Winter In Kentucky

Winter in Kentucky, who would have thought...the pink flamingos ended up beside my garden pond as a joke (thanks to my dear husband) and never left. The ice storm last week left us covered with a 1/2" of ice which took down trees and power lines. After that came the snow. We were without electric for a week. Fortunately we cook with gas so we didn't go hungry and we have a wood stove for back up heat. The generator provided enough juice to log onto the Internet, and keep the fridge and freezer going so we didn't even lose any food.

Two of our Christmas presents came in surprisingly handy while the electric was out. We received two LLBean baseball hats each with two LED lights in the brims. We looked like the goober twins lying in bed at night trying to direct the beams of our hats at our books so we could read. The cats hated the lights because every time we looked at them they were nearly blinded! Stumbling to the bathroom in the middle of the night was easier with the hats as well, no pesky flashlights to hold! Temperaments became a bit raw after a few days without electricity and we began to try to aggravate each other by directing the beams in each others eyes as we talked to each other. It wasn't pretty and we were infinitely grateful when the electric came back on.

Super Bowl Kitchen Aid Pro Disaster

Rarely does a Super Bowl Sunday pass without unearthing horrifying memories of a cooking disaster of epic proportions which occurred in my very own kitchen on Super Bowl Sunday nine years ago. This year was no exception, and as you may have noticed, I mentioned it briefly in my blog on the 30th of January. The memory is always there, hovering just under the surface of my fragile psyche.

It all started in early 1997. We had just completed our new house on the farm (after years in "The Shack") and Mom gave us a KitchenAid 5 quart mixer as a house warming gift. I was thrilled and used it mercilessly for the next two and a half years, until our house burned.

Cut to Christmas 2000 when we were once again moving into another newly built home. Again, Mom bought us a Kitchen Aid Mixer as a housewarming gift. This time, no normal size mixer would do; Mom insisted on the KitchenAid Pro 600, 6 Quart with a 575 watt motor. If I were more mechanical I could have figured a way to mow my farm with it. It even had a "direct drive transmission". I'm not even sure my car has that! It was a beauty...pearl gray metallic color, about as heavy as I could lift, and capable of doing anything I ever dreamed of in the kitchen. Actually, quite a bit more than I ever thought possible...

None of the usual discount stores had it in stock. We ended up getting it at Williams Sonoma, and believe it or not, while it still commanded a frighteningly high price, it was only a few dollars more expensive than the discount stores. Which I will get back to in just a little bit...

The first, and probably most important point I need to make is that I hate football. So when I go to a Super Bowl party, it's all about the food and the commercials. That particular Sunday was no exception. I spent the morning cooking...well actually, that's how I planned to spend the morning, until I got derailed.

My contributions to the party that day were to be spinach and mushroom bars and huge chocolate chip cookies. Using my brand new, sleek, heavy, and I might add, handsome mixer, I got through the spinach bars without a hitch and slammed them in the oven to cook. Next came the cookies. I creamed the butter, eggs, sugar and vanilla, then added the dry ingredients a little at a time, feeling pretty darned excited with my new toy.

When the dough was all mixed and I was ready to add the chocolate chips and nuts, I kept the motor running and lifted the paddle beater to clean the dough off the beater by centrifugal force (which I always did with my old mixer). Unfortunately for me the beater caught on the pouring shield and twisted and wrapped the tough plastic shield around the beater and stainless steel shaft, screeching and whining until it came to a complete, jammed stop!

It happened so fast I was dumbfounded and instantly burst into tears as I stared in disbelief at the bent shaft with the plastic shield twisted and wound in and out of the beater. Cookie dough was on the window, ceiling, lights, wall, counter top, refrigerator, stove, and me...it was just everywhere. But that wasn't the big problem. The big problem was that my beautiful, cherished mixer (my only new possession at that point after the fire) had been destroyed because I was an idiot! I frantically grabbed the kitchen shears, then wire cutters, and tried to cut the plastic shield out of the beater, but to no avail. There I was berating myself, sobbing, and covered in cookie dough, and the only thing I could think of was where to send it to get it fixed.

Hysterically I searched for the phone number for Williams Sonoma. After asking for the manager, I carefully explained what I had done, taking full blame for being nine kinds of fool. I hiccoughed my way through the explanation, laying my stupidity out there like a flag for him to see. He kindly (and I'm sure cautiously) waited for me to finish my lengthy confession and subsequent request for the number for a repair facility. When I had run out of steam he simply said, "bring it in and we'll give you a new one". Thinking he surely hadn't heard a thing I had just uttered, I said , "no, you don't understand, I did this myself". He confirmed that he had indeed heard me the first time, and again stated, "just bring it in; we cost a little more but we stand behind our products". I was floored and grateful beyond words...I must have thanked him at least twenty times.

The next day I ran over to Williams Sonoma with my sorry, twisted, dead mixer and they gave me a brand new Kitchen Aid Pro 600 in a nice mellow gun metal grey. I don't have the words to tell you how wonderful they were to me and how I will always remember that. I'm a customer for life now and can't say enough good about them.

Of all my possessions, my KitchenAid rates right up there at the top. I've used it for every conceivable food product, my husband uses it to grind venison every year, and our neighbor has used it to grind meat and make sausage! It is truly a tough nut. How I managed to bring one of those big handsome beasts to it's proverbial knees will forever baffle me. I ought to be afraid of myself!