In the Kitchen – barefoot, not pregnant

Who wouldn’t want to be in the kitchen when you’ve got something pretty like this on your counter?

Several years ago, my in-laws bought me my first KitchenAid mixer. Going from my un-named hand held to a KitchenAid is a bit like going from a Pinto to a Porsche – the motor purrs instead of whines, the rotors spin smoothly and in perfectly efficient circles, the curves of the body are something you’ll find yourself humming over while you polish off the flour and butter thrown up by the bowl of batter below.

Sadly, I managed to kill mine in something like 8 years. Besides being beautiful, the damn thing is heavy. I’ve got this thing for cleared counters (except for yummy bowls of fresh produce), and I liked to keep the mixer down under the cabinet. Several times it fell over on that trip from cabinet to countertop, and after one especially long period of unuse the switch wouldn’t move from the off position.

I don’t know if the motor seized up or there was one-fall-too-many, but I glumly limped along on the Walmart equivalent of public transportation – another $10 hand mixer I picked up before last Christmas so I could whip up a few cookies. There’s no local repair place that handles KitchenAid repairs, so it sat under my counter gathering much dust.

Last week I finally got tired of seeing it every time I opened the door to get another roll of paper towels or restock the napkin holder. I called customer service, and they told me I could send it to them and they’d look at it for something like $69. And if it was fixable there would be more money involved. Or I could order a newer model, larger sized, refurbished one, with factory warranty, for $189.

Isn’t she pretty? I think I’ll call her George.