Osterize It!

I've been putting off buying a new blender for a while, since my old one mysteriously disappeared during my last move. While I tried to compensate as much as I could, I also found it meant that there were so many recipes I could not try (very hard to puree soup with a potato masher as well as time consuming, and face it you can just NOT make a smoothie or shake!)

Finally it came to the point where I wanted to make a new batch of apple butter, and needed some way to puree it, and thus set out to buy a new blender.

I know there are a lot of very fancy blenders out there that serve as both appliances and "art pieces", but face it I am not going to shell out a couple hundred bucks for a blender - a mixer yes (my dream KitchenAid!) but for a blender - no.

So I perused the selection in front of me - consisting of several brands, speeds and designs. I knew I wanted a glass jar, for durability if nothing else, and plastic just seems flimsy to me and more prone to cracking. Plastic also seems to retain smells/flavour or can change colour. This narrowed it down slightly to two choices, and I decided to go with the Oster as it seemed a bit more durable.

The Oster Blender has a glass jar (you can get plastic too) and 14 speeds with 7 being "low" speeds and 7 being "high speeds". It is very easy to use, and I like the buttons in that they are actual buttons (another model had those raised bump-type buttons which seem cheap to me). There is also (as any blender should have!) a pulse button.

The lid is a flexible rubber type thing that fits tightly to the jar, with another small plastic lid in the centre which you can use as a measure as well as to open to add more goodies in while blending.

I've used this blender for various things so far - including my aforementioned apple butter, and soups, and to crush ice, for milkshakes and smoothies etc etc.
I have not once been disappointed with its capabilities, and I find it very easy to clean as well, as well as to reassamble. You can also of course just clean it with a cleaning cycle rather than by hand. It sits on my counter, and while its not like the fancy designer blenders, it's passably nice looking.

There is a good warranty on the product, and you can order extra stuff for it if you want as well.