My New Kitchenaid

I just have to tell people, I got the best Mother's Day present a little early. Thanks to the fact that we live on a cook's budget (and have kids at the same time), we've never really had a budget to speak of by the time Mother's Day came around. So we would use what we did have and spend it on our own mother's (because we love them so much!!!), and then simply spend the day with the best Mother's Day gifts of all: my adorable children!

But this year, we splurged a little. I've been holding out for years for a Kitchenaid stand mixer, but not just any Kitchenaid mixer. I wanted a 6 qt. professional mixer so that no matter what it would stand up to the kind of use it would end up seeing in my kitchen. And boy, am I glad I did! A few years ago, a dear friend let me 'borrow' his-ok, truth time: I swiped it from him for about 2 years since he wasn't using it himself at the time. I loved it, but it was an old 4.5 qt which just wasn't big enough. So I learned my lesson and decided that no matter what, I would just wait and pinch our pennies and wait...and wait. Boy, am I glad I did! My wonderful brother-in-law Malone (I'm not sure why) was cruising through Amazon.com one day and found a wonderful 6 qt Kitchenaid mixer on sale for only $280, which he immediately informed his wife of, and she immediately called me. So I call Johnny faster than you could blink, he agreed and we ordered it. Three very long weeks later, I finally got that anticipated knock on the door. I immediately pulled the thing out, sorted out its various pieces, read through the instructions and glanced through the recipe book, and cleared the counter space for its new home. Since then (this was about 3 or 4 weeks ago), I think I have used it every 2 or 3 days for everything from homemade bread, cakes, frosting and icings, meatballs, German pancakes, and oh so much more. I can't believe the difference it has made to my food. The bread genuinely tastes that way that Grandma Ruth's would (trust me, every one of my cousins that I have talked to about this (as well as a few of my aunts and uncles) are convinced that she never really gave us the real recipe for her bread because we couldn't ever get our attempts to turn out the same), my cakes are actually more moist and easier to decorate, the frosting turns out in a snap, the German pancakes fluff up much more, the meatballs were really moist and tender, and so much more. It has been incredible! I've been using a hand mixer this whole time (or my elbow grease, which at times was much easier), and I'm telling you I never knew what I was missing! Now we are just waiting for the storms to pass and then we'll be trying our hand at making Divinity with the mixer. I can't wait!