Broken stand mixer

I have a KitchenAid stand mixer, which I love. If I had known how much I would use one, I would have bought one myself years before I got one as a gift. But, alas, I did not know, so I waited and yearned for one. For years. And then, like an angel, my MIL bought me one for Christmas about 12 years ago. Almost since the day I got it, I use it almost weekly, if not more often (you know – some weeks are better than others…). I even upgraded, about a year ago, to a more heavy-duty machine, because I was baking pizza dough in it and since I switched to whole wheat, the mixer had to work pretty hard. As a side note: I used to have an Artisan, which was amazing. I upgraded to a Professional 600 series, because I loved it so much. I also had 6 accessories and they fit both the old one and the new one, so I was quite pleased with that!

I am kicking myself now for selling it to my SIL for $50, but hindsight is always 20/20, as they say. I should have kept it as a back-up, but it is a pretty price-y backup to keep around.

The last month or so, the one I have has been broken. The motor had to work too hard, I guess, and it started to make a funny noise. So DH, because he is very handy and we are both very cheap, takes it apart to fix it. Sure enough, it needs a part. He orders the part and we wait for 2 weeks for that part to come to our house. It works, but we find out we need yet another part. So we are still waiting for that part and it has been 2 more weeks. I am dying here without a mixer for a month. I like to bake and I am running out of things I can or want to make without a mixer! Last night I did a second batch of soft pretzels, which I kneaded BY HAND for 8 minutes on the counter. If I had my mixer working, I am sure the mixer would have done the work for me. So maybe it has been good for me, in that I am getting back to basics and doing more by hand. It is really affecting the way I work in the kitchen though because even as I look for a recipe now, I look at how it is mixed and if it requires a mixer, I skip it. Not everything is available to me, which is very frustrating.

So when that part comes, I will never again be without my mixer. If it ever goes on the fritz again, I will get a loaner or something from a friend the same day. I will even make goodies for said friend, if I can just use a mixer!