The simple joy of a great new blender!
Readers who have been following us for a while will remember the Is a grinder a blender? saga just after the ARRIVAL 12 months ago! Money was very…. no, money was EXTREMELY tight back then but we had to have this “grinder” in order to feed the kids something they would eat. Fish and chips was NOT a winner! 
Breville Optima – RETIRED!!!!
We dashed out and bought the cheapest blender we could find. We think we paid $90 and the Breville site says the recommended retail prince (RRP) is $89.95. Perhaps it has dropped 5 cents being a little out of date now. I’ve linked to Breville under that picture, but that may not work in 12 months!
As strange as this may seem to readers, I had never actually owned a blender. I had no idea what was a good or bad one, but I know one thing: you get what you pay for. Given I could see much more expensive blenders on the shelves, I was inclined to think this one wasn’t going to do the job for us. Mr O really was desperate for us not to spend any more than we absolutely had to at that time, so we got it.
The following 12 months was the Battle of the Blender! It managed soft foods, like tomatoes, quite well. Harder vegetables, like capsicums (peppers) and onions, were a struggle for the poor little thing. Also the sheer volume of blending for six people is a heavy load!
Peppers, tomatoes and onion
I finally found if I processed the tomatoes first so there was some liquid in the jug, it did handle the capsicums better! But it really was a battle every week to get this ata (pepper) sauce happening! Blend a bit, half empty the jug, blend a bit more…… Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
About a month ago it started to make interesting noises. The sort of noises that breaking machinery makes. Grinding metal noises. I had visions of it grinding to a halt mid-blend, followed by smoke and a burning smell! The time had come, I decided, money or no money, to invest in a new and hopefully more task-suitable blender.
Miss O 1 and I were at Costco on a Saturday morning and as we walked in the door there was a blender/food processor type machine on special for $299. Hmmmmmmmm – well, that was a LITTLE more than perhaps I wanted to spend, but maybe.
“Let’s see what else they have”, I suggested.
Breville Kinetix Control – The King!
We found another Breville. Had I realised the one at home already was a Breville, I might have had second thoughts, but this one looked reasonable and it was only (compared with the one at the front door) $149! Had to be a winner!
I never remember what brand anything I own is, as was clearly demonstrated in What brand of camera does your wife own? Why would I suddenly develop that skill?
This one had FOUR blades and two sweeping arms to pull what is up, down.
The jug arrangement looked much better too – there was no way for the sauce to drip into the mechanism with this design.
It can Mix, Chop, Blend, Liquify and Puree. It chops ice! It makes smoothies! No, I don’t know what the difference is between Liquify and Puree – anyone want to enlighten me?
Plus the cord wraps up under the base. Neater in the cupboard!
Miss O 1 and I made the big decision. It HAD to be better than the old one!
That Sunday morning everyone except Miss O 2 and I went to soccer. Miss O 2 and I started chopping up the tomatoes, onions and capsicums and carefully unpacked our new machine.
We washed the jug (of course…. did you think we wouldn’t? Shame on you!) and dropped in a few vegetable pieces to see what would happen. Miss O 2 was all, “Can I press the button, Mum? Please? PLEASE?”
OH, THE JOY! It just smashed those vegies right up! No fiddling, no trying to get the vegies spinning, just WOOOOOSH, we had sauce! Miss O 2 was in wonder at the major improvement to our sauce making abilities. Her little eyes were shining at the impressive performance. I have to say I was pretty chuffed as well.
I was even MORE chuffed today when I went to the Breville site to steal pictures and discovered the RRP for the blender is $229.95! Costco has some benefits! A saving of that magnitude is not to be foregone or sneezed at!
When everyone else came home, Miss O 2 excitedly told them how wonderful the new blender was, but unfortunately, the work was all over and we couldn’t demonstrate.
Last night I chopped tomatoes, onions, mushrooms and a capsicum for omelettes. Just brilliant. So brilliant in fact the boys had seconds (that’s a week’s supply of eggs gone in one hit).
Sometimes it is the little things in life that just make the day better! With the work we put it through, the Kinetix may not last forever, but it certainly is much more suitable for the blending task we have than the old one.
What small change in your life has made a big difference to the more mundane aspects of daily life?
Related:
I keep meaning to buy one of those very expensive blenders that makes soup etc and into which you can throw whole veg and fruit to make smoothies.. then I’d never cook again !!
If I were single, that may be a possibility. I don’t think I’m likely to be able to live on smoothies for another 10 years at least!
I’ve got kitchen kit going back 3 decades including my Magimix and an upright blender that belonged to my mum, so that’s even older. It still does my blending especially my chocolate milk shakes made with my home made chocolate syrup and vanilla ice cream; a real favourite of my kids. You can tell who wears the apron in our house eh? I love cooking anyway.
You just inspired me to make myself a chocolate and vanilla pre-bedtime drink! I’m sure it will go straight to the waistline, but I do love it. I didn’t shake it though – I don’t want to wake everyone up. I’m going to try that though! Thanks for the tip!
Hmmm I’m jealous as well. I have a hand held blender which I make soups with and a rather naff blender machine which does the same job, but you need to dismantle the pigging thing toclean it
I would love a proper food processor, that makes pastry and cake mix…etc. they are about Has a mixing bowl and other fancy atachments at €400 dream on piglet, you are retired!
I KNOW THOSE MACHINES! My mother had a Kenwood back in the day, with every attachment known to man. As we lived on a farm Mum minced all our meat: none of this popping to the market and getting 2 kilos of minced meat!
I’d love one too but your are right, they are SO expensive. I think something around the $1,500 here. Just not an option at the moment!
I love gadgets even kitchen ones!
So, Gilly, are you one of the gadget hoarders who has a cupboard full of gadgets you have used once or twice and they have sat there ever since, or do you actually use them all!
wow, seems a great buy considering the recommended retail price! Blenders are great.
Well spotted, Sami! Yes, I can’t believe the price difference. Although I have noticed Costco isn’t always the cheapest on things, they certainly won out in this particular case, spectacularly!
Oh Mrs O I am jealous! We have a dreadful (read cheap) blender and I hadn’t thought of all this. Summer was ending and I had a bountiful crop of basil to pick, it ended up being a massive bowl worth so I thought ‘hey presto PESTO!!!’ and started diddling with all my ingredients, popped them lovingly in the blender and pressed go (or whatever the button says) only to find the blades swooping around the bottom of the blender, like they meant business, while all of my beautiful basil and oil and garlic etc all sat perched above the blades, dodging every swoop with balletic ease. Oh the horror of then having to ladle teaspoons full into the coffee grinder, only to be then be greeted with neon green puree (liquid? I dunno the difference either!) once I was done, that looked like a dreadful accident…never, ever again…until I get a good blender that is!
I can recommend the one we got, although it doesn’t chop spinach very well, although it handles silverbeet very well!
Yay for new small household appliances! I recently bought a new espresso machine. My old one was the cheapest of the cheap Mr. Coffee and it sucked. The new Delonghi actually made real espresso, two shots at a time. Since I’m pretty sure I have espresso running through my veins instead of blood, I am chuffed, too. (BTW, “chuffed” is a great word and I wish Americans would start using it.)
If you had told me, at 18, that a new appliance would make me this happy, I would never have believed it. I feel so old.
ROTFLMAO!!! That last line cracked me up totally! Join the club!
We have a Delonghi at work. It always needs something from me: water, beans, empty the grounds container……….. and on FRIDAY we ran out of beans! The horror of it all!