I have an aversion to kitchen machinery, especially when the complete cycle (find, fish out, set up, run, clean, put away) takes more time and effort than "doing it the hard way", but some things do go better with machines.

Take grating fresh coconut. It's nearly impossible with standard hand tools 'cause the stuff is tough and fiberous but crumbles, exposing your knuckles to the grater. A rotary cheese grater works to a point, but then the work piece gets thin and slips between the grater and shell jamming the works and becomes waste.

Of course if you have the proper tool (and the machete skill to halve coconuts) you can grate them in the half shell. I know a place that carries the tools, but even the hand cranked model rates as a "kitchen machine" itself, and a single purpose machine at that.

That left my historic** Welco food processor, which does a fine job but it's a real task to haul that heavy machinery out and then clean it up and put it away after use. I was thinking about one of those tiny "pre-prep" processors I'd recently seen which are small and light.

Meanwhile, I had some jobs too tough for food processors so I went shopping for a blender. Figured if today was the day I wanted to buy a blender, today would be the day blenders were on sale, and they were.

I found some blenders now come with a tiny food processor attachment and the store had Oster, Kitchen Aid and Cuisinart models. At $40 the Osterizer (henceforth known as the "Ostracizor" in honor of Arnold's California) had only the sharp whirling blade, but that's all I use for small jobs and the other brands cost twice as much.

Initial testing of the Ostracizor has been positive. The jobs requiring a blender were completed successfully, but even better, the manual (yes, I still read manuals) says they have a tiny 8 oz jar available which will be much better for many of my uses.

Food processor cycle time (find, fish out, set up, run, clean up, put back) was shorter than for any other coconut grating method. The equipment is half the size and weight of the Welco and easier to clean. Main complaint - the Ostracizor sounds like a rock crusher.

** Why the Welco food processor is "historic": Back around '69, the Cuisinart food processor hit the market and was all the rage, but very expensive (I think they cost more '69 dollars than they now cost in 2004 dollars). Welco came out with a reasonably priced unit and chose to make it "plug compatible" so you could also use Cuisinart accessories.

Unfortuneately the computer industry had not yet "legitimized" "plug compatible" in the courts. Cuisinart sued and won forcing Welco to take their device off the market. The case is still noted because today it's unlikely that suit could be won.