Yup! You guessed it! Tonight’s gadget is our handy-dandy, amazingly powerful, super-shiny Cuisinart blender!
I’ve been a blender snob for years now. Working as a barista at Starbucks (Store #246!) for 6 years (on and off) and being employed there the summer after the Frappuccino was introduced, I experienced many different blenders. Eventually, Starbucks moved away from the smaller blenders to the higher-power, higher-tech BlendTec electronic blenders that I fell in love with. I know many bloggers love their VitaMix blenders due to their high capacity and high power and well, their general fabulousness, but when registering for wedding gifts, I had a hard enough time asking people for specific things, let alone a $400 blender! Upon researching, I found that Cuisinart made a very powerful, high-capacity digital push-button blender that just happened to match the rice cooker… so we registered for it. Adam’s cousin and her husband were nice enough to give it to us, and tonight, we broke it in.
See? It’s shiny, and has a super wide mouth which is great for savory dishes that need blending, such as tonight’s Split Pea Soup. My issue with other blenders I’ve had is that the narrow base and wider top were deceptive. They were tall, and I always overestimated what I thought they could hold. This one though doesn’t cause that illusion, and the super-clear glass allowed for easy measuring. I absolutely can’t wait to make a smoothie, or better yet, a piña colada or other mixed drink in it, because I have this feeling that it will crush ice like a champ!
On to what I made with this lovely blender after much prep and a great conversation with a certain macaroon-making friend:
Split Pea Soup with Bacon and Homemade Croutons
Ingredients
For the soup:
2 c. dry split peas, picked over for pebbles
4 slices center cut bacon, diced
2 medium onions, cut into chunks
3 carrots, cut into chunks
2 ribs of celery, cut into chunks
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
salt
water
For the croutons*:
3 slices Italian bread, cut into bite-sized pieces
olive oil for drizzling
parmesan cheese
garlic powder
Directions
In a large pot, cook the bacon until crispy and the fat is rendered. Drain the bacon and set aside, saving about 1 Tbsp. fat for cooking. Add the onions, carrots, celery and garlic and cook a few minutes until onions are softened. Add the split peas, and then enough water to cover by about 2 inches. Generously salt the water, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to a simmer and check every so often, adding more water as the peas cook. Once the peas are cooked and veggies are soft, puree in the blender one batch at a time until very smooth. Top with reserved bacon and croutons (recipe below).
Croutons*:
Pre-heat the oven to 375*. Place the bread chunks onto a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Stir to coat. Sprinkle generously with parmesan cheese and garlic powder, and bake until browned and dry.
*Please note, the word “crouton” must be pronounced “crowten” a-la Bud from The Cosby Show.
OH WAS THIS GOOD! It’s cold here and I’m getting a cold, so soup was what I wanted… and did this ever hit the spot! I wish I’d salted the original pot of soup more, because I ended up salting my bowl, but whatever! It was great!
In other news: I’ve been given TWO blogger awards! The amazing (and a role-model of mine) Roni of Roni’s Weigh and other fabulous blogs gave me the Happy 101 Award, and Melissa of Melissa Likes To Eat gave me the Beautiful Blogger Award!
Both of these awards require that I share formerly unknown facts about myself (10 and 7 respectively), and then pass them on to other bloggers (also 10 and 7 respectively). I’m not going to do 17 things… I’m just not that interesting! BUT I’m going to do 8.5 things, which means 8 interesting/formerly known things and one notsointeresting thing. Here goes:
- I watch way too much TV. Really.
- I have a MOUNTAIN of clothes in our 2nd bedroom from various stages of weight loss and gain, yet I can never find anything to wear, because honestly, nothing looks right.
- If I ever have under $5 left on a gift card for anywhere besides Starbucks, I pass it on to the person behind me. At Starbucks, if it’s under $2 I pass it on. Someone once did that for me, and I thought it was the nicest thing!
- I used to have exercise-induced asthma for which I took an inhaler. To this day, any time I get a bad cold, that tightening in my chest comes back and I am terrified that I’ll have to take an inhaler.
- Anything having to do with my eyeball freaks me out. It’s a miracle I can get my contacts in and out!
- I begged my mom for a perm from the time I was about 10 until I was about 13. Then, magically, one time I showered and didn’t dry my hair and BAM, it was curly. Now I flat iron it most of the winter.
- I have no idea what color my hair really is (speaking of hair). I started dying it when I was about 12, and I have no clue what it would be if I let it grow. I’m thinking of dying it chocolate brown though, just for fun. (thoughts?)
- At one point growing up, we had 6 cats, a dog, 14 fish, and a frog. The cats were of varying ages from about 2 years old to about 20, and they were all strange in some way. Timmy had extra toes, Roger looked like he’d swallowed a watermelon, Casey thought the couch was his mother, Pico played fetch… yeah, they were fun
- (no, 8.5, remember?) I have a canker sore under my tongue and it hurts to talk
And I honestly have no idea who has gotten any of these awards, so I’m going to take the boring way out and give them to YOU…yes YOU, all of you, my glorious and wonderful readers. So, in the comments, leave me one interesting fact about you!
You’re the reason I blog each night, and the reason I have a (in the words of my Bostonian friends) wicked awesome giveaway coming your way this weekend. Seriously, it’s a great one!!! Might even be better than the cheese party giveaway from this past fall! But you’ll have to wait and see…
There might be other big news too… maybe 
Have a wonderful night!
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