Cut a small flat base on one end of the fruit or vegetable you are slicing to prevent it from rolling or sliding in the feed tube. Place it flat side down on the slicing disc. It's best not to place the fruit or vegetable directly on top of the cutting edge. Also, position the food as far left as possible, to prevent it from tilting when being slice. If you are slicing long thin vegetables such as carrots or celery, cut them into lengths to stand in the feed tube and pack them tightly. If slicing a very hard food, such a pepperoni, cut into short lengths, about 2" high, and stand as many of these pieces as will fit in the feed tube so the pepperoni will not tilt when it is being sliced.

You can use your food processor for almost every food preparation task. You may need to change the order in which you use or add the ingredients in a recipe. A good rule of thumb is to use the dry or delicate ingredients, such parsley, while the work bowl is clean and dry.

Be sure the metal blade is firmly seated in the bottom of the bowl. Remove the mixture as soon as you are done processing. Do not remove the blade first. When the blade and bowl are removed together, the blade drops down and forms a type of seal against the bowl.

One of the few things a food processor cannot do is grind coffee beans. The best speed for food processing is too slow for grinding coffee beans. Also, the diameter of the bowl is too large so that the beans can fly to the side because of the centrifugal force. (But, you can grind coffee beans to a fine grind in the Cuisinart Mini-Mate TM Plus Chopper Grinder, especially made to grind, or chop small amounts of fresh ingredients or the Dual Whole Bean Grinder.

Soft cheese must be well chilled. Use the medium shredding disc and, using very little pressure, just tap the pusher down to guide the cheese through the disc. Don't press on the pusher as you do for shredding carrots, for example.