Food processors do a lot of useful things but they do not replace blenders because they don't work well for large volumes of liquid. If you use the blender mostly for beverages, as I do, a regular one is more convenient. When I tried a stick blender I used it so little that I gave it away. Maybe it was habit, or the fact that I keep my regular blender out on the counter but kept the stick in a cabinet. Even for large pots of soup, I found it less tedious to use the regular blender, even when it took several batches, than have to have to stand over the pot holding the stick. Plus it never achieved the same velvet-y smoothness, while a regular blender can be used to make a rougher soup.

The L.A. Times food section often includes an article in which a group of kitchen experts rate different brands of a specified gadget or appliance. A while ago they examined stick blenders and concluded that the Kitchenaid was superior in design and performance. If I recall correctly, the reviewers touted KitchenAid's larger size to be a plus for an immersion hand blender. We purchased one based on their comments and have been very happy with it. We've used it for soups, sauces, even milkshakes. The other night we even used it to make fresh bread crumbs, which came out a bit finer than we had wanted but still perfectly okay. Here is a link that might be useful: KitchenAid immersion hand blender

I've had various ones and most worked for a long time. This last time I dropped, cracked and broke mine and wanted another one soon. Christy happened to go to CVS that day and saw this $5 one, figuring it would work until he maybe got me another good one. That was last spring and it's still going strong.lol. Today Chris Kimball happened to tweet the Cook's Country immersion blender test results. Winner is only $25 Here is a link that might be useful: Immersion Blenders

I'll admit, I don't bake my eggshells...but I buy local eggs, and wash very thoroughly (if they had salmonella, my dogs would get it from the eggs, which I also feed raw). But I would imagine birds would be much more sensitive to anything on them than my dogs might be, so baking is a good idea. I had read that the baking was just to remove mineral oils put on the shell to help preserve the eggs and dry the shells out well, not to guard against salmonella. I just wash them out well with hot water, then store in the fridge until they're really dry. Then I grind them way down into a powder for the dogs...since I mix it with their raw food (one of my dogs can't have whole raw bones, so it replaces the calcium). It takes no time at all in the magic bullet to grind them to powder, if that's what you decide to do. I actually bought the food processor specifically to make dog food with (pulverizing veggies/chopping meat). I can't imagine using the MB for that...it would take me hours with those small quantities! :-)