Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Hi Amy, I hope to start using it more. I hated the old one with the super tall containers. Never felt it was clean enough (it is over 20 years old) and the cloudiness made it hard to see details.

I've already used the new 32 oz. it to make the filling for the prune pie I made yesterday (not a fan of pumpkin pie). I still used my Cuisinart for the veggie prep, since I feel I have better control of the dice, and used it for the pie crust.

I plan to try more on the Vitamix so I can learn to use it better. Won't be doing much cooking at home between now and the end of January since I'll be in Boston for Christmas and having meniscus surgery in January. Hopefully by then my Sansaire will be here as well.

Ouch! Sorry you've got to have that surgery, Alina. Hope your recovery is speedy.

In the meantime, I noticed that you have the new model Foodsaver on your counter behind the Vitamix. I've got one of the older models and it still works fine, but this one intrigued me when I saw it at Costco b/c it looks like it would be easier to go back and forth between the canister and bag vacuum/sealing options. I didn't even realize I had the canister option for the first few years I had the FS, but once I discovered it, I use it a lot to keep pantry staples fresh (e.g., nuts sealed in jars rather than taking up space in the freezer), and also for helping keep baked goods fresh longer.

Emilie

Hi Emilie, yes the Foodsaver is the newest model. We got it when Costco had it on sale. So far l like it a lot. It took a couple of uses to get the bag placement right, but now it works every time. I love the retractable cord. I too have the canisters and the jar attachments. Though I use it for resealing wine most. It will keep for months. I've not used the marinator yet. The automatic sensors seem to work really well. I am glad I upgraded.

I had the surgery on the lateral on that knee already, this is the medial that is torn now. Recovery was not too bad. It is now that it hurts since my knee pops in and out all the time.

Alina,

Hope the surgery goes well, along with the rehab.

How much of the bag does your new Foodsaver waste? I assume they have improved it since the times when they were wasting 2 1/2" on every seal?

Not sure which I use more, my FS, or my VM. Two great upgrades for you! My latest Foodsaver time saver was to buy a bunch of carrots on sale (not one of the things I grow!), dice them up small, blanch a minute or so, then FS them in 2 or 3 carrot amounts, to use in soups (or whatever). I also did this with some celery, with about 1/3 of the packs of carrots. Saves a lot of time down the road, plus I don't always have celery in the fridge.

Thanks Dave, that is a great idea especially for the celery. Did you blanch the celery as well?

I think it uses less of the bag to seal. I have not paid attention to the bags, but did notice it used less to reseal a cracker bag, less than 1". I'll check the next time I seal a regular bag. I was afraid it would be hard to seal non-food saver bags i.e., chips, frozen corn, etc. but it works even better than the old one.

My next try for the VM is going to be lemon curd. I'm going to try the recipe in their cookbook (I'm skeptical because it's no cook), and if it works at all, then I'll try to convert my fave (Ina's).

Thanks Alina. I was hoping that they had corrected that, but hadn't seen any posts here or elsewhere since that complaint came out way back. BTW, which model is it? I have been considering replacing mine (10 years old this month), as it has gotten slow, and replacing the seals (which are getting hard to locate) didn't help much. Still, I use it all the time!

I blanch the celery, too, and what I do is dice up xx carrots or stalks of celery, then blanch them 30 sec or so, then drain and cool. Then I divide the amounts by xx, to figure out the equivalent of one carrot or stalk of celery, then freeze, using these weights. While some recipes call for volumes of these (more precise), most call for numbers of carrots or stalks of celery. I use more carrots alone, in many of the Indian soups I make, but I make a lot of the carrot/celery packs, too, for the frequent mirepoix called for in other dishes.

Dave the Foodsaver is a V4865 purchased at Costco. The Vitamix is a 750 Pro from W-S (they had it in red). Had a coupon so I ordered the marinator as well as more zipper bags. We love those for the fridge and with the convenience of the pull out attachment, we've been using those more. I used one last year for my trip to Boston and a cut apple was still beautifully crisp and not discolored after 3 days (didn't eat it on the plane and then forgot it). I'll be taking another one this year.

Alina... Congrats on your new Vitamix---I just picked up a 7500 myself. The new shorter 64oz carafe makes a BIG difference (under cabinets). I can't wait to start making smoothies, hot soups, humus, etc. I may need to get one of the smaller 32oz containers in the future but for now I'm very excited just starting out!

Congrats to you. We are using ours every day. I would have said I didn't need the presets but I love them, especially the cleaning cycle.

I've been in Boston for the last 3 days and will be here until the 27 and really miss it and the food saver. I think they'd love a Vitamix, but the price is beyond my gift giving budget. I did get them a new 14 cup Cuisinart and the french-fry blade. DD now wants my old food saver and asked about our old Vitamix. I had offered a new food saver a couple of years ago, but they declined that. So I'll ship them my old one. Steve won't part with his old Vitamix yet, so it will go in storage for a while until he's ready to part with it. We are keeping the old dry container which does not get used as often so it is in reasonable shape, so we did not get a new dry one (actually had bought one at Costco for $99 and returned it.)

I have to ask, Alina - what is a cleaning cycle?