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Coffee with a Twist!
Coffee with a Twist!
kitchen gadgets part two
As I sit here, surrounded by the silent poetry of falling snowflakes, nostalgia takes over, and I'm whisked back to the winters of my childhood, a stark contrast to today's milder seasons. Memories flood in, not just of the past's snowy landscapes but of the years spent in the kitchen, where the whir of my trusty Kitchen Aid mixer, gifted by my husband, became the soundtrack to many culinary adventures. Now, I'm contemplating an upgrade with the Nama Juicer taking center stage in the latest kitchen gadget buzz. Join me as I weigh the merits of this sleek machine, debate the value of a good warranty, and ponder the balance between splurging on high-end appliances and their day-to-day practicality.
In our culinary exploration, we stumble upon an unsung kitchen hero—the food processor. I'll share how this multitasking marvel rekindled my love for cooking, taking the tedious out of slicing and dicing and transforming it into a dance of blades that care for my hands as much as they do for the food. Whether you're a whiz in the kitchen or just starting to explore the maze of meal prep, I'll reveal how a food processor isn't just a gadget, it's a gateway to elevating your kitchen game. It’s been a game-changer for me, and I'm excited to slice through the benefits with you, unwrapping the practical magic these processors wield for culinary enthusiasts at any level.
Thanks for listening coffee with a twist.
Email me at: coffeewitatwist@gmail.com
Hey guys, welcome back to Coffee with the Twist Got fast car in the background. I'm actually doing this episode from my car and it's snowing here. There's a winter advisory until Tuesday, today's Monday, I think we're going to have another one, I believe, on Thursday. It's really crazy. I love the snow, but I like it to snow snow, not just a dusting or just a little accumulation. I think we're due for snow. When you live in four states I mean sorry, four states, guys, I'm sorry when you live in a place or places that you should experience four seasons, you want to experience the four seasons. I would love to experience winter again. It's crazy how things have changed from many years ago. I'm only 39 and I remember growing up, true snowstorms. Now it's like a thing of the past. But anyways, I hope you guys had a great weekend, great day, great upcoming week that you're looking forward to.
Speaker 1:This episode, like I said, will be on Kitchen Gadgets, but I'm probably only going to cover like one or two Kitchen Gadgets on this episode because I'm planning to go into some detail about it. First, let me just put a disclaimer out. I am not a reviewer or critic or critiquer, or I'm not affiliated with any of the products that I'm talking about. I'm not out to get any of the products that I'm talking about. I'm just giving you guys my opinion on some things, along with the reasoning why I'm using them or not liking them, or liking them. So please don't come for me anybody, I'm just talking, all right. So I'm actually so.
Speaker 1:As you guys know from listening to my first podcast some years ago, episode some years ago, I talked about gadgets. I have kitchen gadgets. I love kitchen gadgets. About two years ago for my birthday, my husband was nice enough to get me a Kitchen Aid. I was so excited about it. I've been using it a lot for baking and things and I just love all the attachments. You can continue to buy. So I have I think I told you guys before I have a Ninja Blender system. Gosh, you name it, I have it. You know the waffle makers, the hand mixers. I have things I'm not even thinking of. I have the air fryer, the conventional oven thingy. I'm not home so I'm like thinking in my head of, like, what's underneath my cabinets? Even my coffee maker is like. I think I told you guys. I think I had a whole episode on my coffee maker. When my one broke, I upgraded to, like this Ninja espresso coffee specialty, whatever coffee maker. So I think you guys are like getting the jets.
Speaker 1:I try to buy things that do more than one thing. Even for space saving purposes too, I try to buy it a little bit more high end, being the fact that I'm a person that I truly I typically use my gadgets, so I would use them often. So, yeah, it's nothing wrong with getting maybe the $20, $30 thing that does just that one process of or cutting If it's a food processor. You only get a food processor that does nothing else. For some that is perfect. You might not use it a lot, etc. Etc. My gadgets and things I use damn near daily, if not daily, at least weekly or a few times a month. So I typically try to buy a little bit higher end and multifunctional, just for storage reasons.
Speaker 1:So my friend Beverly and I had started juicing about 10 years ago and we fell off. We fall off, get back on. She did some research and we both brought the same juicer. I think it's like the Powerjack or something Really good juicer for its time at that time and it probably still is really good. Just depends on what you're looking for, and I'm sure, over time, you know, the motor, the, not just the motor, but even like the I don't know what you call it the thing that like grinds up the fruit and stuff I'm sure like wears out over time. So anyway, so you know, it's all these nice new juicers out.
