Mixers and More

Back when I was single, I didn't own a stand mixer. I had a bottom-of-the-line hand mixer that served me well...except when it didn't. Somewhere in a vintage scrapbook, I have a photo of the day I tried to make the marshmallow-cream based frosting for a fruit pizza, and I had marshmallow climbing the beaters all the way up to the handheld part. It made for a funny story - post clean-up, of course. 

It was a well-documented fact that high on my wedding registry list would be a proper stand mixer, and I did indeed receive one! She's so pretty. She's a red KitchenAid, and her name is Miss Mixy. She and I have made many things together, with cookies heading the list. She's almost ten years old now and showing no signs of slowing down.

But surprisingly - at least to me - in these almost ten years we've shared, I have never purchased a single additional attachment for her. She came with a stainless steel bowl, a wire whisk, a paddle, and a bread dough hook, and those remain the only pieces I have for her. Clearly we've been just fine, but out of curiosity, I looked up what else she can do with attachments. It turns out you can practically rule the world with the assortment of options. There are way more than I could ever use, but I did raise my eyebrows at a few!

* I don't plan on getting this one, but I did see the meat grinder attachment on the list, and it reminded me of when I was a little girl and my mom would make homemade ham salad. She had an old-fashioned meat grinder that clamped on the kitchen table, and I always found it to be a grand adventure to grind up all the ingredients for her. I wonder if she still has that! 

* They also have a variety of pasta presses, and I have to say I think it would be so much fun to learn how to make homemade pasta. I have heard that once you make your own, you are ruined for boxed pasta ever again. (One of the ladies on my women's ministry team back in Kokomo was apparently quite the pasta maker, but I never had the chance to learn from her before we moved.) Have any of you ever made your own pasta?

* And then there's the grain mill! I went through a brief season a few years ago when the idea of milling my own grain to make my own bread was intriguing to me. I still think I'd like to learn to make bread - especially sourdough - but I'm not sure if I've got the time for grain milling. But I had no idea I could use my mixer to do that, so I've tucked away that bit of information!

* There's also a spiralizer, and that one really piqued my interest. I purchased a super cheap handheld spiralizer at TJ Maxx a few years ago, and I've used it to make zoodles. It works great until you have to clean it, and then it's kind of a pain. Plus there always seems to be a big stub at the end that is too small to feed through but feels wasteful to throw away. I wonder if this one would work better!

* After having sliced my thumb pretty deeply a few years ago while trying to slice veggies on a manual slicer, seeing a shredding/slicing attachment also caught my attention. I have had a healthy reverence for those sharp shredders ever since! (Oh what a story that injury made for me. It was when we lived in Kokomo, and I was a stay-at-home wife. I was making lunch and hadn't gotten dressed yet. I sliced my thumb open, and it was bleeding pretty heavily. I couldn't leave it uncovered long enough to even bandage it, and I couldn't get dressed - easily, anyway - while applying pressure. I finally was able to get public-approved clothing on and walked to the hospital where Ryan worked to see if he could help me. I arrived at the same time as his patient, but the patient was so gracious to allow him a moment to bandage up his bleeding wife before starting therapy. I'm pretty sure that also scored us both Wendy's for lunch.) You see why I need this attachment, right?

* To be honest, it's the ice cream maker that tops my list. I love ice cream and think it would be so fun to run an ice cream shop. Since that is unlikely to ever happen, I plan to be content with making my own ice cream concoctions at home! Can you even imagine the fun I could have with this attachment?

So...do any of you have attachments for your mixer? Any faves out there? I definitely don't want to just cram the kitchen with a bunch of unused gadgets, but I have a feeling I would really use a few of those!