Merry Christmas!

Well, it’s been awhile.  The holidays have been busy and I’ve had a lot going on!  I’ve started sewing again and so I made a t-shirt quilt and a baby blanket for my best friends baby!

My t-shirt quilt!

Braylon's baby blanket.

Isn't he the cutest?! And his fave color is yellow 🙂

So, finally, I jumped back onto the baking wagon and made something pretty generic for the season: Sugar cookies!  But the difference is that mine are not your typical, bland holiday sugar cookies.  You know the one’s that kind of have no taste and only look pretty?  These are BOTH!

I cannot believe they came out so delicious.  There’s about four left in a batch of around 48 cookies and I am planning on eating the rest tonight.  I have never made sugar cookies before (my Mom was the chocolate chip cookie kind of Mom) so this was my first of many, many more attempts!  I also bought a bucket of 101 cookie cutters from Jo-Ann Fabrics and so now I am stocked for every occasion that could possibly come my way!

Sugar Cookies

1 1/2 cups butter, softened

2 cups granulated sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

In a large bowl, mix butter and sugar until smooth.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Stir in flour, baking powder and salt.  Cover and chill dough for at least one hour.  

Pre-heat oven to 400F.  Roll out dough onto floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.  Cut into shapes and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.  

Cookie cutters!

Bake six to eight minutes and let cool completely.  

Ready to be frosted.

 

Sugar Cookie Frosting

(Note: This is not the smooth, hard drying, shiny ICING.  This is frosting, so it’s thicker, sweeter and the cookies should not be stacked on top of each other after frosting!)

4 cups confectioners sugar

1/2 cup shortening

5 tbsp. milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Food coloring

In a large bowl, mix confectioners sugar, shortening, milk and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth and stiff.  Color with food coloring.

Christmas colors!

Amazing! Truly the best sugar cookie and frosting recipe EVER.

I also bought Christmas sprinkles from Jo-Ann Fabrics as well and adorned the cookies with those.  The big confetti sprinkles were the best!

Wilton Christmas sprinkles! Wilton is the best brand for baking essentials.

This recipe was a huge hit and very easy.  It makes A LOT of cookies, so have fun decorating and giving some away!  I plan on making really cute Valentine’s Day cookies since that’s the next holiday coming up!  Hope everyone tries this recipe, I promise that you wont be disappointed!

The Holidays Are Upon Us

I did it!  I finally made cheesecake!  After about four weeks of my co-worker bothering me about it, I made it and I made it successfully, people!  But there are many, many things I learned in the process.  One, being that you need to make cheesecake in a springform pan.  Not in a pie pan.  See: Exhibit A.

Exhibit A

This isn’t even the worst of it.  Yes, everything might look mostly normal in this photo, but this is the calm before the storm.  The cake rose, hitting the above oven grate and spilling onto the bottom of the oven.  I had to pull it out, pieces of cheesecake falling into the oven in the process.  My husband told me after he got home that cheesecakes are not meant to be made in a pie pan (cake…pie…fine I should have realized that before).  How is he always right?!

So this past weekend I went to Bed Bath and Beyond and got a set of three Oneida springform baking pans.  The three pack was only $15.00!  Great deal opposed to the Calphalon set of one that was $20.00.  I’m a sucker for deals and saving money, so long as the product is still up to par.

Anyway.  I decided to make an Oreo Cheesecake!  Reason being is because the Holiday Oreo’s just came on the shelves and I figured this would be a very cool venture.

Holiday Oreo Cheesecake

1 pkg. Oreo cookies

1/3 cup butter, melted

3 pkgs. 8 oz. cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Pre-heat oven to 325F.  

Finely crush about 15-20 cookies and coarsely chop about ten cookies.  

Chopped Holiday Oreo's.

Mix the finely crushed cookies (I used my Kitchen Aid Immersion Blender for this.  It worked wonders!) and melted butter in a bowl.  Press onto the bottom of a 9in. springform pan.  

The Holiday Oreo crust! So fun, right?!

In an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and sugar on medium speed until creamy.  Add eggs, one at a time, and beat only until just incorporated (if you beat too much it will make the cheesecake crack.  It’s ok, it will still taste the same, but the presentation wont be as nice).  

Add sour cream and vanilla extract and fold in the chopped cookies.  Spread mixture onto prepared crust.  

Delish!

Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until set.  If it’s really wobbly, then it’s not ready.  If it’s only slightly wobbly (one ripple), then it’s ready.  The rest will set as it cools.  

Turn off heat and leave to cool completely in the oven.  Refrigerate overnight before eating.  

I put the cookie sheet underneath the pan because the butter that was in the Oreo crust was dripping from the pan and burning the bottom of my oven. Oops.

Final product. As you can see, mine cracked a little bit on the top

Slice of Holiday Oreo Cheesecake

So it turned out pretty well!  There is A LOT of Oreo’s in there, so if you’re into plain old cheesecake and don’t like stuff super sweet, then this isn’t for you.  But for me, this is perfection!  I think it looks really cool with the Holiday Oreo’s and puts a cool twist onto something generic.  Like I said before…there was a lot learned here, but it was extremely helpful.  Plus, this has to be a pretty hilarious blog post.

People don’t just bake something and it comes out perfect.  This is the real deal of how it all goes down!  It takes time!  It takes practice and tweaking recipes until it comes out how you want it.  Everyone’s recipe’s are slightly different, and things like your oven and what you use to mix and bake in make a big difference from one recipe to another.  I’ve had a complete blast baking all of these different things, but for now, I need to go grab a slice of this cheesecake and think about what I’ll make for next week!

Pumpkin, Take Two

So my previous pumpkin pie didn’t really turn out as I had wanted.  To me, it just wasn’t that great and the consistency wasn’t right.

Last week at work I announced that I would bring something in the next day.  I have been dying to make Tye-Dye Cupcakes for a while now, and my co-worker, Bill, has been asking me for cheesecake.  Okay…so I didn’t make either of these because my husband wins over everyone.  He wanted something more “fall-like”, so I searched the internet for fall dessert recipes.  What I came up with was heavenly!  A bunch of lovely ingredients all combined in one.

Pumpkin Cake Bars

4 large eggs

1 2/3 cups granulated sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

1 15oz. can pumpkin puree

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

6 oz. cream cheese

6 tbsp. butter, softened

3 cups confectioners’ sugar

Pre-heat oven to 350F.  Grease and flour one 9x13in. glass pan.  

In a large bowl, combine eggs, sugar, vegetable oil and pumpkin.  Mix well.  

In another large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda and cinnamon.  Slowly add to the wet ingredients and mix well.  

Spread into prepared pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes.  

Ready to bake!

Pumpkin in the oven 🙂

What we did while our cake baked.

Remove from oven and allow to cool.  

Let cool before icing.

For the frosting, beat together cream cheese, butter and confectioners’ sugar.  

Cream cheese frosting.

Evenly spread after cake has cooled.  Cut into individual “bars” and serve!  

Absolutely heavenly!

This recipe was super easy and super delicious to bake 😉  It’s basically a pumpkin cake, but when you cut them up into the bars it makes it a little different and perfect for serving or giving away individually.  You could also leave the cake bare and frost the bars individually as you eat.  You can add different spices to the cake batter, such as nutmeg or cloves.  This combination of pumpkin, spices and the color orange makes it a delicious fall treat that anyone will love!

Pumpkin 3.14

Pi is 3.14 right?  The only way I can remember it is that March 14th is called Pi Day.  I’ve always been ridiculously bad at math.  And by ridiculously I mean that I still do plus and minus on my fingers.  Forget about multiplication and division is equivalent to what hell must be like.

But actual PIE I am amazing at!  Well…pretty good.  I’ve only had experience with Apple Pie, but it turned out damn good!  So it’s fall now and I decided to make Pumpkin Pie.  It’s kind of healthy, right?  Because that was my plan for tonight.

Pumpkin Pie

2 cups pumpkin (canned or puree)

3 eggs

1 1/4 cups half & half

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

9 in. pie crust (store-bought or handmade)

Pre-heat oven to 350F.

Place pie crust into 9 in. pie plate.  Trim edges to extend 1/2 in. over pan, then fold edges over and press to seal. Freeze until firm, about 15 minutes. 

Freeze for 15 minutes.

Bake pie shell for 15 minutes at 350F.  I set an empty pie tin on top of the pie crust to keep it from coming up.  Then I took it off and let it bake for another 15 minutes. 

Pie pre-baking.

Place pumpkin in a bowl. 

In a large bowl, beat eggs well.  Add half & half, vanilla extract, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg and beat until well blended.  Add in pumpkin and mix well. 