Speaker 1:I still have my old juicer that Beverly and I had, but one of the things I'm starting to get disappointed with it is that you know, an apple it's not, you say you put it in if I'm not getting as much juice out of it as I used to. And then when I would look at the pulp that comes out of the other end and the reservoir, it's like so wet and it's like a lot of juice there, to where I find myself pouring it right back into the juicer and trying to get that juice out and it just, you know, I just don't feel it's working the way it used to, or at least shall I say um to where maybe I want it to work to. Now, who knows? And now that I'm saying this out loud, I might want to check. I might have a warranty on that thing. A lot of these um, a lot of products, what people don't know is, might have lifetime warranties or um, I don't know or even limited ones, and maybe, if it's like the thing that spins on the inside to cut, it is like getting dull maybe they can send me a new one. So I'm glad I just thought about that, but anyway.
Speaker 1:So everyone's been talking about the Nama Juicer, like the Nama J2, there's a Nama J1. These things are extremely expensive in my opinion. They're close to $600. And then they have, like some accessory tools that you can buy with it. I believe one was like a strainer, the shore bay maker, and I feel like it was one other thing. It might've been like a shredder or like something like cut stuff up. Can't remember that. You buy those separately, mind you, by the way, this already $550 juicer, then you gotta buy these particular accessories. So everyone's been talking about them, everyone's been loving them and from what I could see, they seem amazing.
Speaker 1:When the pulp comes out it's pretty dry, so I used it the other day for the first time. So let me start one from my experience. I ordered it back in December. We're in January, so my first complaint about it, on the surface, for a juicer costing so much and considering that it only has like one or two other attachments that come with it. I feel like some of those attachments should come with it automatically, like the main one that I feel should come with it automatically with the price point that it's at, is the strainer To like strain more of the pulp so it's like more like juice when you're pouring. I feel like that should not be like a $50 value. I wanna say it was 50, it might've been 20, but I almost positive it was like 50 bucks. I feel like that in itself, for the price of this juicer should already come standard with it and if you need an extra you buy it.
Speaker 1:The Charbet I mean I get that's $50. I did purchase it Again considering that it only needs like. From what I could see on the website, it only has like one, one to I'll say one to three attachments that come with it. I feel like, at the price point that it is, it just should come with it at being $550, almost $600 juicer. I feel like all of those attachments that have charged in this form it should just come with it, so that I say as a con to a degree, so when it is that, order it and considering also and again, I guess I'm spoiled by Amazon, a little bit of Walmart, couple of other delivery places, I would like to think being the fact that my bill was over $600 when it was completed and again, I did buy the one attachment. I did not buy the strainer because in my mind I was like it really should have came with one and worst case I could use my like dollar store strainer thing. But either way, at the price point I feel it should have came. I know you guys are like she keeps saying that. I know that lets you know how badly I felt it should have came with it. But anyways, so I ordered it. I feel like at the price point that it's at, I should have gotten it a lot sooner than like a week and a half to two weeks. Again, it could be the spoiledness of us consumers with the Amazons and you know this fast delivery, but if I'm spending $600 for kitchen appliance it's not like it's a couch, it wasn't on back order. I just feel like the speed of the delivery should have been a little sooner than you know, a week or two. All right, so I get it. I get the packaging.
Speaker 1:Packaging is absolutely beautiful, packaged well. I love the way they packaged each item in the box. It is a beautiful packing job, very easy to put together, very easy to even use and to dismantle without you feeling like you're cutting yourself or going to cut yourself. First I was a little nervous by cause I'm used to some like juicers or kitchen gadgets where, like you really gotta pull to like get the blade out of the container, stuff like that. After it's put together, everything is like put together with ease, it just like drops it, it just pulls out. I love that. I feel like that right there is like the best thing, so I do use it.
Speaker 1:I will admit to me, it makes a lot more juice. It pulls a lot more juice out of the fruits and vegetables. I made, like this pineapple and cucumber smoothie, not smoothie juice, and again the pulp comes out pretty dry. I have to say it does a great job. With the pineapple, I feel like with that soft fruit, I feel like it doesn't go fully through. I didn't have it at the max, I had it like in between, like in the middle, and I felt like you know, they just kind of set on top of the blade and not really get down in there. So I had to like maneuver, that, um, what else? The juice came out well, the cleanup wasn't too bad. It's a lot of parts but not a lot of small parts, so it was easy to clean. I love that it comes with a brush and everything to clean it.
