Oh Dear!

 

There's more to life than sewing. For me, one of those things is cooking, and baking. The empty spot on my counter is where my stand mixer lived. I was kneading bread dough in it the other day and suddenly it started shrieking, then stopped.

Fortunately the dough was ready, so no harm done there. But OH! I used my mixer VERY often, which is why I gave it a place of honor on my kitchen countertop. That and the fact that it was so heavy it was just easier to leave it out all the time.

After a bit of troubleshooting, I did a bit of research. Turns out I bought the mixer 33 years ago. Yup. Thirty-three years. I probably used it once a week. I've been using it to make bread once a week since Christmas, since Julie bought me the King Arthur Baking Company's Big Book of Bread.

I've been baking bread not only for myself, by also for my Mom and Mike. The loaf, above is a Semolina Sesame bread from that cookbook. Absolutely divine. I make a loaf for them every week.

So then I went shopping.  The new mixer (still a Kitchen Aid) arrived a couple of days later,* 

and was in use not twenty minutes after it was delivered. I made my Chocolate Pecan biscotti (You can get the recipe here.)

*Bet you can tell why I got the lovely blue one!

OH! Once Mom and Mike found out my mixer died, they gave me $100 toward the new one! How kind!