My slightly runny pumpkin mix. Still delicious!

Pour pumpkin mixture into pie crust (it will be pretty runny) and place on center oven rack.  Bake for 30-40 minutes until the filling is firm. 

Cool on wire rack and serve with whipped cream, if desired. 

Right after baking.

See? The inside is a little bit runny.

Whipped Cream

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Use an electric mixer and whip cream until stiff.  Add sugar and vanilla extract; beat until cream holds peaks. Serve in a chilled bowl for individual serving. 

Butter Pie Crust

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

1 cup (2 sticks) cold butter, cut into small pieces

1/2 cup cold water

Combine flour and salt in large bowl.  Add butter, then slowly add water and mix until crumbly (I used a whisk on very high-speed).

Roll out onto a floured counter into a circle, about 12 to 14 inches around. 

Press pastry into bottom sides of pan.  Trim overhang as stated in Pumpkin Pie recipe. 

Absolutely delicious pie crust!

Overall, this recipe was easy and fun, I especially liked making the pie crust the best.  I didn’t use pumpkin from scratch because that’s just too messy with a 2×2 kitchen and two dogs running around, although that is what I would have typically done because I do all my recipes from scratch.  Either way, the Libby brand of canned pumpkin is pretty famous and super delicious.

My only downfall in this recipe is that for some reason the filling came out runny, both before I baked it and afterwards.  It still tastes delicious, but I’m not sure if I did something wrong, as this was my SECOND pumpkin pie of the night and they both turned out runny (the first one was just ridiculous so I threw it away…guess that’s baking trial and error for ya!).  I couldn’t find anything online that said what my mistake may have been, but other people have had the problem as well.  My Mom suggested me buying the Betty Crocker cookbook (probably should have done that a long time ago) and she said to start with that recipe.  But that’s another pumpkin pie for another night…

I would make this pie for Halloween festivities and definitely make it for Thanksgiving dinner (while also watching the traditional Detroit Lions football game :)).

Keep posted, this week I plan on making some Halloween cupcakes with decorations that everyone can do!

My Aid

Kitchen Aid is one of the best brands.  The stuff they make is durable, convenient and all-around makes whatever you’re doing in the kitchen that much easier and more fun.

We received a Kitchen Aid Immersion Hand Blender from my Mom’s friends as a wedding present.  They wrote in their card that they own one and could never live without it.  I’ve used it for various things, but what is comes in handy the most as (so far) is chopping.  It’s like the Slap Chop, only 100 times more durable and electric.

Kitchen Aid Immersion Hand Blender.

One of the coolest attachments that I haven’t had a chance to try yet is the Blending Attachment with the Stainless Steel Blade (attached in the above photo).  What this is most commonly used for it making mixed drinks and cocktails!  How clever, right?!  Imagine the possibilities for a great girls night at home!

The Chopper Adapter is what I use when I am in a Slap Chop kind of mood.  I’ve used it for nuts, fruits, veggies, you name it.  I mostly use it to finely chop the apple and carrots I put into my homemade Carrot Apple Dog Treats.  It comes with two plastic containers so you can mix or chop and leave the contents right in the jar and save for later.  Not to mention the entire contraption is easy to clean and fits right in its own little canvas bag for storage.

Kitchen Aid Hand Blender Attachments.

This is an inexpensive solution to a million things that we all do in the kitchen.  I suggest everyone have one of these!  I didn’t know how amazing this was until I received it as a gift, and I’ve raved about it to everyone that I know.  Don’t get me wrong, my Kitchen Aid Artisan Stand Mixer is still on par for much of my baking needs, but for making whipped cream, frosting, chopping, drinks, this baby is the ultimate in satisfaction!  There should be a website dedicated to the people who love Kitchen Aid products as much as me.  If you own anything Kitchen Aid or decide to buy this Immersion Hand Blender, you will realize what I mean 🙂

*Note: My links for the Hand Blender go to Amazon.com.  For some reason, Kitchen Aid doesn’t have the Immersion Hand Blender full set on their website.

Cinnamon-a-mon-a-mon-a-mon

I’ve been dying to try to bake cinnamon raisin bread.  I got hooked on this my first year after college when myself and my two cousins were all living with my Grandma.  I like to think of it as the best time of her life (she’s never specifically said that, per say, but it probably was) because she had all three of her grandchildren living with her under one roof.  Needless to say, we were good kids except for the occasional stealing of a Capri Ultra Ultra Light 100 and eating everything in her house.  She must have always liked cinnamon raisin bread, either that or she knew we would, because it was always in stock.  This was the store-bought kind but it’s delicious either way.  We toasted it and put tons of butter on it.  It was the perfect snack!