Speaker 1:It's still to me, compared to my old one, it still gets foamy. That's one of the reasons why I didn't want my old one anymore. It doesn't get as foamy as my old one, but it still creates a good bit of foam to where the strainer would be nice to have. Again, I had to use my own little straining thing. So again, my big con is that the strainer didn't come with it, and you know you shouldn't have to purchase that, I feel, especially with it being at the price point that it's at. But yeah, overall I can say I'm happy with it.
Speaker 1:Is it worth $600 though? And that is the magic question, don't get wrong, it does more. You can do smoothies, you can make almond milk, nut milks, any nut milks, and stuff like cashew and stuff like that. So I have not tried those functions. So it does, you know, a little bit more than just juicing. So that might be also what you're paying for. Overall, I like it. The price point I feel probably isn't bad if it came with all of the attachments, like with more attachments with it with, instead of you buying them separately.
Speaker 1:You know, and again this is me trying to juice more, trying to not and not even just juicing like the green drinks and stuff, but even just like making soups and stuff. You can use this, you know, to help with that, taking like real tomatoes, putting it in there, you know, butternut squash, stuff like that, and making the soup, or you know. So far you know it's not terrible, but we will see. I plan to use it again, probably this week, because again I've been making like spicy lemonade with jalapeno, just shots of those trying to keep us healthy. Pineapple and cucumber, which I got more to make I got another pineapple at the house stuff like that, like I'm just trying to.
Speaker 1:I've been doing a lot of like stuff that you would buy at the store that has a lot of preservatives in. I'm trying to, at home, make it, for instance, black tea, like I love iced tea. I'm an iced tea drinker, I will buy iced tea and the thing about that is they have preservatives in, they have sugars. So what I've been doing at home I've been boiling water in the pot, making a big pot, put my black tea bags in there, let those come to a boil steep. I take fresh onion I mean fresh onion, fresh lemon. I squeeze it over into the pitcher and I use my blue agave sweetener and I put and I don't sweeten it a lot, I don't sweeten it heavy I put that at the bottom of the pitcher, you know, mix that up and once my hot tea cools down, you know I pour that, I convert it over to my pitcher and that's our iced tea. No, it's not the exact same, but it's prior, it's better. I'm the only one touching number one and I know exactly what I'm putting in it. I'm not doing even the herbal ones, I'm just doing regular black tea and you know when you want something different than water. You got that. So I've been really on this kick of like, trying to make things more at home, more of a home base where you know what you're getting. All right.
Speaker 1:So the next gadget I promise I won't keep you guys long the next gadget that I've been using, that I've and this is where you guys are going to be highly disappointed to be, especially with what I had just said about using my gadgets. I typically do so. I got the ninja system and I had brought the processor one. It does juicing smoothies, dough, you know, the regular shredding and stuff of your fruits and vegetables, all of it. It does all of this amazing stuff. And can you guys believe, I've had this system probably four or five years, give or take.
Speaker 1:I've never used the processor, the food processor on it, and I'm like, so the other day well, not the other day, but back in December like again, I've been like redoing my kitchen and just pulling stuff out, like out of sight, out of mind sometimes. So I'm like why am I not using this processor? And I remember back in the day when I was younger and I worked at this particular hair salon. I was a little bit older woman when I say I was young, I was like 15. So these women I'm saying older, in between 40 and 60, they would always talk about. They were used to go to Bloomingdale's and stuff and get their kitchen aids and their food processors and they would talk about these things. You know, I grew up with my granny, my mom and them. They old school, they use their hand, they're peeling potatoes and you know. So I never, really I never grew up with a food processor to really really know what it does. You know what I mean, just what I heard them, you know, talk about.
Speaker 1:So, anyways, I have a food processor and I'm like man, what does this thing really do? I'm 39 still and still really don't know what it do. But I have it and that's probably why I never use it, because I really I'm not even lying. I know you're like it says food process, but what does that mean? Oh my God, guys. So I've been on this kick where I'm trying to, because I thought, as you guys do a lot of um, you know, I have a lot of get-togethers and and you know, and then I also like to food prep and the hardest part is like cutting everything up and just your hands they hurt. And you know, I'm just really trying to find smarter ways, like I know how I talk about you guys with like working smarter, not harder, even within the job world, like career wise. Well, I've tried to do that even at home, y'all. So got this food processor out, I read up on it and I'm like, oh, this thing sounds amazing. And boy oh boy, it is amazing.
