I have no idea how I became such a KitchenAid fan. It just happened slowly over a few years. It might have something to do with having all my stuff match. I can't say. Why not Cuisinart or Delonghi or Black and Decker?
I think the reason I got my first KA mixer was because it was THE mixer. You just see one and you get that timeless classic feeling. What other kind of mixer would anyone want? It was the first home mixer in 1919, though it has improved and changed a lot since then. Every other brand is a copy. It's an icon. When you see a stand mixer you know someone in the house likes to cook.
You must know by now I live my life through eBay. This was no different. I finally had money and wanted a REAL mixer. There never was any real choice about it. I'd wanted a KitchenAid for years. So I finally started shopping for one. White seemed to be a natural choice. It matches anything, it shows up in black and white episodes, you know when you need to clean it, and in 20 years the color won't be dated and cliche... harvest gold and avacado come to mind. White never goes out of style (though now I do like the new "grape" color.)
I'm trying to remember when I bought that mixer. Where I was living at the time... ok, I lived there from about 2000 to 2003. Oh, wait, check the spreadsheet I use for a checkbook! I have bank stuff going back to when God was a boy.... January 16, 2002. I must have been financially ok at the time because I bought two extra bowls for it at the same time, and then about a month later I got the attachment pack (more on that later). So anyway. That was an important date because it's when I first started my small appliance habit. I call them my power tools (but I have real power tools too; I'm no sissy) By now I have just about everything I want in the way of KitchenAid, so read on...
The 4 1/2 quart tilt-head stand mixer is the most popular model ever produced and it happens to be the one I found on eBay for a pretty good price. I was smart enough to get the UltraPower version. Guys like power tools, you know. As I said, I also got two extra bowls at the same time from another eBay seller and those have come in handy, though I've never had all three of them dirty at the same time. Just one extra would do it for most people so I eventually sold one of the spares on ebay. If you get additional bowls, you might consider the ones that do not have handles so they can nest inside one another.
By the way, I'll tell you a secret. If you think you want the 5 quart mixer, you can spend less money on a 4.5 quart and then get a 5 quart bowl to use with it. It's the SAME mixer! The only small difference is that the 5 quart Artisan has just a little bit more power than the Ultra. You'll never notice the difference unless you're mixing cement.
The next addition to the collection was the attachment pack; some very neat things that attach to the front of the mixer and use the motor to operate. The slicer/shredder can do a lot of things that a food processor can do but at a slower speed so you can supervise, I suppose. At the time I didn't have a food processor so I used this to grate cheese and slice things. The food grinder attachment (those in the know call it the FGA) has barely ever been used to grind meat but there are other attachments that attach to the grinder so you'll need it to use any of the others, like the pasta extruder. Pasta isn't hard to make and it's fun if you have the time. There are other grinder add-ons like the sausage stuffer, the vegetable strainer (if you want to make puree, soups, sauces or baby food). I still want to get the pasta rollers and maybe even the grain mill but for now I think I'm good with the attachments I have. There are several I won't ever want because I can do what they do with the food processor.
If you think you don't need a food processor, get this instead. You'll use it. It's called the DVSA and it's not made anymore (replced by the rotor slicer/shredder) but they come up on eBay once in a while. It's an odd thing that people don't hunt for too often so the prices usually stay reasonable. It goes on the front of the mixer and does most of the same things that the food processor does. The three blades that come with it are the same ones that come with the processor.
Why not have the whole shebang, especially if it's on a really good sale? The hand mixer is great for quickie jobs like instant pudding or mashed potatoes and when you're done all you have to wash are the beaters. Fun stuff. It's pretty powerful for its size and will make whipped cream just as fast as the stand mixer. It sometimes comes with a drink mixer which isn't pictured but is a lot like an old fashioned milk shake machine. The drink mixer is good for protien drinks and chocolate milk too!
I used to work in a store that often received very limited quantities of very cool things for very good prices. I also had a pretty cool boss who knew he should save a food processor for me. I even liked the color, because all we had were white. Mine is the 11-cup which isn't being made anymore and has been replaced by the 12-cup. The thing about the 12-cup that makes me jealous isn't that it's one cup larger, it's that it has a wide-mouth feed tube for things like whole tomatoes. My smaller tube requires that I cut things up before I process them. If I could get my hands on the new lid with the wide tube and have it fit my existing processor I'd be very happy. I haven't done any research yet about compatibility of the accessories. One would HOPE that KitchenAid wouldn't piss off their established customers by cutting off availability of accessories to older models, but one never knows. (Wait until I get to the blender!)
