Finding a trustworthy blender
Our blender of one year plus died an unnatural death about two months ago. No, it didn't explode or go up in flames, the jar didn't crack and neither did it fall of the counter in a suicide attempt. It just died, its motor just gave out. Hubby tried to check it out, maybe it just needed a fuse or something but darn! the makers did a good job of making it next to impossible to open it up unless you went at it with a pick axe 
Needless to say, we decided to get another one. Summer was coming and we wanted some smoothies and ice cream! Hubby went on a blender hunt. He scoured the net looking for reviews on various models. We wanted one which could last us for a few years, maybe more and which was trustworthy enough to deliver the goods when needed. Yep, we were looking for Mr/Ms Right Blender.
While checking out reviews, Hubby came across reviews on old blender we had bought earlier and it was NOT GOOD. Should we have read those reviews, we never NEVER would have bought the other blender. But we did and well, it did last us a year compared to some of the reviewers. Some never got beyond the first usage, that's terrible. Anyway, we opted for an Oster seeing as how their products got better reviews and finally decided we were going to get the Osterizer® Contemporary Classic Beehive Blender. We decided that it was better to wait and see if there were offers or discounts for it since it cost about CAD$99 not including tax.
A few days ago or maybe a week, Hubby read a flyer that Canadian Tire would be offering up to $10 off products purchase but valid only for the 27th and 28th. Well, Saturday found us there and there was only one left. We grabbed it and headed for the cash counter. We were not eligible for the offer since we had not brought the coupon. Strange, usually Hubby would be tearing out all the coupons but this time he had not, he wasn't even sure there had been a coupon. The cashier mentioned that we could bring it the next day. So to cut a long story short, hubby looked in all the papers and flyers and he couldn't find it, probably he had thrown it out recently with the batch of papers but we had already decided that we were keeping it regardless, well, unless it proves to be unworthwhile investment.
Today, I decided to try it out on making a cocoa coffee smoothie. In went a cup of milk, some cocoa (maybe 2 tbsp) and instant coffee (a tbsp) and sugar (decided to go with brown sugar). Pulsed it to mix it all up then added the ice cubes. I wasn't too sure if I could just load all the ice cubes in it so I just put in a few cubes. Bad decision for this caused the liquid to splatter so what the heck, I threw in all the ice cubes and it did a fine job blending the ice cubes evenly. I might add some chocolate chips to it the next time. Hubby was very pleased .. bye bye Tim Hortons!
Regardless of what some of the reviews mentioned about it being super loud, we didn't think that it was a big deal as we felt our previous blender was even louder and anyway, it didn't take that long for it to get its job done, just a few second of pulsing here and there and it was done.
I am going to try making ice cream next so Hubby is going to buy some whipping cream on the way back from his gig and I would be adding that to frozen strawberries ... hmmm.
Well, this is not the end as I still have more tasks in store for the Oster. We have yet to decide whether this is the right blender for us.
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Hubby writes:
Gotta mention that the blender is a BLACK & DECKER too! So how many Black and Decker-branded stuff have broken down on us so far? That's TWO to count (the other is the toaster, but I am chalking that one down to age)! Nope, ain't gonna wait for Strike 3. As far as I am concerned, this IS Strike 3!!!
Not only that. There were 4 screws at the bottom of the base unit. 3 of the screws I managed to remove, whereas the last one was a very *special* type of screw. Short of breaking the unit, I couldn't remove that one. Not cool. 
Here's a link to that sorry excuse for a B&D blender on Amazon:
Dried Prawn Sambal
Hubby and I love to eat dried prawn sambal and I have been looking and trying out a few recipes but somehow they didn't come close to what my tastebuds believed it should taste like ... well, that is, until today.
I found a recipe on this website: 32ashburtonroad.com and decided to give it a try. I put in all the optional ingredients and did not exactly follow the measurements. We both love dried prawns so I put that in abundance. It's a bit expensive to get dried chillies over here and I happened to chance upon grounded dried chillies and used that instead in abundance as well 
Basically you just need the following ingredients:
garlic (1 or 2 cloves - the last time I added too much garlic and gave the sambal a weird taste which I thought was because of the dried chillies)
onion
dried chillies
lemon grass
a bit of sugar
don't forget the dried prawns
lime leaves (1 or 2)
oil for frying
My blender kind of died on me the other day so I used the toastmaster chopper instead. If you are the sort who needs the portions, kindly do visit the website given. I tried giving a lot of zing by adding Death Sauce but somehow it got drowned out and was just mildly spicy so I will add a ton more the next time I prepare it. Well, the picture is a bit blurry as I took the picture without my glasses .. hehe
Dried prawn sambal
Note to Hubby: am still waiting for pineapple rolls pix