Anyway, it’s been one of my favorite breakfast items and snacks ever since then, and my husband is a big fan now, too.  I don’t know if I was the one who introduced him to it or if he has an equally exciting story about it as mine (hardy har).  Either way, it was obviously time to try it on my own.

I tried to bake cinnamon raisin bread last night and it just would not rise!  I don’t know if the yeast was bad (apparently it happens a lot, according to my Google research) or if I just didn’t do the recipe right.  It was kind of complicated, what with dissolving the yeast in hot water and heating milk to a certain degree.  I got as far as attempting to bake it, but half way through I checked on it and it was just a very heavy brick of dough, so I took it out and threw it in the garbage.  Good thing I spent about five hours on it on a work night.  Let it be known that I re-read my recipe for the previous loaf about ten times throughout the night, searching for what I did wrong.  Nothing.

Today, I searched for a recipe that was different and this one called for Instant (Quick Rise) Yeast opposed to Active Dry Yeast.  Also doing Google research, I have realized that there are A LOT of different kinds of yeast and it’s good to make sure you get the right one.  The main difference is that Active Dry Yeast you have to dissolve in warm/hot water, and Instant (Quick Rise) Yeast you can just add to your dry ingredients.

Proud to say it, here is my second and succesful attempt at cinnamon raisin bread!

Cinnamon Swirl Raisin Bread

1 3/4 cup unbleached flour (I used whole wheat)

2 tsp. granulated sugar

3/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. Instant Yeast (Quick Rise)

1 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

less than 1 egg, slightly beaten

1 tbsp. shortening at room temperature (I used Land O’Lakes Spreadable Butter with Canola Oil…it worked fine)

1/4 cup buttermilk (Again, I changed this and used Skim Plus milk.  And again, it worked just fine)

1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. water (3oz.), room temperature

3/4 cup raisins

For the Cinnamon Swirl:

1/4 cup sugar

1 tbsp. cinnamon

For the Icing:

1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

1 tbsp. milk

Stir together flour, sugar, salt, yeast and cinnamon in large bowl.  Add egg, shortening (butter), buttermilk (milk) and water.  Stir together until the ingredients come together and form a ball.  Add a little flour if the dough is too sticky. 

Sprinkle flour onto counter top, put dough on top and knead.  Or, if you have a stand mixer with a dough hook, mix on level 2 for six to eight minutes.  The dough needs to be soft and tacky, but not sticky.  Add a little flour if need be.  You don’t want it to stick to the hook, you want it to knead around it eventually. 

Ready to be kneaded.

Knead in the raisins by hand.  Lightly oil (I use Pam Natural Cooking Spray) a large bowl and put dough in the bowl.  Spray a light coat of oil on top of the dough and cover with plastic wrap. 

Raisins kneaded into the dough.

Let dough sit in a warm place (away from a draft and up high, like on top of a shelf) for two hours, but mine only took one hour. Dough should double in size.  For me, to make sure it actually did double and my eyes didn’t play tricks on me, I photograph it before I let it rise.  Silly, but helpful! 

Dough rising on top of our room dividers. Gettin' creative!

Pat the dough down into 5 in. wide by 8 in. long rectangle.  Sprinkle with Cinnamon Swirl mix (sugar and cinnamon).  Start to roll up the dough (like a jelly roll) starting at the short (5 in.) end.  The loaf will spread out as you roll it, to about 8 in.  Pinch the end seams closed and tuck under. 

Dough with cinnamon and sugar.

Place the loaf in a lightly oiled (again I used Pam) bread pan, mist the top with the oil and cover with plastic wrap. 

Letting rise for the second time.

Let dough sit in a warm place again for about an hour to an hour and a half.  Again, let double in size. 

Pre-heat oven to 350F.  Place loaf pan on middle rack and cook for 20 minutes. then rotate 180 degrees and let cook another 20-30 minutes until it is golden brown. 

Immediately remove loaf from pan.  The dough should make a hollow sound on the bottom when it is done.  Let cool on a wire rack. 

After completely cool, make icing mixture and drizzle over top. 

!!!

Can't wait to eat it!

