repeated blows to the head

of the hammer that is, that old white hot hammer of inspiration. you may have previously read about the time i found out about mason jars working with your blender base
i still use that all the time. and the jars for my instant coffee [before they switched the jar, grr!]

and i have no idea why this didn't occur to me earlier but i finally realized another aspect to that little hack tonight. 



i was at walmart for the first time in about two years [now i feel dirty] because my new computer doesn't recognize any of my blank dvds but i really need to create recovery discs for it - walmart was open and nothing else was.
i did stop to look at the mason jars and lids since they have a larger selection of sizes than any other retail location in town. there i am looking at the rows and rows of different lids, after walking past the blenders to the mason jar shelf... bam! down comes the white hot hammer. lids. blenders. if the mason jar fits into the blender base, doesn't that mean the mason jar lid fits on the blender jar?



















so when i got home i tried it out.




















































[coffee jar lid]


and there i am, taking pictures, already planning this entry and thinking to myself 'huh.. don't know what i'll ever use this for.' and then i got another round of inspiration:


recently i came into possession of a second blender jar with no lid. [what i did with the base for it will be a future post. it's pretty darned neat but i want to explore it more so i can show you some of the uses for it.]





















that's ok, even though the lid to my current blender jar doesn't fit it, who hasn't used plastic wrap and a large rubber band in a blender emergency?



















it's also a hamilton beach like my current blender, and although the base is a little different, it still fits in the base mostly ok, if not perfectly. but it's a vintage blender jar. we all know what that means, right? yep, the rubber gasket is rotten. so... the gasket is rotten, the base doesn't match up perfectly... i'm not actually too comfortable using the blade and base for that jar.
















but the glass is perfectly good. if it just had a bottom on it i could use it as a pitcher. or if i mixed up a frozen beverage in the new blender jar and then flipped it and swapped the blade for a mason jar lid i could wash the blade and put it on the old jar and make an entirely different flavor of margarita. or a non alcoholic version. the lid to the new jar is REALLY tight, i've flipped it before* with no leaks but this isn't a trick to try with a loose lid.

if you aren't sure your mason jar [or coffee jar] lids aren't going to leak, use this for chopping nuts or making breadcrumbs. it might not be too bad for milkshakes or frozen fruit faux-cream either since those tend to be pretty thick

and it turns out that the ring for a mason jar lid will fit nicely over the blade and gasket assembly to hold it to the jar, but i haven't thought of a need for this yet. there is no way i am going to try to put that on the blender motor base and see if it runs while holding it down tightly......
tonight.


















*what, you never had to shake up something you were blending? i don't always have a rubber scraper handy, so i shake it. but please, hold the lid on when you do this!
larger photos here http://www.flickr.com/photos/catastrophegirl/sets/72157627089987636/