My “Big Girl Mixer”

So, I have ALWAYS wanted a “Big Girl Mixer” AKA KitchenAid Stand Mixer… But, firstly, they’re expensive and I just couldn’t justify spending that much money on a mixer… And secondly, I’m a terrible cook (true, just ask my husband, he’ll tell you), so spending that amount of money on a kitchen appliance just seemed silly!  BUT, Santa heard my plea (well, the kids were with me one day when I was in a store drooling over the big girl mixers, and they told Santa (AKA Mike).

Here it is… My precious…

Isn’t it pretty??? Especially on my brand new butcher block counter tops!! The kitchen renovation is a whole other post :) I kinda wish that I had had my beautiful mixer for Christmas Eve dinner, when I made chocolate mousse and REAL whipped cream for dessert!! That was a lot of standing at the counter with my little hand mixer… But, man… I love it!! I’ve also been a cooking maniac since I got it!! I kinda feel like he got me this amazing mixer, I SHOULD make some amazing food with it, right??

So far… I have learned that I totally stink at making brownies… doesn’t matter how good the reviews are for the recipe, I can’t cook them…

Then there’s cookies!! OMGosh, I don’t make cookies ’cause they’re too hard to mix… well, not any longer… I made THESE and wow… Even Sean, who’s not a “sweets” boy loved them and keeps asking me to make them again! Yummy, yummy, yummy!!

Then, there’s bread!! Oh, dough hook, how do I love thee? I made dinner rolls the other night, which were yummy, but I didn’t take a picture… then last night… Oh, yeah… One hour bread!  Which came out great!! Hot and fresh from the oven with butter and our pasta dinner, YUM! and today I have it sliced and toasted for my sandwich!

Speaking of being a horrible cook… I so LOVE the idea of cooking, but you know how busy it gets when you have a husband, 2 kids who have activities, you work full time, and you co-own a crafting place!! Planning and finding time to cook is a challenge to say the least!! I’ve tried a ton of different recipe plans, most of them use ingredients that I simply don’t have, or that my picky-pants husband and kids won’t eat… I recently signed up for emeals and am already very pleasantly surprised!! The pasta meal we had last night with the yummy bread? You guessed it, that was from my new emeals subscription!! Check it out, it’s not very expensive, you get a whole week’s worth of yummy recipes, and for a limited time you can save 15% on your subscription cost with the code newyear . Check them out! They have lots of different menu options! I got the classic meals, and if you get a subscription and change your mind on the menu, you can change it!