OK, time for my 2 cents. I've been baking, preserving, and cooking for more than you are old - that's fifty years if you want to count. My recommendations are just from experience and, of course, always frugality. If you buy a good piece of equipment it should last your lifetime - prorated over 50 years the $200 cost in negligible - but a $1,000 piece will never recoup its cost not matter how much stuff you preserve. On the other hand, if you buy a $10 piece of junk only to replace it in 1 year, and every year thereafter, cussing it all the while, that thing has less value than dirt in that it causes stress, breaks at the crucial need, and is risky to use, poorly constructed, and maddening to use, and expensive in the long run. Cheap junk is still junk. Using a cheap plastic mandolin that you are afraid of is dangerous. Even with a Kevlar glove (buy them at Walmart in the fishing department - for cleaning fish - if you already have one) it will make the chore unacceptable - too bulky/clunky, but it still does work - time quality is a factor here. An expensive professional mandolin is pure pleasure and if you plan on canning for many years, the only way to go. My pro chef SIL gave me his old Bron mandolin (new is probably $150). "Wow" is the only word to describe a professional piece of equipment - kinda like buying a maslin pan! The thickness of a slice is easily adjusted; it makes julienne and french fry thicknesses in one pass with a turn of a knob, and also endeared me in that it makes a cute wavy cut if I so desire. It comes with a guide plate so that you never have to get anywhere near the cutting plate and therefore it is totally safe. The blade can be sharpened to razor edge but my SIL said that he used it for 17 years without having to do that and to me it is way sharp enough for my cukes. Zip-zip. As for mini choppers (half an onion - minced, 2 cups of diced peppers, 6 garlic cloves - minced, etc.) I recommend the little mini food chopper (1 to 2 cup size) by Black & Decker, for about ten bucks. Available at chain drug stores (CVS, Walmart, and the like). Never makes paste of nuts either (just "finely chopped") so it is used a lot here instead of the stupid scrunch and grunt upper hammer nut "grinders". I bought a burr coffee grinder for spices. It is a simple mechanism with adjustments for "granular" size that is irrelevant for hard spices - longer whirring works the same. It was about $15 at Target. It depends on what the outcome for which you wish to achieve. Note that it is super for leaving tasty traces in the hopper and then when you are grinding fresh coffee beans viola! Yum to cinnamon sticks followed by dark roast coffee beans. As for full sized food processors - I use the attachment made for my KitchenAid mixer. Shredding 10 pounds of carrots is a snap, chunking tons of cabbage for slaw is a simple change to a different sized cone (three come with a set and 10 more are available), and for making piles of cheese for crackers that just goes through like butter. The problem is that you have to have a KitchenAid stand mixer to attach it to. One simple little tool for twenty bucks that has me watching infomercials again is the Vidalia Onion Chopper, a.k.a. Sweet Onion Chopper, and the like. It uses the force of your hand/arm to press down on a template over a steel honeycomb-shaped plate. I cubed enough sweet onions for 40 jars of relish in about 10 minutes, enough zucchini for 20 jars of relish, and the steamed carrots for pickled relish in 5 minutes. Then I used it to cut up sweet and hot peppers, red onions, and dried apricots for about 20 jars of Habanero Gold Jelly in just under 10 minutes. It does not work for softer things like cherries and plums, but I will try it for tomatoes, whenever they decide to ripen, when I make more tomato preserves. As for a dedicated food processor - buy only the one with the widest bowl you can find. If it has a narrow bowl you may as well just buy a blender and forget chopping with it. I have a "harvest gold"-colored food processor from about 1970 that has a very wide bowl, no safety features, and limited options, that suits me just fine for chunk shredding, fruit puree prep (before it all goes into the Squeezo), and using just the cutter blade alone for making great pie crusts and for coarse chopping big nuts. It is worthless for making nicely sliced cukes for pickles, or for precision shredding or slicing for anything else. If I were to buy one today, I'd go with the snazzy KitchenAid KFP750. It is what all the pro chefs on TV use and they have to determine "quality or junk for their standards - give or take rebates. That model also comes with the mini bowl so the B&D would not be needed. (Though I would not give up my B&D mini for anything after all these years.) At your young age, and the interest in preserving food you have shown over the last 3 years, an investment in quality equipment is akin to a painter who has to choose between a throw-away brush and one that will last 10 years. Duh! Initial investment in quality tools will outlast throw-always by far. If you don't believe me, come see me chop cabbage in the harvest-gold FP sometime!!! Your whole investment in good quality tools would be in the $15O to $550 range. Throw-away paintbrush or 50 years of quality? Nancy