Bread takes a while to make all due to having to wait for it to rise, but it’s well worth it!  It’s quite the accomplishment to make a loaf of bread and not to mention it smells (and tastes, of course!) amazing.  So make sure you have a good chunk of time set aside to be home and make it, like me, on a Friday night.  You know, now that I think of it, I should probably begin making margarita’s for my Friday night bake’s.  Good idea, bad idea, all in one.  Bake on!

I’m Back With a Vengeance!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted.  Reason being is that I got banned from bringing my laptop in to work.  Well, my boss is out today so therefore I brought my laptop.  I am such a good little worker!

Now on to the important stuff.  Peanut butter and chocolate are a heavenly thing when combined together, and if you don’t think so, well then you’re probably not human.  Seriously.  I don’t get people who don’t like this type of stuff or who don’t like chocolate.  It just doesn’t make sense.

So thank goodness my husband is as big a fan of the combo as me.  For years I’ve made Kiss cookies and I surely got him hooked!  I made some this past weekend, by request, might I add, and we pretty much gobbled them down within two days.  Steve (my husband) ate the last two, and when I asked if he had, he replied “did you want one?”  Well…kind of!  “It’s ok…I can always make more!” I replied.  Duh!  An excuse to bake and eat crap.  I had better be careful.  These are kind of bad for you, but not nearly as bad as a lot of other stuff.  So indulge.

 

Peanut Butter Blossoms

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 egg

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup creamy peanut butter (I use Smucker’s All-Natural Creamy…it’s the best!)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

Extra granulated sugar for rolling

Hershey Kisses (unwrapped)

What you'll need

 

Pre-heat oven to 375F. 

Beat butter and peanut butter in large bowl until well blended.  Add granulated sugar and brown sugar and beat until fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla extract. 

Mixin' & mashin'

In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and baking soda.  Gradually add to peanut butter mixture. 

Shape dough into 1in. balls, roll in granulated sugar and place on ungreased cookie sheet. 

Balls of sugar!

Bakin'

Bake 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned.  While cookies are baking, unwrap Hershey Kisses.  Take cookies out of the oven and immediately press one Hershey Kiss into the center.  Cookie will crack around the edges. 

Almost done!

I couldn't find the big Hershey Kisses so I went with four small one's on each cookie.

Remove from cookie sheet and let cool on wire rack. 

I’ve done a couple of different recipe’s for these types of cookies.  Some call for shortening, others for milk and salt, and I’ve found this to be the best one.

To clarify, I do have REAL baking pans, but they’re dark-colored, and I’ve found that they get hotter and in turn make the cookies burn easier.  So I stick with my grocery store-bought one’s that are light-colored.  When shopping for baking pans, I suggest Wilton.  They are lighter colored and get the job done perfectly.

 

Is There Such a Thing?

Is there such a thing as healthy cookies?!  It seems those two words don’t fit together (I’m still a believer that they don’t…) but other people beg to differ, such as my husband.  As I’ve said before, my husband thinks I am a great baker but gets upset because he feels he needs to “try” everything that I bake, in turn making him cheat on his now what seems to be lifelong diet of no bread, flour, rice, pasta, etc.  So I’ve had to make healthy things that still taste delicious.  One of the first things I made for him was a super simple cookie recipe involving oatmeal and dried dates (but you could add any dried fruit).  I’ve dubbed them Steve’s because, well…he likes them and it’s always nice to have something named after you!  Kind of like how they named the Hotel Chelsea after me… 🙂

 

Steve’s Healthy Oatmeal Date Cookies

 

3 ripe bananas

2 cups rolled oats (I always use regular oatmeal and it works perfectly fine)

1 cup dates, pitted and chopped (I buy the Sun Maid Mixed Fruit at the grocery store for more variety)

Sun Maid (Dried) Mixed Fruit, my substitution for boring dried dates.

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp. vanilla extract

 

Pre-heat oven to 350F.  In a large bowl, mash bananas.  Stir in oats, dates, oil and vanilla extract.  Mix well and allow to sit for 15 minutes. 

Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned. 

Let cool and serve. 

 

...he had already eaten a few right off the plate!

 

These cookies are perfect to have at any time of day because they don’t have anything sugary or filling in them.  My husband says that these cookies are sweet yet healthy tasting, which is the perfect combo for him or anyone else who is looking to bake and have something that they don’t have to feel guilty about eating.

