared. One of the best things Louann ordered for us was the Winter Roll. I wrongly assumed this to be a standard nori wrap, but came as mandolin-ed zucchini! Genius! Once again, channeling my inner Bethenny Frankle, "holy shitballs" it was insanely good. While discussing the nature of the winter roll we got to talking about mandolins and how awesome they were. I briefly mentioned that I didn't have one, but wanted one - so that I could make this winter roll at home, damn straight!

Fast-forward to my Wednesday night "Just Desserts" class at the ENC which holy heck went from seven people to eleven at the last minute!

Louann gives me this:

From Sur La Table, like the Cadillac of mandolins. That's right, thinly sliced layers of zucchini for lasagna and ravi's here I come!

And as if I wasn't entirely grateful already...

During my class one of my other loyal students, Grace, asked me about my food processor. It's a Hamilton Beach, it does the job, but we have a love-hate relationship. Like, I love the fact that it shreds my zucchini and cucs in two seconds flat, but I HATE the fact that it sprays sauce all over the lid as it 'processes'. I told her that it was "alright", but that I was in the market for a new food processor and that the Cuisinart are the best. (My parents have one, my grandparents have one, and I've been complaining to Kev about getting a new food processor for like a year now. Every time we go to Target - I'm window shopping for food processors - no joke.)

At the end of class Louann tells me that she bought me this:

::Heavenly music::

The coveted 16 cup Cuisinart food processor!

Which also comes with the 12 cup AND 3 cup not to mention a whole slew of other kitcheny gadget essentials!

I felt like the Grinch who stole Christmas, my heart swelled ten times its normal size and I was nearly in tears.

Sheer acts of generosity like this make me even more grateful for everything in my life. Talk about spreading good Karma, right?

In return, I'm planning something deliciously splendid and making dinner. It's going to be a raw food feast!

Now, my Rolls Royce of a raw food kitchen is nearly complete...Hurom juicer, someday soon you will be mine!