I've been making spaetzle for years, by smooshing the batter through a
"big hole" grater with a rubber spatula. Works fine, but I always
thought it was sort of slow.

So when I saw a "real" spaetzle maker -- the sort with a little
traveling reservoir -- at the local Bed, Bath, Infinity and Beyond for
only $7.00, I snapped it up.

Tried it last night. Not so happy with the result. The steam from the
boiling water tended to cook the batter into a layer that coated the
plate with the holes in it, the batter leaked under the reservoir and
piled up at the ends, finally dropping into the water as
"mega-spaetzle", and getting the thing off the pot to scoop out the
finished dumplings had to wait until the reservoir was empty, and even
then it drooled a lot, so I tended to wait too long and some of the
dumplings got over-cooked and tough.

And let's not talk about the cleanup, OK?

So the questions: Am I using the thing wrong (I just filled it up and
slid it back and forth)? Do I have the wrong batter consistency (like a
slightly thicker pancake batter)? Is this machine just a piece of junk
compared to expen$ive ones?

Isaac