Speaker 1:All you do you prep your? You prep your food like washing it, peeling any of the um stickers that might be on it. You, um, you know, might pull out any. If it's like a potato, you might pull out any bad spot. Same with the fruit, what I'm the vegetables, and the blade has different sizes to it. You slice it down enough to where it would fit in the reservoir not the reservoir, but the I don't know what to call it the thing where you would place the food in to push it down. Forget what it's called. It does have a name, but um, whatever, like the whole layer. So you prep it and boy, oh boy, it cut my shit in like seconds, not even minutes, y'all seconds. And then all you do is dump it into whatever it is you're using it.
Speaker 1:For Me I did um, a bunch of containers and like like a whole bag of onions I had cut. I just sliced them in half each and a half, put in there At my whole bag of potatoes, cut in under two minutes. Hands weren't hurting, eyes weren't watering and all I did is transferred them from my processor into a storage container to put in the refrigerator. I used three potatoes yesterday to cook breakfast. I made my own McGriddles at home and, um, I uh, took the potatoes, washed. The potatoes washed, really good, sliced them in half, put in that processor within two minutes. You know my three potatoes done, but let me tell you it filled an aluminum pan that I could put into the oven. It filled that basically because it cuts it so thin, like it made those three potatoes go so far, and I and I stopped here to say my granny used to do that with her hands, meaning the way that that looks sliced though perfectly, and then my granny could do that with just her hands, that I feel like that's fucking amazing. But anyways, but yeah, it made that and I put two onions, chopped it within a second and then put that away as well. I'm like this is amazing, bake those while I was making my McGriddles.
Speaker 1:Guys, I say this to say get a fucking food processor, stop using your hands, get a food processor. It is the absolute best, the freaking best. I'm always looking for something to process now and you can shred. I mean, it's so many different things you can do with. It depends on you know what you're looking to do. Of course, like I said, mine is a whole system, so mine does. I can blend, I can make soups in it, of course, um, you know process dough.
Speaker 1:But even if you don't want to spend, you know a hundred dollars or whatever it is on a system that does more than one thing, just go to fucking Walmart or wherever, or Amazon, and just buy just the food processor and leave it on your counter and use it. You'll probably use it daily, or at least weekly, every time you go to grocery store all your produce, cut it up your cellaries, whatever, put it in containers, and that way it's easy to just pull out for you when you're cooking throughout the week. I fucking love it, love it. Please buy yourself a food processor.
Speaker 1:Ladies, moms, even men I know men even cook too Give our hands a effin break cutting and sometimes cutting yourself, and you know, or just not even feel like it. Give our hands, let's, let's, let's do some self care for our hands. Please use a food processor, use the blender, use the juicer, don't use. I mean, there's gadgets, I know, that can juice, like your lemons and your oranges. No, even that. I have an automatic juicer for oranges and stuff you want to make fresh homemade orange juice or lemon. I have one that does it automatically. It's like you plug it in and it does it. I mean, guys, I know it's a lot of gadgets, it's a lot of gadgets, but that's why I say, if you can find ones that are like two and ones, three and ones, four, ones, shit, six and ones I know kitchen aids are expensive, but they, if you buy the attachments, it does so much, it's worth it in my opinion, especially if you look at all your other gadgets that you're probably not using because it's like, well, that only does that, then I'll have to pull out this one and this one, whereas you have this one system or two systems out and they do everything you need to prepare for whatever meal or whatever it is you're doing.
Speaker 1:You got to get the food processor now. Get that food processor. You don't get nothing else. Get a food processor.
Speaker 1:Valentine's Day is coming up. Ladies and men Shit ask for a food processor. Fuck the candy. Get a food processor. Fuck the flowers, they die. Get a food processor. We don't need the calories from the chocolate anyway. Get a food processor. Make our lives so much easier, and I feel like you would if I enjoy cooking, but you'll enjoy it even more because it's takes the work off for you.
Speaker 1:It lifts that weight, the dreaded cutting of this, the dreaded cutting of that. Once you prep it, you cook and you wash it. Peel whatever off, get any imperfections out that you don't want, boom, throw it in, done Like a boss, and it does. You know they have the amount. You know that it could go up to what is? I can't think inches, meters, what is the word in cooking? I can't think the measurements, yeah, so like you could do an eight cup, a 16 cup, you know you find the one that you feel you need, but it works Amazing. It's a musket, but, yes, so I will end it there, because that's about two or three.