Sit…Stay…Eat My Homemade Biscuits!

We have two dogs, Sonny, and our newest addition, Jake!  We love Cavalier King Charles Spaniels (CKCS) and so now we have two!  They are great, beautiful dogs and I truly couldn’t live without them.  My husband and I take pride in giving them only the best of what life has to give, so when I stumbled upon a recipe for homemade dog treats, I had to try them out!  There are many variations that you can take with this recipe based upon what your pup likes best, so for mine, I used carrots and apples, because we give those to them for treats every now and then. These treats are all-natural and include nothing that you wouldn’t eat yourself!

My two loves, Jake (left) and Sonny (right).

Carrot Apple Dog Treats

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup oatmeal

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup finely chopped carrots

1/2 cup finely chopped apples

Pre-heat the oven to 350F.  In a large bowl, combine whole wheat flour and oatmeal. 

Add milk, then add carrots and apples.  Mix until combined. 

Place dough on a floured counter top and roll out to desired thickness (1/2 inch). 

Dough on floured counter top.

Cut into shapes and place on cookie sheet (some recipe’s say to grease the cookie sheet, but I never have). 

Treats cut out and ready to bake!

Bake for 30 minutes or until treats are golden brown and hard (I’ve had to bake mine for almost 50 minutes before!).  Make sure they are pretty rock hard, or else if they’re soft they will have a tendency to mold because of the moisture, and you absolutely do not want that! 

Let cool and serve to your favorite furry baby as a special treat! 

The final product!

To add fun, you can buy cookie cutters to use for the treats (I bought one in the shape of a dog bone from Etsy) or try different variations on what you add…cranberries (they say this is good for their urinary tract), bananas, etc.  But make sure you do your research, you don’t want to feed something to your dog that isn’t good for them (such as tomatoes or grapes!).

My dogs will eat anything in sight, so I don’t know if they especially love these more than others…it’s hard to tell 😛 !  But they eat them, they love them, I save money on treats and I feel good knowing that they are eating something healthy, natural and made with love right in my own kitchen.

Ice, Ice Baby

Before my bridal shower in April, my Mom convinced me to start a registry for all of the crap that we didn’t need.  Why couldn’t everyone just hand me their credit cards and let us get on with it?!  We needed money, not stuff!  But as I began registering on Target, I kind of liked the idea of making a shopping list of stuff I wanted but could make other people buy for me.  Genius?!  Somewhere along the lines, a shopping addict and bride-to-be came up with this idea and it pretty much rocks.

 

At the time, I was still a waitress at my old job and I was showing my boss my registry online.  He asked me what I wanted as a wedding present and my eyes lit up.  Duh!  The only thing that no one would buy me because it was too expensive: The Kitchen Aid Artisan Stand Mixer.  I’ve always wanted one because of the amazing things you can do with it and the retro colors that they come in.  It’s the epitome of awesome baker meets stylish housewife.

 

So I now own the Kitchen Aid Mixer in Ice.  It’s a beautiful piece of baking equipment, and although it sat in a box for the first three months that I had it, I finally took it out, to my husband’s dismay (we have the amount of counter space equivalent to a child’s play kitchen).  So far, I have made bread, cupcakes and dog biscuits with it and I can’t believe I went this long without using it!  It makes everything loads easier and seems to make everything taste better, too 😉  It’s a 5-quart mixer that goes up to 10 speeds and the Artisan series comes with a flat beater, a dough hook, a whisk and a pouring shield (but I never use that).

 

It's a beauty, ain't it?!

 

Although they are a pretty penny to pay, it’s WELL WORTH IT.  If I hadn’t gotten a willing buyer to get it for me off of my registry, I would have eventually bought it myself.  A lot of people complain about the price and that they never go on sale (which they don’t), but like I said, it’s well worth it, they will replace whatever breaks, free of charge, and at certain times, depending on the problem, they will even replace the entire mixer.  Kitchen Aid stands behind its products, which to me is the sign of a product well made and a great company.  If you’re an avid baker or someone who just likes fun things in their kitchen to use every once in a while, this is definitely a smart investment.

 

Buyer beware, though.  You can go on Amazon and buy used mixers or find one’s on other unknown websites for cheaper, but I wouldn’t assume you’re getting a good deal.  Although it may be cheaper than the normal $349.99, you will end up paying the price when it breaks and doesn’t do the job that it should.