Hey, get your mind out of the gutter!
Today’s gadget is not a new one by any means, but it is one that I believe everyone should have! My mom bought this for me over two years ago, and I’ve loved every minute of using it. It’s one of those “I could make this recipe but I don’t have…”
What is it? An immersion blender! I have this one:
- Make sure the entire rounded end is completely submerged into whatever liquid you’re blending. Sometimes, when making smoothies, this means putting the blender in the cup before the ingredients!
- Pulse the blades first before running it consistently. This gets the ingredients up into the rounded part, which minimizes splatter.
- MAKE SURE the blades are COMPLETELY stopped before pulling the blender out. It only takes a little bit of motion to cause your soup, smoothie, or eggs to go flying all over the kitchen!
- Keep the blender moving, yet close to the bottom of the cup or bowl as you blend. This allows for even blending.
So, in keeping with gadget week, I made a fritatta recipe with my immersion blender. I followed the procedure found in my fritatta recipe page, but the ingredients were:
- spinach
- broccoli
- chopped bacon
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 and a half baked potatoes, diced
- 5 eggs
- 5 egg whites
- 1.5 c. low fat cheddar cheese
The bacon added a great dimension of flavor we don’t usually get in our fritattas, but the key here was the bubbly eggs. I whipped them up until they were a light lemon color, added half the cheese, and then blended that in as well. I topped the whole pan with the remaining cheese, and came out with this masterpiece:
See how the egg got in between the spinach and potato? With regular egg beating, I find that the eggs sink and don’t fill in the gaps that well. This was absolutely delicious, and of course, I ate my piece with fat free sour cream.
Please check out Dori’s Charity Auction happening today! All proceeds go to a very worthy cause!
I’m cutting this short here, as today is a fairly sad day… 3 years ago today my grandma passed away. She’s one of the reasons that I learned to cook (along with my mom, my main influence), and I miss her every day. I’m going to cook a “tribute” meal tomorrow, full of dishes that she both cooked and taught me to love… so my question today: Who taught you to cook and/or love food?
Thank you for these immersion blender tips! I just got mine but haven’t used it yet, so this is all so good to know.
Thanks for the plug too!
Dori´s last blog ..Dori’s Shiny CHARITY AUCTION!
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I have that same one, but the brushed silver one. I love that it comes w/ the little mixing cup SO convenient!
Main cooking influence is family. Mom, dad, both grandmothers. We rarely ate out when I was younger – maybe 4 times the entire year. Ea. meal, breakfast lunch and dinner was spent w/ everybody cooking together from scratch!
Christina´s last blog ..Pasta a la Philly
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I have never used an immersion blender — thanks for the tips! Love the blog!
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I LOVE my immersion blended! Except a few wks ago I made a smoothie with it and it went everywhere!
Jessica @ How Sweet It Is´s last blog ..Cinnamon Chip Scones.
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I taught myself to cook, with lots of funny, and not so funny mistakes on the way! Like having baked potatoes after dessert………. or a chocolate cake that slid off it’s first layer in front of my in laws, etc, etc!
I love my immersion blender too!
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I absolutely love my immersion blender. I use it for sauces and homemade salad dressing quite a bit, in addition to soup.
I definitely taught myself to cook (although I think I was just born loving food!)
Victoria´s last blog ..Faux English Muffins
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I love the immersion blender. I use it for soups all of the time….but you are right keep it in the liquid or you will burn yourself!
My mom is italian and cooks all of the time so I learned a lot from her, also my parents owned an italian restaurant so the women in the kitchen there taught me a ton! I am now branching out to try other cuisines… I would like to take a course on Indian.
campinggirl´s last blog ..Which Breed?
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great tips for the immersion blend… i wish you had told me before!
coco´s last blog ..Husband & Wife!
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I LOVE my immersion blender but it collects a lot of dust – thanks for the recipe because I need to use it more often
K´s last blog ..Sleeping Sickness
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Immersion blenders are SO handy! Also makes me more inclined to make something that requires blending because it doesn’t feel like as much cleanup as the regular blender.
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I need an immersion blender – it seems so good to have on hand!
My mom is a great cook and is one of my inspirations, but I pretty much taught myself to cook…after I got married
I was a mess in the kitchen before that!
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Ohhh we don’t have one of those… One day when I get a bigger kitchen…one day!
Beth (Mackattack)´s last blog ..oh happy day
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