Worth it for the nut and herb nut

This is an odd little appliance; I'm not sure what most people use it for. The quality is excellent; I don't even want to admit to how old mine is. It's easy to clean, spectacularly simple to use, it does its job well, it's just that, well, we're still not entirely sure what its job is.

There is a wonderful thing you can do to pizza with almonds and/or pine nuts and/or walnuts and whatever fresh herbs you happen to like: process the nuts and herbs for a bit; keep them in the fridge, and toss them on the pie -- also good on almost any savoury dish. Mincing nuts and herbs is really the Mini-Mate's forte.

That said, the rest of it remains a mystery. It is scarcely large enough for even the smallest amount of pesto. It does have some utility for making small quantities of salad dressings (albeit not mayonnaise; there is no way to add ingredients while the processor is in operation). Unless you have real onion-chopping issues and don't want to chop very many, it's not much of a real "food processor". (I also have a regular food processor; see http://www.epinions.com/hmgd-review-73C4-C424C37-380A86BD-bd1, and find the two to be completely different appliances.) Mincing garlic is an option, and it's probably getting obvious that I'm really scrambling for ideas here...

I can't give it a poor rating since I really do get a lot of use out of it, but it really isn't for the casual cook.