Mixing It Up

My girlfriend told me about a delicious cauliflower leek soup she had just made, so I asked for the recipe, as I am always eager to try something new. 

She mentioned that the recipe required the use of an immersion blender, which she loves because it allows her to keep the soup in the pot to puree instead of transferring it to a blender.

I didn’t have an immersion blender but was already hooked on the idea of this soup, so I decided to proceed with – don’t judge me – a hand mixer, which I could also utilize in the soup pot. I was certain that I could make it work, one way or another. 

While the soup was very tasty, the consistency was way off with the hand mixer, like 1,000 tiny pieces of cauliflower floating in liquid. Not exactly how I envisioned my soup. 

The next day, I poured my mixture into the blender and created a truly delicious soup but frankly, by that time, I was sick of the cauliflower.

David had seen me fussing with the soup over a 2-day period, and I’m sure he wondered what I was doing. He would have enjoyed using this scenario as yet another opportunity to explain that having the appropriate tool to do the job – whatever it is – should always be at the starting point of any project. 

Since he has retired, he is constantly working around the house and seems to feel the need to buy a new gadget for every task he takes on.        

“Can’t you just use what you have?” I ask him, time and time again.    

Meantime, he consistently echoes a different frustration to me.     

“You always use the wrong tools,” he says, which is annoying to hear because I view so much of his purchases as overkill; yet, there’s no doubt that his precision consistently leads to a good outcome.

Every now and then, he manages to convert me to his way of thinking.  

Take knives, for example. He made a big stink one day that we need a knife specifically designed to slice bagels. I thought he was ridiculous and indulgent…What’s wrong with the knives we have?  I asked.

He insisted that I try the knife when he got it, and I have to admit that I became an instant believer. Its serrated edges are perfect for a clean and safe cut, which I especially appreciate given that I almost sliced my finger off some 20 years ago when I used a utility knife to slice a bagel.    

I started to daydream out loud about how good the cauliflower leek soup would have been had I used an immersion blender.

David was so excited that I was actually open to getting one that he immediately went online and started researching them. 

Guess what was in yesterday’s mail?