Kitchen appliance love

Anyone that has read a few posts on this blog knows that I'm a food geek. I LOVE to try new recipes and experiment in the kitchen. I'm not afraid of trying new foods. I like to play around and tweak recipes. I'm also not afraid to share recipes (just ask!). And I'm certainly not afraid to admit when something turned out not so good and should never ever be made again. I have my mother to thank for my food geekiness. She was always trying new foods, new recipes, and she asked for honest reviews of them. We had our family favorites, but more often than not we tried something new on a regular basis. I have an addiction now to trying new recipes, and my cookbook collection must be very very carefully monitored. It would take me a lifetime to try all the recipes I've clipped or emailed myself or saved over the years.

With this love of food and recipes comes a love of kitchen tools. I do subscribe to the Alton Brown school of thought that everything in your kitchen should be able to do more than one task (multitaskers) and the only unitasker in the kitchen is the fire extinguisher. So I'm pretty judicious when I choose my appliances. All the appliances I do have I actually use regularly and generally am quite fond of (some more than others). I currently own the following:

• Electric kettle
  
• Microwave (still learning to use this...I did go more than 5 years without one)
  
• Toaster (wide slot)
  
• Hand mixer
  
• Kitchenaid stand mixer (artesian) with several attachments

My most recent acquisition is a stick (or immersion) blender. I had a regular blender for years, but it never could quite do all the things I wanted it to. Trying to blend/puree hot things was tedious as you could only do small batches and it involved moving hot liquids from one container to another and back again. So mostly I used it to make hummus. I did finally cave and bought myself a stick blender. I am now in love with it. Seriously. It blends soups, sauces, smoothies, spreads, and anything else I can stick in a pot or a glass.

I used it tonight to blend up some apple-onion-acorn squash-curry soup. It's amazing how smooth and quick and easy it was to use. And the blade portion disconnects for easy washing. I'm now combing through my recipe stash to see what other recipes I have that require blending so I can play with my new kitchen toy.