It slices, it dices, but wait, there's more!

By all accounts, I'm a pretty horrendous cook, but I would be much worse without my Cuisinart Custom 11. Not only does slicing, dicing and julliening by hand take a long time, it's hard to do them well without practice, and quite frankly, I don't have time to practice. So instead of getting frustrated slaving over a knive and a chopping board, I throw everything into my Cuisinart, pick the appropriate blade, and chop, mix, blend away to my heart's content.

The product that I'm using is actually an older version of the Custom 11 that was passed on to my by my step-mother who probably got it about 15 years ago. It has held up remarkably well over the years. The only problems with it were caused by human error (that would be me): leaving the lid too close to the stove so it became warped, misloading the dishwasher and breaking a blade in the process, and so on.

The blades can be a pain to clean, especially if you've been grating cheese or mixing dough. But most of the time you can just through the bowl and the attachments in the washing machine and not give it a second thought.

I highly recommend getting the extra case for the blade attachments. On numerous occasions I reached into a drawer only to nick my hand on the edge of a sharp blade. It's especially important if you have kids -- the case comes with a childproof lock.

If you're like me -- working hours upon hours but attempting to at at least eat decent food when you can -- get a Cuisinart. Not only will it make you appear to be a better cook than you really are, it will save you time and your sense of humor in the process.