Cookaholics Bulletin Board

For what it's worth, I'm pretty mechanically inclined. A Kitchen Aid mixer is probably pretty simple to tear down and rebuild. Rebuild instructions from the factory should be available. Another philosophy is to get something inexpensive enough to be expendable. Maybe I should look at a Sunbeam Mixmaster.

Look at me; -- Talking AS IF I was getting a stand mixer! HA!

John,

My husband spent 25 years designing/building automation for B'way shows (if it's part of the deck and moves on stage, it's automated), yet my last KA meltdown was something he had no patience for...it was beyond fried. So, he bought me a new one for my birthday.

Amy

The one time our KA broke, Patrick fixed it pretty easily. He is also mechanically inclined. Perhaps you'll be okay so long as you don't let Amy close enough to cast her bad juju on it.

One more note regarding the bread baking -- you note that you either do it entirely by hand or in the bread machine. The mixer gives you a lot more flexibility, for example, it does a great job of mixing in ingredients easily, esp. things like raisins or caraaway seed, plus it gives you the half-way possiblity, i.e. knead the dough until it's close to being done and then allowing you to finish by hand. I couldn't live without mine.

My wife was watching "Cup Cake Wars" with me and noted everyone was using these stand mixers.

Mrs: "Hey, how come they're using those mixers, and you're not?"
Me: "Well, I'm not sure if I need one. I don't see getting something that is geared for such volume, and besides I'm a hands-on kind of guy. I take pride in being Old School."
Mrs: "That's bull shit. You want one and you know it."
(busted again)

With that she went out and got me a Professional 6000 HD (UPDATED LINK):
http://www.costco.com/Browse/ProductSet.aspx?Prodid=11754601&search=kitchenaid&Mo=2&cm_re=1_en-_-Top_Left_Nav-_-Top_search&lang=en-US&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&Sp=S&N=5000043&whse=BC&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntk=Text_Search&Dr=P_CatalogName:BC&Ne=4000000&D=kitchenaid&Ntt=kitchenaid&No=1&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Nty=1&topnav=&s=1

The bonus deal is that it comes with an ice cream maker attachment, no extra charge.

So my question to the board; what would YOU do to take this out for a test drive?
I was thinking about rocks and nails, . . . I should come back to sand and bbs -- right?
Maybe smash grapes for wine

WHOA! Don't be mistreating dem little sacks of sunshine & love - rocks & nails? Fine. Grapes? Uh-uh.

Tuna. I see you linked to the Canadian site...where are you located? I saw that model on coupon this week, so if your wife didn't get the rebate make sure she gets the price adjusted!

I vote you make cupcakes. That's what inspired the purchase so seems fitting. Although I'd just do a double or triple batch of your favorite cookie recipe, just because you can.

No clue that I linked to a Canadian site! I did a search and just copy/paste whatever.
I followed it this morning and it's not the product description page that I was trying for.
Anyway, it's a KA "Professional 6000 HD"

I'm actually in California. San Jose.

As for cup cakes, I'd only do the wet ingredients with the mixer, then combine by hand (gently) to prevent the cake from getting tough from over working. I look forward to mixing frosting with it.

I guess I could experiment with mashing potatoes. My wife likes the smooth whipped version, light and fluffy.

Tuna,

My sweetie really only uses the stand mixer for double and triple batches of cookies, for the holidays. Otherwise, I make pasta dough with it.

BTW, I'm in San Francisco and Janet is in Santa Clara.

When using a stand mixer to add dry ingredients to wet, you use a very low speed and only mix until dry ingred. are incorporated.

fitzie