Vita-Mix or Food Processor...
8 years ago
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Is anyone else disappointed with their Vita Mix?
Comments (9)The VitaMix guy told me to boil or heat the water first before making soup as it would heat up the entire mixture much faster. I have an electric tea pot and use that for hot water. But to your question, yes I am somewhat disappointed. Mine will cavitate when I try to up the speed and just spin but not mix. It is hard to get it to pull the top of the liquid down into the blades. So the bottom is getting mixed but not the top. I have the 5200 model. The cheese does not grate unless it is really a hard cheese and it does that great. I've used it for a very hard Parmesan and it did a great job on that but I had the same experience as OP did when trying to do cheddar. When I bought it the salesman told me you could grind coffee beans in it. I bought the optional small dry ingredients blender for that purpose but when I tried to grind the beans it beat up the plastic container sides and the beans in the bottom were nearly mush and the top not fine enough. I never tried that again. I"m still getting used to it. I have a refurbished model and I'm always thinking maybe it doesn't work right. I do like that it will pulverize anything given enough time. I use the tamper a lot. I have discovered if I put it on high nearly right away it does much better instead of trying to work up to it. Just blast it away and use the tamper. The more water you use the easier time it has of mixing more evenly. I still like it a lot and am still learning things about it and how it works best....See MoreFood Processor to mix cookie dough???
Comments (6)I don't like making cookie dough in the food processor. If it is a pastry type cookie, I will cut the butter/shortening with the dry ingredients - but then I will move to a bowl and mix in the wet ingredients by hand. I do like using my Kitchen Aid - I "pulse" the beater so that the dough isn't over worked. Just a few rotations, scrape the bowl and beater down and a couple more rotations - and so on until the dough comes together. With sugar cookies - I cream the butter and eggs, add about half the flour and leavening and mix well (but don't over work) - then I gently "pulse" in the rest of the flour.... And since I roll them out - I make sure I don't add any additional flour. I chill the dough, then roll out on a lightly floured board....See MoreNewbie needs help with open kitchen architect drew up
Comments (45)One more thing: as you walk through the space with chalk lines, etc, mentally prepare a meal, set the table, clean up afterwards, load and unload DW, entertain, etc. IOW, imagine yourself doing all the things that you normally do in a kitchen and make notes of what works and what doesn't. Oops, two more things. =) If you haven't already, do a tally of your kitchen items, grouping them by use and measuring how much space you need to store them. That will also help you narrow down which plan works the best for you and determine cab dimensions. I used blue tape to mark drawer sizes on my counters and set things inside the imaginary drawers to make sure my planned drawer sizes were sufficient. Here's the planning stage for my casserole dish storage: And here is the drawer in my remodeled kitchen: It takes time to do the above but it is so worth it, IMO. If I hadn't done this, I could have ended up with a drawer an inch narrower and not realized that it wouldn't hold my casserole dishes until I was putting things away. How aggravating!...See MorePlease help me design my narrow 36" wide Pantry/Appliance closet!
Comments (13)Thanks for your responses everyone! I appreciate each and every one. Kippy -- looks like your pantry will be super functional! Unfortunately can't add any more width to our pantry. Stan -- thank you for your input. I think I agree with you on the 8" counter. No can do. Also thanks for your suggestion on the 4" shelves just on one side. That might do the trick! Practigal and Looklake -- the 18" pull-outs sound dreamy, but I really really really want a 36"x24" countertop. Those appliances need to be out of my way. I would leave them out if I used them consistently at least once a week, but there are times when I use them every other day, or not at all for weeks at a time. And Looklake, the size of the pantry is hardly ideal...we are turning a coat closet into a pantry and the size cannot be changed. Karenseb -- when you say pull-outs, do you mean drawers or roll trays? The roll trays would waste more space, right? And any idea what the weight limits might be? Also would it be ok that the pull-outs couldn't fully extend? Since I only have 45" total pantry depth minus the 24" depth of the base cabinet....See More
8 years ago- 8 years ago
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