Cathy Weeks

Ela La Salle wrote:I'm just going to pipe in my 2 cents speaking from my experience;
while I'm for "going green" I also look out for my health (manual versus electrical.

That's what led to us finally getting the Nixtamatic after six years of making do with the Victoria hand mill.

Hand-grinding partially-cooked corn is a lot of work, and is pretty hard on the back.  We both love masa-based foods (tamales are my latest obsession) but it was hard enough work, that it limited the amount I was willing to make.   I went from making tortillas/sopes/etc maybe 1x per month, to every week.  

(Added: Credit were it's due - Chris pretty often did the cranking for me, while I stood around the corner of the table from him, feeding the hopper)

Jay Angler wrote:Welcome to permies, Cathy. Looks like you've landed among your tribe!

Thanks!

Chris has occasionally sent me "of interest" threads for years (usually when we are researching a gardening/DIY/Cooking topic), so I almost feel like I know folks here. :-)

Ok, so our daughter pointed out that I may have a thing for grinders.

No, seriously, I may have a problem.  

Off the top of her head, she pointed out that we have the following food mills:

1. Victoria mill for grinding masa (hand-cranked, inexpensive, but effective).
2. Wondermill Junior Deluxe (hand-cranked, expensive-ish, great for dry grains, TERRIBLE for masa - seriously, don't believe them when they suggest it for that use).
3. Horizontal crank food mill that sits on top of a pan, three screens (hand-cranked, inexpensive). It's a fine piece of equipment, and easy to use, but raspberries go right through it.
4. Food mill that works with the meat grinder attachment for the KitchenAid mixer.  It's expensive-ish and works fine, but I managed to destroy it (as Chris described in his OP) last weekend. It's a fine choice, and it broke entirely due to user error.  It also only removed about 2/3 or 3/4 of the raspberry seeds.
5. Nixtamatic for grinding masa (expensive particularly with shipping from Mexico. Electric, powerful and fast, but produces masa identical to what comes out of the Victoria).
6. Squeezo (on its way to us - will replace #4, and perhaps #3 above. Expensive-ish but bought used, so far more affordable than a new one). Three screens including one very fine one intended for berries.
7. Various coffee grinders (2 electric, numerous hand-crank)

(Added: I also have a variety of other similar tools including blenders (regular and immersion), food processors, mixers and depending on how you count, a low-tech proper chopper.  And knives.)

I thought pretty seriously of buying an aftermarket KitchenAid attachment to replace the one I broke, but since we upgraded to a bowl lift model, attachments are mounted to the PTO pretty high up, which means that the drop is significantly greater for the puree and seeds than on a tilt-head model.  I don't have bowls tall enough to contain the splatter, and hadn't yet figured out a way to raise the bowls (like sitting on a phonebook when we were kids).  I also really wanted a plastic-free model, as I don't like to use plastics with hot foods.  I do use plastic containers, but I try to minimize them, and to avoid putting hot foods in them, as I think that's more likely to outgas nasty chemicals into my food.

I had an incredibly easy menopause.   No hot flashes, though I did have night sweats a few times, and my blood pressure went up without the hormones (working with my doctor to get that under control). But I didn't expect to feel ... relief.   It seems like no one ever talks about how wonderful it is, not to have to worry about getting pregnant.  

Seems like women are supposed to be sad about it, or maybe society tells us to be sad about the end of our fertility, but that's not me.  I felt more like celebrating. No more periods, no more PMS, no more cycle-related food cravings.   No having to mess with contraceptives.   I'm one of the lucky ones who didn't have periods with my IUD, so after my daughter was born, I got a new IUD every 5 years until a blood test showed my hormone levels had settled into a post-menopausal state, and I was able to avoid the long heavy and irregular periods my mother dealt with in perimenopause.