Speaker 1:Well, that's two gadgets that I went into in detail. I might go into one or two more, might do one more episode of a couple of other gadgets, but yes, those two gadgets, the ones I just talked about, the juicer, and then, of course, the food processor. Or cut out that Nama juicer. I'm not saying to get the Nama juicer, guys, don't? I don't know. That's up to you. Guys, do your, you do your research on it. It has like five stars, basically, but do your research If you feel you want to spend. It's a huge investment. But two, maybe you can find a system similar to like the Ninja that has it all, because the Ninja it blends. It blends pretty smooth.
Speaker 1:I must say, not everything has to be a juice. It can be a smoothie, but if you blend it up enough and then take a strainer, you got a juice. You know what I'm saying? That's a juice. So there's ways around it, just depends on what steps you want to take to get the same result. But yeah, it might be worth you investing in like the Ninja system and that way it does everything, including your dose.
Speaker 1:Of course I have a KitchenAid, so my KitchenAid can do my dose and everything else, and I have other attachments I brought for it to great to do cheese to do. It's endless. But the food processor also. You know people that make their homemade mac and cheese. Put your cheese, your block of cheese, in there. I'm just saying shredded carrots. You can make shredded carrots in there. It does more than just chopping. It has different blades. You know to do different things. So I don't know. But if you were thinking of getting a food processor, if you were thinking of getting a juicer, I hope my kind of review helped you out, you know, but at the end of the day I'm not affiliated with anyone.
Speaker 1:I'm just giving you my opinion on the things that I have in my kitchen that I'm trying to use more of. I hate things on my countertop, so that's part of the reason why a lot of my stuff is under, and I actually went to Walmart today hence me being in my car and got like some container things to put under my coffee bar area to get some of that stuff off the counter and that would help with my fungshweighing of my kitchen and like having things look better. I don't like the clutter of things with my countertop. So I'm kind of winter cleaning right now. I'm doing a you know, deep clean with that and I try to recycle Like I try to. For instance, I have something else under my coffee bar area. I'm going to use that particular basket that I have under there with stuff in it and that basket I will transport that to the basement and put, like my throw blankets and stuff in there or have it in the living room for my throw blankets. So I try to like reuse things, not really throw anything out, find places for them and if it's not the right color or something. Guys, you can always paint it, but I will end it there because I want this one to be all about gadgets so it's easier for you to check it out later. And again, thanks for joining me, thanks for tuning in.
Speaker 1:As always, my next episode I got to tell you guys my yearly views and stats from last year. Shout out to Germany. Germany is one of my highest listening countries for some reason, and if it is, I love it. Thank you, and if you guys in Germany have any particular topics you want me to talk about, please reach out to me via email. The email address is in the in like the, I guess, summary of my podcasts, of the episodes and things. So, and I believe this is right off hand, it's coffee with a twist. The width only is WIT, no H with a twist at gmailcom. So feel free to reach out to me if, like you're like, hey, this would be a great topic, definitely want to keep you all engaged. But shout out to Germany. Off the top of my mind, they have been my number one listeners this past. Well, yeah, this past year, 2023.
Speaker 1:So I hope you guys keep spreading my podcast around. I enjoy doing it. I'm glad people tune in to me rambling and talking about a bunch of nothing. Please, thank you so much for supporting me and this year I hope I can keep those ratings up and keep it growing. That's the goal. I really want to put out more and do more.
Speaker 1:But I'm not going to lie. I do run out of topics and I just don't want to sound like, you know, a broken record sometimes. You know some of the things I talk about, like, of course, I always talk about self care and you know working harder I mean working smarter, not harder and those are things those I'm definitely going to always talk about because they're important and we sometimes need those reminders and I'm hoping sometimes, when my podcast come on and I'm talking about those things, that is your reminder to do it, because you haven't been doing it or you started to get back in it. So certain motivational things I just will continue to do. So I do apologize in advance. You're like I heard something similar to this before about a balloon. Yes, you have, but we need to hear it again. Let's get ready for this. Nice, you know, 2024. I pray that you all have a great 2024. I know it will happen Until next time. Thank you for tuning in Coffee with a twist with Madame Ballew.