Favorite Machines
In spite of being a geek gadget girl, I have to admit that my favorite machine in the whole wide world is decidedly low tech. It has no flashing lights, does not play MP3s, does not require a graphical user interface to interact with. It has no buttons, it isn't networked, and only two levers. It lives in a room that anyone who knows me well, also knows I don't frequent very often. If I had to guess, I'd say that it's at least 25 years old and its totally irreplaceable to me.
My husband and father like to joke that the only things with a motor that you can give a woman on a major occasion are a car or a Kitchen Aid stand mixer. And it really is true. I am totally not a creature of the kitchen, but when I am in a store with kitchen appliances, I just have to check them out. They have a special aura about them that I can't resist. But I have never purchased one on my own. When I didn't have one, I just couldn't justify it, given my limited interest in cooking and baking. It's a little elitist, but I believe that the good tools should really go to the people who can appreciate them, people who love what they can do with them.
Mine actually came to live with me through a very happy circumstance: my dad bought my mother a new Kitchen Aid stand mixer. One with more features and a nicer bowl. And that left mom with one mixer too many and not enough space to store both of them. The old one still ran fine and it came with all the wonderful memories of baking with my mother while I was growing up. Years of making sugar cookie dough for Christmas, cupcakes for birthdays at school, fresh bread, fresh whipped cream fo strawberry shortcake. And not a few batches of chocolate chip cookies. This, my friends, is a mixer with good vibes. It probably should have gone to my brother (who is actually an awesome cook), but I called it first. And I'm the oldest. And I snuck it out to my car almost before mom had finished unwrapping her new machine. You gotta be fast in my family.
She's not pretty, but she's wonderful. And she's solid like a rock, even after how many years. You want to see the proof?
This mixer can take on a double bach of chocolate chip cookie dough without blinking an eye. It sneers in the face of the addition of walnuts and a few extra chips. I don't actually like to do much in the kitchen, but I do like to make cookies. And if this mixer has anything, it has definite good cookie making karma.
And it helped me make some pretty awesome cookies tonight.
Every now and again, I do feel a little guilty about having this mixer. Not for denying my brother the real cook the chance to have this machine (you don't need to feel sorry for him, he got my mothers fabulous old Le Cruset pots when she upgraded), but because my mother's new machine didn't turn out to be made of the same great stuff as this one is. Apparently the newer ones have a lot more plastic parts. She'd only had it for a year or so when one of them broke while she was asking the mixer to work hard. It just seemed so wrong for that to happen.
But, hey, I called no give backs...
For anyone worried, my wonderful father got that part replaced quickly. And my mom gets visitation rights. But it does make you realize that they don't build things like they used to...
That is so true (they don't make 'em like they used to...)
Do I sense a theme in your posts lately? Homebody, nesting? Nice.
That's awesome. It's so nice to cook with hand-me-down gadgets... it's like family is right there with you. I cherish a rolling pin that my grandmother gave me.
Hooray!
When I moved away to college, one thing I missed was my mom's kitchen-aid mixer. So for my graduation present, she+Dad got me one of my own. Years later, when I moved in with DH-to-be, we ended up with TWO kitchen aid mixers! heh. I love 'em.
I have the red Kitchen Aid - it's one of the wedding gifts that has given me the MOST pleasure since we got it! And chocolate chip cookies do turn out a lot better using this puppy!
My KitchenAid is between 15 and 20 years old, I think . . . I forget which birthday I got it for, but I was in college at the time. I LOVE my mixer! And it's still going strong (knock on wood). Any mixer that can get through two massive batches of Stollen dough every December for my Dad is a trooper. (Stollen is the bane of my existence every December.) One year it made some ominous grinding noises, but it's been fine ever since. I couldn't do without it. I used mine yesterday, too, for some applesauce cake--yum!
I have one, that's just as old. A gift from my grandmother for birthday/Christmas. It just keeps going, and I've really used it over these past 25+ years.
I have always maintained that the best gift my husband ever gave me was my Kitchen Aid mixer. I can't imagine life without it.
Our Family Gadget of great arguments is the Vita Mix mixer that was purchased before I was born. At the time my parents (mostly my mother) was going through a decidely crunchy-hippy phase and planned on making all our own baby food (she did, for my sister and I, when my brothers came around it was the prepackaged stuff for them). The sticker on the front (I finally removed it now that it came to live at my house) proclaims that it makes bread and ice cream too, though I haven't tried out those features.
It is dishwashable, stainless steel, and it crunches ice and frozen bannas without resorting to the higher power dial. I made a variant on almond butter last weekend (add olive oil, garlic, and roasted red peppers) and only cranked it up to 4 of 10 to get that particular job done.
It's huge, it's loud, it's heavy, it's shiny, and it feels more like a power tool than a kitchen implement. :-)
Carolyn has your new Butterfly spindle. I almost kept it.
;-)
My sister got my parent's KitchenAid. It must be at least 30 years old now. I had to get a new one (10 years ago). I really don't know how people live without them. It makes me pity those people who buy cookie dough in a tube. They don't know what living is.
I love my KitchenAid mixer! I actually just used it Friday night to make pizza dough for homemade pizza -- yum! Luckily even with the bread kneading that I sometimes do, nothing has broken on mine yet -- knock on wood!
Those cookies look yummy! Family recipe?
I love my KitchenAid mixer also. I got it for a wedding present and it was my step up from a hand-held KitchenAid that seemed fine until the upgrade. I used it yesterday to make banana cake. Tonight, it will be used to make my favorite Oatmeal Craisin cookies (the recipe is on the back of the Craisin bag and it's GREAT). It's wonderful to be measuring ingredients while the mixer is doing its thing with the previously added items. I hope my nine year old mixer lives a long life.
Well, one way to silence the snide remarks from the men is to remind them that a lady's absolute favorite motorized gadget is the "Magic Wand". *evil grin* For some odd reason that seems to always brings an abrupt end to the patronizing comments. But I do love my KitchenAid for blending up large batches of bath salts. It does a perfect job.
ah, kitchen aide.
a friend of mine and i love going into williams-sonoma just to oogle the mixers and other pretties.
we call it Kitchen Porn.
: )
I inherited my MILs Kitchen Aid ("mfd by Hobart" on the side). My kids are already fighting over who gets it...
Ohhhh...At this very moment I am extremely green with envy. My Kitchenaid stand mixer had a rather graceless death at the end of last winter and I miss her with a passion. Countless batches of cookies, loaves of bread and other wonders emanated from that stand mixer, and she was old as well. About 25. I bought her with my first professional paycheck - almost the whole wad.
I heart my kitchenaid too. Mine's name is Mildred. does yours have a name?
I didn't even know there was such a thing as an UPgrade from Le Creuset. Not sure I want to know what that would be. I'm thinking maybe she just wanted a different color or something. I have a similar white KitchenAid, circa 1990. Gets little use, but when you get it out, you feel real confident. xox Kay