The KitchenAid.

We talked about getting a KitchenAid before the holidays.... checked the prices and couldn't make up our minds if we wanted to spend that much money on a kitchen appliance that may just sit on the counter. Would I use the KitchenAid every day? Every other? Once a week? Once a month?

I asked those very questions to my friend V, who bought a KitchenAid a few months ago when she re-did her kitchen. "Sometimes I use it, sometimes I don't..... but it sure does look pretty sitting there on my new counter-top."

We decided not to get one before Christmas, but to check out the prices after the holidays were over. True to his researching-self, my husband searched the Internet and found one at a sale price, with free shipping, no tax, and a $30 rebate on top of all of that. Plus, they had the bright red KitchenAid with the glass bowl instead of the silver bowl. Perfect all the way around. (If the KitchenAid was going to be just sitting pretty on my counter-top, I wanted it to have a vintage-looking glass bowl instead a space-age silver bowl.)

The KitchenAid was delivered on Monday.... the rebate paper went into the mail on Tuesday...... and the bright red mixing machine has done a lot more than just look pretty on my counter-top. So far, I have used it to mix and knead bread dough.... which gave us the best Italian bread we've had since our last trip to New York. (My bread machine is now on a shelf in the pantry, and will most likely be donated to the thrift store now that I have mastered the art of getting yeast to do its thing before the KitchenAid takes over the mixing and kneading).

I have also made a batch of cookies.... totally delicious, filled with chopped pecans, chocolate chips, Raisinettes, oatmeal, eggs, flour, sugar, butter. Does the fact that the recipe has healthy oatmeal in it cancel out the not-so-healthy sugar and butter? Probably not.... but that KitchenAid took just a couple of minutes to turn all of that into a perfect cookie dough.

Then today, I made meatballs. Haven't made those in a good long while. I hate, hate, hate to mix up the ground beef-- takes forever to blend in the diced onions, parsley, oregano, chopped bits of raisins and pistachios (didn't have Italian pignoli nuts in the house), eggs, fresh bread crumbs. Best way to mix all of that is with your hands, which is just something I don't care to do... and using a big spoon or a fork will just kill your wrist before it's well-mixed. But.... into the glass bowl of the KitchenAid went all of that, and within a minute, voila! Perfectly mixed... ready to be shaped and browned in the pan and then simmered in the sauce. I had one meatball for lunch with a small piece of bread..... then one more meatball for dinner with a little bit of spaghetti. I usually don't eat red meat...... I hardly ever eat red meat..... but somehow, meatballs made with top sirloin with grandma's recipe makes you forget there was ever a cow involved.

The KitchenAid is working out just fine... definitely worth the money it cost, and when it's not in use, it does indeed look very pretty sitting on the kitchen counter-top.

When we traveled to Germany a few years ago, we had a car with a GPS-thing in it.... the woman's voice would give us directions from place to place and when we successfully got to our destination, the voice would say "You have arrived."

That's the little voice I heard the first time I made real bread dough with the KitchenAid..... and I heard it again when the cookie batter came out so perfectly. You have arrived..... you have a bright red KitchenAid that has made cooking fun again..... You have arrived.