One thing still on my list of acquisitions is the 5-disc set for the food processor. In addition to the ones that come with it, these discs do things like cut french fries, julienne, shave ice, grate parmesan, etc.
There is nothing as good as fresh juice! Just the other night I made what I think is my best juice blend ever: orange, red delicious apple, mango and white grape with the juice of a lemon so it didn't turn brown. Yum! There is one bad thing about the juicer and one reason to get it anyway. The bad thing is that when the extractor basket gets full of pulp it becomes unbalanced and the whole juicer starts to turn; it's really hard to keep the spout above what you're using to catch the juice! The reason to get it anyway is that the extractor basket and the citrus cone parts fit perfectly into the 11-cup food processor. I don't even use the juicer base anymore. I don't know if they fit the new 12-cup processor but I'd look into that before buying one.
There is a juice extractor for the food processor, but the juice extractor attachment doesn't come with the citrus press; you have to buy the citrus attachemnt seperately. You can usually find a stand-alone juicer for less than the cost of the juice extractor and citrus press attachments.
Let's be honest, if you just want to dice a handful of onions or destroy some hot peppers to throw in an omlette, the big food processor can be too much to clean. Even though it has a smaller insert bowl for smaller jobs, you still have the big lid and pusher to wash. That's why I like the 3-cup chopper. It's just the right size for small jobs and the parts don't take up any more space in the dishwasher than a couple of drinking glasses. Nice. Alright, it helps that I got a great deal on the chopper, but we all know it pays to be a savvy buyer.
I think the blender gets the most use at my house. I crush ice, I use it when I mix frozen concentrated orange juice and I make a mean banana smoothie. I also have just about perfected the Frapuccino (a trademarked name owned by Starbucks). I couldn't do margaritas without it. As much as I like KitchenAid, they have recently made a huge mistake. The glass blender shown on the left has been retired and replaced with the plastic version you see on the right. The new one doesn't have a removable base so the blade assembly can't come out for cleaning. Did I mention that it's now PLASTIC? I think I need to get on eBay and find a second old-style blender to store away somewhere in case something happens to my first one, becasue the new blender model is just wrong. I also should mention that the jars and motor bases are not compatible from old to new, so I wouldn't even be able to use my glass jar on a new base, should I ever own one. Sorry, KA, you ruined a good thing there. The old blender was far superior. Now I just have to get my hands on a stainless jar, which I will do ASAP before they become hard to find. Why? No reason, I just think it looks nifty. Plus, having two blender jars means there's always a clean one to use!
UPDATE 1-22-09: Due to some really lucky eBaying last year, I now have a second complete blender stored away, a second glass jar in the cabinet AND a stainless jar too. I can now blend myself silly and never worry about those horrible plastic things.
My most recent addition, something I have wanted for years, is the A-9 Coffee Mill. It was first introduced in 1938 and was designed by Egmont Arens. The design hasn't changed in all this time. In my opinion, the A-9 is a classic icon almost as much as the stand mixer. However, vintage style is not the only reason to love the A-9. Freshy ground coffee is full of static electricity. It flies everywhere and clings to everything. The A-9 has a glass hopper to store the beans and a glass measuring cup to catch the coffee and this reduces static cling (glass is an insulator). Also, the burr design passes the coffee through just once so that your coffee doesn't heat up from friction the way it does in a spinning blade grinder. Heat is the enemy of good coffee; don't heat it durning the grind, don't leave a pot sitting on a heating element, and don't re-heat it in the microwave. Additional heat brings out the acidity in the coffee oils and makes a bitter flavor.
Thermal coffee pots are the way to go. They keep coffee warm without adding heat, only reducing heat loss. There are plenty of good thermal coffee makers out there, but I found a KA on clearance. It's red and I really would have preferred black (not available in white) but I had to go for the good price. Besides, red is kinda cool.
Ah, the toaster oven. Yes it makes toast but it does a whole lot more too. If I'm cooking for one or two people I can bake some fish or chicken using less electricity and in the summer I won't heat the whole house up with the oven and that saves power on air conditioning. It's very green. Since I usually AM cooking for one I don't really use the oven much anymore. I can melt cheese on some bread when I make a sandwich and that's something you can't do in an upright toaster (you could, but I wouldn't recommend it)
There are other neat KitchenAid items out there. Cookware, hand tools, toasters, etc. This page might be updated if I get any of those but I think for now my collection is nearly complete.
It's true. I'm a geek. I like neat things and good companies that make them. I like good food and I like cooking. I'm a KitchenAid fan because I like to have the right tool for the job, it's that simple.
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