I Heart My Kitchen Aid

(NOTE: This was originally published in my former cooking blog, Cooking With Kitten, on August 15, 2008. I've done a little bit of editing to the original post to include some background information on how I got to own one of my newest kitchen toys).

I was loafing around on Craigslist one afternoon when I typed in, just for the hell of it, "Kitchen Aid mixer." I had been coveting one for years, and had more or less gotten over not having the funds to purchase one (at $200 for a basic model, I couldn't really justify the price) when I found one for sale for $50 in Cromwell.

I really didn't need a stand mixer, since my hand mixer works just fine. However, $50 for a Kitchen Aid was a kitchen bargain I simply could not pass up. It's your basic white Kitchen Aid with the three attachments it comes with: a paddle, a whisk, and a dough hook. I bake a lot of bread during the fall and winter months, so I am especially eager to use the dough hook. It's a heavy sucker, and its weight is due to it's enormous motor, which gives it such fine speed and even rotation. I baked a cake last Saturday morning to test it out, and it came out beautifully. I used the paddle attachment, and it stirs the mix around nice and evenly. You do have to scrape down the sides of the bowl quite often, though. And it's not so easy to like a paddle beater when you're done. But I really liked the ability to walk around my kitchen while the mixer was mixing.

I heart my Kitchen Aid! It's not totally necessary to your cooking experiences, but if you can get one, get one! It's one of those gadgets that's really, really, really, REALLY nice to have!