#DeluxeCook V-Blade Mandoline Slicer #Review

     You know what I need to do?  Cook more.  Cooking has turned into a bother. Something I had to do and something that I don't particularly find fun anymore.  I don't know if it's because I have to do so much if it or if it's because of all the slicing and chopping over the years is way old or what.  Maybe it's the loss of my dishwasher.  Maybe it's picky eaters and no appreciation, ya feel me Moms?.  I just know that I used to love cooking and now I don't.  In fact, I dread it.  When I think of putting all that effort in for people who will only complain and leave half-full dishes all around, I usually just opt for sandwiches or pizza.

     So of course, I'm interested in ways that help relieve some of that stress and get me motivated to try new recipes and to branch out a little in the kitchen.  Recently I added a spiralizer to the kitchen and realized how much I miss having nice warm vegetables.  So now I'm trying a mandoline.  This one is the Deluxe Cook V-Blade Mandoline Slicer.

     It has four different attachments, creating slices in two different thicknesses and also fries in two different sizes.  The thing that I noticed first was that the inserts come with a neat little carrying block.  It keeps the blades from coming in contact with little fingers and also keeps them together and out of the way.

     The next thing I noticed was the really cute cross hair style button that you press to get the attachment out.  You just push on it and the attachment pops right out.  No prying or shimmying, just push.

     So, here's how it works, though I'm sure you already know.  You place the vegetable onto the green plate, place the finger guard on top and push down until the vegetable is firmly in place, then slide quickly and evenly to slice it.  You should be sure to always use the finger guard to protect yourself from cuts.

     Okay, so here's what I found that I didn't like.  Firstly, I noticed that the finger guard scraped against the blades a lot, causing gouges in the guard.  That's what it's for, I suppose, to protect your fingers from getting gouged instead.  But with other mandolines that I have tried, I didn't have that issue.

     The second thing was that food gets almost irreversibly stuck under the big V-blade when you use a back and forth motion.  To lift the vegetable up and bring it back to the beginning seems really tedious, so this was a big con, I thought.  I used a safety pin and water to try to reach that area and pry loose the stuck food, but some just would not come out.  I'm pretty sure that won't be sanitary.  I'm gonna try boiling it.

     And the third thing was that although the mandoline left super small pieces at the end and used pretty much all of the vegetable, the slicing didn't go all the way through on some.  I'm actually not even sure how that happened.  Some fries, ended up more like rippled chips.  It didn't bother me, not much does.  I usually just go with the flow and take what I get.  But I know that things like this might really upset other people.  So there it is, the cons and the pros.  What do you think?  How do you slice up your vegetables?
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Except for the product(s) given to me for the purpose of reviewing, I received no compensation for this post. All opinions are 100% my own.