Blender story

So G loves Idli. And when we got married, he told me lovingly how he would appreciate idli for dinner. The loving wife that I am, went about procuring the batter from our Desi store. And every once in a while, we would have hot piping idlis for dinner and sometimes dosa too. Soon, I got bored because Idli making is very tedious to me and we cannot have it sans sambhar and chutney, so the amount of work is more.

So, our frequency started dwindling, but G didn't really complain to me. It so happened that my mother visited us and the loving MIL that she is, she had to make every single dish her SIL likes. So she set about making the idlis, much to my irritation. (My Mom loves to make things G likes, almost hardly making things I like, what is up with that??) And I was suitably admonished for not feeding the husband what he loves the most. Argghhh..so the process started again. Then came in my friend ART, who made matters worse by telling us that idli batter is easy to make and the outcome better than perfect. More arghh, so we set about getting the rice and dals.
Finally the batter was made and we realised taste was definitely better. So I gave in and resigned to my fate. Why couldn't the man just be happy with pasta in marinara sauce? O well!
The story above is a build up to my new love, if you are wondering where the post is going.
We had been using a Black and Decker blender to make the batter, but the blender couldn't be bothered with such a tedious process. So after about 5 batter making exercises, it decided to call it quits.

This actually worked out well for us and we set about to buy a better blender to get the rice to a fine-er paste. (I did try my food processor, but it just didn't give the same result).
So we got the Kitchen Aid blender, here's a link from Amazon.
I have been using this blender for almost a year now and I am really satisfied.
I had a Black and Decker before, but it just didn't get the batter done properly, which by far is the most difficult item I have tried to grind. It does the whole 'grinding' action really well. And at almost a Horse Power, it gets the job done efficiently.
Pros:
1. the jar is made of polycarbonate, and not glass, making it lighter to handle and easier to clean.
2. the cord can be neatly tucked away.
3. Super easy to clean, no hidden crevices in the base.
4. Crushes ice and makes smoothies as easily.

Cons:
1. It is noisy and if you have little kids, they can get scared.
2. I don't think it has an automatic shut off if it over heats, or I haven't experienced it yet.

Bottom line, it's a great blender and definitely affordable. Kitchen aid's products are not always supreme quality, but this comes fairly close.