I bought an Oster, and Emily bought... something else that I can't remember but we're going to use them and compare notes!
So far, I have used my food processor to make:
PESTO
recipe here
This stuff was effing delicious and everyone should effing make it because it will effing make your life. I seriously died when I ate it. Em and I made it for a pot luck dinner on Monday and everyone agreed it was great. GREAT! I can't believe how great food processors are. You drop stuff that's mostly just ok into them, and then it gets blended up, and then turns into the greatest thing you've ever made.
HUMMUS
Tonight I made hummus, because everyone who has a food processor has to make hummus. It's one of those things, right? I may have just made that up, but I know that as a person who now owns a food processor, I have to make hummus. Did I mention that I now own a food processor? This was my first time making hummus, although I have possessed the knowledge required to make hummus for many moons now. So an hour ago I decided to put that knowledge to the test and just put all the stuff that I think constitutes the ingredients for hummus and blended them together with MY NEW FOOD PROCESSOR.-1 can of chickpeas, plus some leftover chickpeas (about half a can) I found in the fridge
-3 large glopping tablespoons of tahini which had grown extremely viscous in the fridge*
-Juice from 1.5 lemons
-a couple of cloves of garlic
-Salt, cayenne pepper and freshly cracked black pepper to taste
-1 teaspoon cumin
-Olive oil and water (to thin it out, till it looks right; more oil = more rich tasting)
It was the greatest. I did discover while engaging in hummus creation that the blade of the food processor doesn't lock into the motor axle, so that it can move through the food and chop it evenly. This sounds like a good thing, but it also means that if you don't watch it, sometimes the blade will fling off of the motor axle and get wedged between the axle and the side of the container. I don't know if this is a normal feature of food processors, so hopefully Emily will take that up in her review.
To sum up, things that are great = food processors, pesto, hummus. Tomorrow, we will try baba ghanoush, which I believe Emily has already attempted. Also in the works: apple sauce and pear sauce. Whoop!
*Big ups to my new fridge, which is also the greatest. I clearly can't decide what I think is the greatest, so I'll just say that food processors, pesto, hummus, and my new fridge are all contenders for the title. The fridge is the most energy efficient one I could find, and has a brushed metal finish that doesn't let fingerprints stick. Although for some reason Cosette has managed to leave some pawprints on the side from one of her failed attempts to jump on top of it.