Solid state Kitchenaid mixers were introduced in 1978 (the K45SS and the K5SS). In 1986 the line was sold to Whirlpool and all the Artisan, Classic etc. mixers sold today are basically the same models as made in 1986 (some improvements and efficiencies in the machining but anyone who has an old "original" K45SS or K5SS can repair it using today's parts). The Pro line was developed as something entirely new so it doesn't have the same history, but the company has worked very hard to upgrade and improve the model since its inception. There was a period of time when people were having a lot of trouble with their Kitchenaid mixers and the company had to work very hard to restore the reputation of the product. That's when they instituted the one-year no-questions-asked full replacement policy. It's still the best guarantee in the business (my opinion). I'm not convinced the old Hobart mixers are inherently superior to the Kitchenaids made today. I think there's a lot of mythology attached to the brand, but my take on it is people have trouble with the newer mixers because they ask them to do more than they were designed for, especially kneading bread. 50 or 60 years ago women (and it was women in the home kitchen) fortunate enough to have mixers used them for cakes, cookies, meringues, whipped cream, etc. They didn't use them for bread dough, which was generally kneaded by hand. My MIL baked 4 loaves every other day and her old Dormeyer never saw the dough. There's a lot of discussion on The Fresh Loaf about people who burn out their mixers with stiff doughs mixed at speeds higher than the recommended "2" setting. Bread is not the KitchenAid's strong point, though you can mix a perfectly fine one or two-loaf batch or autolyse a portion of a bigger recipe and finish by hand. For bread the Bosch (stiff doughs) or the Ankarsrum/Electrolux Assistant/Magic Mill, etc. (wet doughs) are more suitable. Getting back to the original discussion, the two attachments I use most often on the KA are the grinder and the colander/sieve. The colander/sieve is wonderful, but you have to purchase a vintage one and the K5 is the biggest mixer one will fit. Why the company doesn't offer a new colander/sieve for the 6 quart I do not know. The Viking/Cuisinart/De Longhi (all the same machine) did have a colander/sieve attachment available. I use the shredder attachment less frequently, but I do use it, and even though I have a 14-cup Cuisinart, I prefer the shredder attachment because I find since the mixer is already on the counter, it's less fuss for me to use. Just one of those individual quirks we all have. Carol

Great find! There is a thrift shop at the end of my alley that benefits the old folks home across the street. When items don't sell or have some damage they put them in the dumpster. Walking the dog 2-3 years ago I noticed a great looking chandelier in the box. Perfect for my dining room. Dad zoomed home to get the car as the baby was heavy (solid brass) and I stood guard with Dylan until he came back. Some guy comes out of his yard and was going to take it, but I let him know it was MINE! This guy dives in often and into the donation box also, then has a garage sale several time in the summer. My free chandelier cost me glass bulb covers and $500 for the electrician. And for kicks I checked an upscale lighting store. Same lamp was selling for $2500!

I do have that food processor, and I store it on a shelf in the butcher block table that I got from IKEA, which holds my electric meat slicer. I use the meat slicer a lot more than the FP, but I need the FP for when I make hummus or bean dip, which is about twice a month. I do like that the slicer blade is adjustable so that you can dial whatever thickness you want, but I still seldom use it - only when I am making huge quantities of sliced vegetables, which is almost never. (For slicing pickles, I use the meat slicer.) I use the FP to grate potatoes and onions for latkes, and I do not make those that often. For cheese grating, I prefer to use my Kitchenaid grater attachment, as it is much easier to clean, and the mixer has to live on the counter anyway. It has a place in a corner that is otherwise inconvenient, but it is perfect for the mixer and its attachments. When I puree stuff in the FP, I put plastic wrap over the top before I put the lid on, and that way the top does not get dirty. The bowls are definitely bulky to store, and I do not have excess storage in my kitchen. If I am chopping small quantites of vegetables for a deviled egg or deviled turkey, I use my Kitchenaid stick blender chopping attachment. It is the right size and will chop without pureeing. I do not put anything into the Cuisinart unless I want it pureed, as it will not do a coarse chop or even a mince. It does a great job of pureeing, however, and I need it for that. Lars