OK, time for my 2 cents. I've been baking, preserving, and cooking for more than you are old - that's fifty years if you want to count. My recommendations are just from experience and, of course, always frugality. If you buy a good piece of equipment it should last your lifetime - prorated over 50 years the $200 cost in negligible - but a $1,000 piece will never recoup its cost not matter how much stuff you preserve. On the other hand, if you buy a $10 piece of junk only to replace it in 1 year, and every year thereafter, cussing it all the while, that thing has less value than dirt in that it causes stress, breaks at the crucial need, and is risky to use, poorly constructed, and maddening to use, and expensive in the long run. Cheap junk is still junk. Using a cheap plastic mandolin that you are afraid of is dangerous. Even with a Kevlar glove (buy them at Walmart in the fishing department - for cleaning fish - if you already have one) it will make the chore unacceptable - too bulky/clunky, but it still does work - time quality is a factor here. An expensive professional mandolin is pure pleasure and if you plan on canning for many years, the only way to go. My pro chef SIL gave me his old Bron mandolin (new is probably $150). "Wow" is the only word to describe a professional piece of equipment - kinda like buying a maslin pan! The thickness of a slice is easily adjusted; it makes julienne and french fry thicknesses in one pass with a turn of a knob, and also endeared me in that it makes a cute wavy cut if I so desire. It comes with a guide plate so that you never have to get anywhere near the cutting plate and therefore it is totally safe. The blade can be sharpened to razor edge but my SIL said that he used it for 17 years without having to do that and to me it is way sharp enough for my cukes. Zip-zip. As for mini choppers (half an onion - minced, 2 cups of diced peppers, 6 garlic cloves - minced, etc.) I recommend the little mini food chopper (1 to 2 cup size) by Black & Decker, for about ten bucks. Available at chain drug stores (CVS, Walmart, and the like). Never makes paste of nuts either (just "finely chopped") so it is used a lot here instead of the stupid scrunch and grunt upper hammer nut "grinders". I bought a burr coffee grinder for spices. It is a simple mechanism with adjustments for "granular" size that is irrelevant for hard spices - longer whirring works the same. It was about $15 at Target. It depends on what the outcome for which you wish to achieve. Note that it is super for leaving tasty traces in the hopper and then when you are grinding fresh coffee beans viola! Yum to cinnamon sticks followed by dark roast coffee beans. As for full sized food processors - I use the attachment made for my KitchenAid mixer. Shredding 10 pounds of carrots is a snap, chunking tons of cabbage for slaw is a simple change to a different sized cone (three come with a set and 10 more are available), and for making piles of cheese for crackers that just goes through like butter. The problem is that you have to have a KitchenAid stand mixer to attach it to. One simple little tool for twenty bucks that has me watching infomercials again is the Vidalia Onion Chopper, a.k.a. Sweet Onion Chopper, and the like. It uses the force of your hand/arm to press down on a template over a steel honeycomb-shaped plate. I cubed enough sweet onions for 40 jars of relish in about 10 minutes, enough zucchini for 20 jars of relish, and the steamed carrots for pickled relish in 5 minutes. Then I used it to cut up sweet and hot peppers, red onions, and dried apricots for about 20 jars of Habanero Gold Jelly in just under 10 minutes. It does not work for softer things like cherries and plums, but I will try it for tomatoes, whenever they decide to ripen, when I make more tomato preserves. As for a dedicated food processor - buy only the one with the widest bowl you can find. If it has a narrow bowl you may as well just buy a blender and forget chopping with it. I have a "harvest gold"-colored food processor from about 1970 that has a very wide bowl, no safety features, and limited options, that suits me just fine for chunk shredding, fruit puree prep (before it all goes into the Squeezo), and using just the cutter blade alone for making great pie crusts and for coarse chopping big nuts. It is worthless for making nicely sliced cukes for pickles, or for precision shredding or slicing for anything else. If I were to buy one today, I'd go with the snazzy KitchenAid KFP750. It is what all the pro chefs on TV use and they have to determine "quality or junk for their standards - give or take rebates. That model also comes with the mini bowl so the B&D would not be needed. (Though I would not give up my B&D mini for anything after all these years.) At your young age, and the interest in preserving food you have shown over the last 3 years, an investment in quality equipment is akin to a painter who has to choose between a throw-away brush and one that will last 10 years. Duh! Initial investment in quality tools will outlast throw-always by far. If you don't believe me, come see me chop cabbage in the harvest-gold FP sometime!!! Your whole investment in good quality tools would be in the $15O to $550 range. Throw-away paintbrush or 50 years of quality? Nancy

To dehydrate kale: Wash thoroughly. Remove stems (save to use in another dish, stir-fry, or soup). Cut the kale leaves (kitchen scissors work well for removing the stem and cutting the large leaves into smaller portions) or tear the kale into manageable-sized pieces. (After you've made dried kale once, you will decide what size/s of pieces work best for you and fit in your dehydrator.) Dip the cut pieces in an acidic water bath (1 t. citric acid powder, OR vitamin C powder,OR Fruit Fresh per quart of water). This aids in preventing bacteria growth, helps maintain color, and adds a little vitamin C. Drain (I give the cut pieces a gentle spin in my salad spinner). Place same-sized pieces together in a single layer on a dehydrator tray - or on one side of a tray if you mix sizes on a single tray. Equal-sized pieces will dry in approximately the same amount of time. If you put a combination of large, medium, and small pieces together on the same tray, the small pieces will finish drying first, and you will need to remove them so they don't over-dry - so keep the same sizes together as much as possible. Dry between 105-120-degrees F. until crispy dry (or about 4-6 hours). When crispy, allow the kale to cool to room temperature while on the trays (20-30 minutes). Don't let the dried kale sit in high humidity or it can rehydrate, and if enough moisture is absorbed, it can mold in storage. As soon as it is cool, store in an air-tight container and keep in a dark, cool place. This is a great way to "save" some less-than-perfect kale you forgot in the crisper drawer. -Grainlady

"I do worry about the high calorie count of smoothies, though, which is part of why we only buy them infrequently." The major advantage to making your own is you control the ingredients. Start with a non fat greek yogurt, add half a frozen banana and frozen strawberries for a great, low fat, healthy smoothie. I regret I didn't have my blentec when my girls were eating purees, but now that they are older (school age), I find the smoothies even more important because it ensures they eat wholesome, healthy foods. If you look at the Sneaky Chef or Seinfeld cookbooks, you can get alot of ideas for adding purees to food. Your Au Gratin sounds divine. If it will peel the spuds, I will go buy the cuisinart food processor today. LOL!

I have an old VitaMix w/ reversible motor. I use the reverse function when I grind egg shells into powder. DSII bought a Ninja that he uses for making smoothies. I've only used it a couple of times. It's a Rube Goldberg contraption and is somewhat confusing to assemble the different blades, bowls/ containers. I default to using my old Cuisinart food processor, the Vita Mix or a stick blender. Also have a regular Oster blender--seldom used. Mostly, I use a stick blender or the food processor. I use the bread maker to make yeast & pasta dough. (Super easy clean--just let the leftover dough bits dry & they flake off.) Kitchen Aid mixer is used for making cookies & cakes that need long mix times for creaming butter & sugar. Use a hand mixer for making mashed potatoes.