Gadget: Cuisinart Smart Stick

Today's post is the first in an occasional series I call "Gadgets I Can't Live Without" or GICLW for short. And the first item in the series is a Cuisinart Smart Stick. I've only had the Smart Stick — an immersion blender if you want to get technical — for about eighteen months. I wanted one forever but for some reason never got around to picking one up, which was so stupid because this is probably one of the best gadgets in my kitchen.

For soup-making it is an absolute essential because it allows you to puree your soup in the stock pot; no more of the messy and dangerous transfer of boiling liquid into the blender for pureeing and back again. I've made rich squash soups and creamy mushroom soups using it. I even used it to puree chicken livers when making a pâté. It's fast and easy, hardly any clean up involved afterwards. And what's great about this particular model is that it's stainless steel. I've heard of some people whose immersion blenders were housed in plastic and suffered meltdowns when they got too close to the bottom of a hot pot. But I've had no such trouble with my trusty Smart Stick. It's certainly a Gadget I Can't Live Without.