A few weeks ago, I was in a baking / cooking kind of weird mood. I don’t think I was bored exactly, just looking for a creative outlet other than writing. My hubby and I have been trying to eat sensibly so I thought that if I pre-made some meals, we could have half the portion now and freeze the other half to eat later. It was a good idea and it worked, until I stopped pre-making the meals and we ran out of the frozen stuff. Now it’s back to “what are we going to have for dinner tonight?” (sigh)
But I digress. During this baking / cooking period, I experimented with new recipes, making notes along the way so that I could improve for next time. Lots of chopping and dicing and slicing was involved as well as mixing especially during the baking portion of this adventure.
I do not own a food processor, Cuisinart, or other such device, but I do have an awesome hand mixer that I’ve had for – um – I do believe it’s been 30+ years. I tend to take very good care of my things so they last a long time. Well folks, on one of my food preparation days that little baby got real hot in my hands. Like, too hot to hold on to. I let it set and cool down for a bit then was right back at it. Until . . . a weird grinding noise replaced the whirring and smoke started pouring out of the device.
Say what?
Needless to say, I panicked a little bit. Was it going to burst into flames? Explode? I’ve never had an appliance actually “burn up” before. I unplugged it and raced outside to set it on a metal patio table away from the house. You know, just in case it decided to spew fire or something.
I literally burned up my hand mixer. The hand mixer I’ve had for 32 years. The hand mixer I loved. The hand mixer with lots of fabulous attachments, good for any mixing job. I said a silent eulogy for the lost appliance and wondered how in the heck I was going to finish my whipping cream project. (Thank God for blenders.)
Anyway, I scoured through the millions of photos and appliance descriptions on Amazon trying to find just the exact one that would be a worthy replacement to the lost mixer. I took a chance, hit the buy button and waited.
I cannot tell you how excited I was to receive this little beauty in the mail?
And then my excitement escalated to an even higher level when I discovered that the attachments from the old mixer would work with the new mixer! I was in heaven. A new mixer with even more fabulous attachments! Could this day get any better?
Then I read the instructions and came upon this warning:
Um . . . what now? Seriously, who would even think to use gasoline as a cleaning agent? Okay, sure, maybe my dad, but really? Geez.
Anyway, I had to pull out a recipe right then and there just to try that new baby out. Wow! Feel the power. I haven’t even cranked that baby up to the higher speeds yet because speeds 1 and 2 are so amazing. I can’t wait to try the dough hooks! I predict some homemade bread in my future. My only hope is that the device doesn’t become so mucked up that I’d have to consider using gasoline to clean it.
How about you guys – do you get excited over simple things? Have you ever burned up an appliance? Have you ever done meal prep and planning for an extended period of time? When was the last time you got really excited about a kitchen gadget? Ever used gasoline to clean a kitchen appliance?
Word of the Day: Wayzgoose
Fun fact about me: The other day I had some Neccos. I haven’t had Neccos since I was a teen-ager.
Original post by Jansen Schmidt, January 2021. Images by Google and giphy.com.
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jansenschmidt 
I’m pretty sure I’ve burned up a mixer before. Definitely a food processor, which sucked because I hadn’t even used it that much! I don’t like to spend a whole lot of time in the kitchen, but I make an exception for Thanksgiving, which is always at my house. And of course, that’s when the food processor decided to keel over. I was super-excited to get my air fryer – and I love it. Use it all the time!
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I’ve heard good things about air fryers. That’ll be my next big adventure – well maybe after I replace my bread machine, which decided it didn’t want to work any more either. I loved that bread machine.
Funny how appliance know exactly when is the perfect time to break down. I’ve had that experience a time or two as well. Yes, usually holidays when stores are closed so you can’t run out and replace them. Good times.
Thanks for visiting. Have a great week. Here’s hoping all your appliances work when and how they’re supposed to!
Patricia
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Never burned up an appliance before, but my hand mixer is 27 years old, so it could be due…
I do frozen meal prep almost every month. If I don’t, we’re guaranteed to get in that trap of “What’s for dinner?” “I don’t know, what sounds good?” “I don’t know, what sounds good to you?” and so on until we wind up eating junk or going out. Also because I just don’t have the energy to do real cooking most nights. So much easier to spend a Saturday assembling meals that I can then just pop into the oven/slow cooker/Instant Pot.
Have fun with the new mixer!
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That’s what I did – it worked great for the 3 weeks I was doing it. Then I got busy doing other things and here we are back at the “what’s for dinner?” and me trying to come up with something. I’m pretty good about planning the day ahead so I at least have a plan, but my days don’t always work out the way I plan them so sometimes it’s well past 7:00 and I still haven’t started the meal I planned to make. (sigh)
Anyway, having the new mixer is awesome! Now I’m off to see what I’m going to make for dinner.
Thanks for visiting.
Patricia
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