[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] Omigosh, I thought I had posted this before, but I utterly forgot!
I LOVE THIS!
But, not for the reasons I thought it would. When I originally sought this grinder, I thought I'd be using it for herbs, or nuts, or maybe even coffee right? My family utterly runs on tea and coffee! But, I'm using it for miniature-sized stuffing servings!
Now, a little back story: our stove stopped working years ago, so I pretty much live and die by my crock pot, toaster, and microwave. I have a roaster that I pull out twice a year for turkeys, a skillet for special meals, but almost all of the meals for my family (my older sister, mother, and I) are created using those three appliances. Boy, can we get creative with how we use them, but there are still a few things we miss having. Any dish that -approximates- a normal, cooked-on-the-stove dish is a major WIN with us!
Enter, this sweet little grinder! With a little experimentation, I ascertained that you can make a reasonable substitute for stovetop stuffing!
Add to the grinder:
- 1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
- 1/4 teaspoon Johnny's Garlic seasoning (or pure garlic)
- Shake of pepper
- 1/2 a piece of your normal stuffing bread (ours is wheat)
Stir and cup that up, put it in a bowl, then add your second half of the bread slice to the grinder but use the button to pulse it and make it a little more coarse. Dump this into your bowl as well with two teaspoons of butter or margarine, and zap it in the microwave enough to melt that butter completely and get it a little bit bubbly. Then stir, stir, stir while it's hot, and you've got yourself a tidy little bit of stuffing!
We've had some divisive opinions in our family of food critics about the use of celery seed (which goes in our normal stuffing), whether or not any sugar is required, and it -definitely- tastes better when cooked in the microwave with actual poultry and/or bullion, but if you're wishing for a little bit of home it's definitely worth experimenting with. It just takes one slice of bread each time, and the batches are large enough that several people can taste-test a spoonful of each one. Stuffing is one of those things where everyone has their own special recipe, so you'll probably want to adapt this to what you're used to at home. Cranberries, cornbread, etc. It's so super-nice to make just about a cup of stuffing at a time, though, and the cleanup is SUPER EASY with the detachable carafe!!!
I've been so tired, so long, with having grinders that can only be wiped out, but I can just dunk this into a dishpan of hot water and scrub it good and clean, and it's ready to go for the next meal! It's SO EASY TO USE!!
If I had one complaint at all, it's that the cord is pretty short, but since I keep a surge supressor on my kitchen counter for cooking appliances anyway, this is pretty much a non-issue with me. I just unwind it a little extra. It's -very- handy that the grinder's own cord winds up to store in the base of the unit, it makes it super-easy to store! No more devices that tip over due to an unwieldy cord!
If you need a grinder for anything at all, BUY THIS ONE, it will save you a headache and it's super-fun to experiment with!!!