A New Hope

I have so much to blog about – so many exciting things from this past weekend in Kansas City, and stretching back even further.  But I guess the best I can do is address them one at a time, one day at a time.

The most exciting thing from last weekend is, without a doubt, my “big” (and big) Christmas gift from Mom and Dad:

Have you ever known a person to blog from beyond the grave?  No?  Well now you have.  Because when I got this, I died.  (See? I even Tweeted it).

I must have been a very good girl this year, because Santa sure treated me well – a KitchenAid Professional 600, in a gorgeous velvety heart-stoppingly amazing steel blue color.

I immediately tore it out of the box and hauled it into their kitchen and whipped up an angel food cake, and I tell you what – this mixer is AMAZING.  I cannot wait to make bread! and cookies! and marshmallows!

Everything about it is so solid, so strong.  The bowl lifts (unlike the lower-priced KitchenAid mixers, where the mixer head tilts backwards), adding extra strength and durability to the whole system.  It has a 575 watt motor, which doesn’t mean much to me but I assume translates to “really freaking powerful.”  It weighs about 40 lb, which means that once it has a home on my counter, it’s gonna STAY on the counter

And it’s so elegant in its simplicity!  The speeds are 1-10, not “mashed potatoes” through “egg whites”.  There’s no digital display or timer or a voice that yells at you when it’s time to add more liquid.  Just beautiful, simple, mixer.

It came with three pieces:  a wire whisk (in the machine, pictured above), a paddle for cookie doughs &etc:

…and an evil-looking dough hook for pizza dough, bread dough, grandma’s hot roll dough, and whatever other doughs I might fancy to knead:

Holy cow, I love this thing.