Food Prep 5

Songbird provides us with this week's Friday Five. She writes:

In a minor domestic crisis, my food processor, or more precisely the part you use for almost everything for which I use a food processor, picked the eve of the festive season of the year to give up the ghost. A crack in the lid expanded such that a batch of squash soup had to be liberated via that column shaped thing that sticks up on top.

Can you tell this is not my area of strength?

Next week, I'm hosting Thanksgiving. I need your help. Please answer the following kitchen-related questions:

1) Do you have a food processor? Can you recommend it? Which is to say, do you actually use it? We included a processor on our wedding registry. And we use it relatively regularly (especially compared to some of the other wedding gifts we got...)

2) And if so, do you use the fancy things on it? (Mine came with a mini-blender (used a lot and long ago broken) and these scary disks you used to julienne things (used once).) Ours doesn't really have any fanciness to it. The one thing it does have that we have never used is a dough blade.

3) Do you use a standing mixer? Or one of the hand-held varieties?
(And isn't that color delightfully retro?) We have a hand-held mixer. Last time I used a counter top model was my mother's, how do I say this, "well-aged (and well used)" mixer.

4) How about a blender? Do you have one? Use it much? We have a hand blender that we used to mix formula when the girls were that age. Beloved would like a blender.

5) Finally, what old-fashioned, non-electric kitchen tool do you enjoy using the most? Ummmm, I guess I would have to say my hands. I love kneading bread dough, rolling out cookie dough, etc.

Bonus: Is there a kitchen appliance or utensil you ONLY use at Thanksgiving or some other holiday? If so, what is it? We didn't pull them out last year but we have a set of Christmas dishes.