Christmas in the Kitchen

Seeing as how I’m in the process of writing out Christmas lists *and* making Christmas cookies, I decided to procrastinate a bit and give you all my thoughts on excellent kitchen-related gifts to put on your lists!

That is, if you wouldn’t mind getting kitchen-related presents.
(Some women, like my mom, never liked getting kitchen stuff instead of more personal gifts. Certainly not after she was given three tubes of peppercorns wrapped up one year and her daughter thought they were dynamite… — actually *hoped* they were dynamite!)

Now, I’m all for doing stuff by hand, but there’s really no replacement for a good, sturdy, properly-sized stand mixer. If you do the occasional batch of cookies, you can get away without one, but if you bake A-L-O-T, then I can’t say enough good things about a KitchenAid stand mixer. (And go for the better motor and bowl lifter version. I started out with the low-end one and had to move up to the “professional series.” But my buddy Manny benefitted from my error in purchasing a low-end model… and makes TheHubster the occasional Dutch apple pie as a thank you gift!)

And, I totally love this Better Beater! It scrapes the bowl while it beats! (They make them in all sizes for the various KitchenAid mixers.) The plastic feels like it won’t hold up like the KitchenAid metal ones do, but I’ve never had a problem with the Better Beater I bought more than a year ago and would highly recommend it to anyone. Plus, like the other KitchenAid mixer parts, it’s dishwasher safe!

more…