NON-ALLITERATIVE TUESDAY: KITCHENAID

Non-Alliterative Tuesday: no obligations, no rhyme, reason or methodology other than that it's something relevant to food and goings-on in Kitchen Toro...

My KitchenAid was a birthday gift from my wonderful folks back in May but I hadn't found the right place for it until this past weekend when I did an overhaul of my whole kitchen. After the cleanup I opened the box and put my new friend in her own new home.

I reorganized the pantry, reorderd my spice shelves, cleaned out my cabinets and established some structure to my kitchen workspace. I still only have about a square foot of counterspace on which to do my chopping and my mise en place ends up in strange places.

For instance, you might not think of the following places as the first settings for mirepoix, baking ingredients and chili peppers: on top of the bread machine, on the scale on top of the sugar on top of the microwave, on top of the coffee-maker on top of the microwave, on my fridge shelves, on the unused burners on my stove on my bed, and on the kitchen table which is in the bedroom.

But hey, that's living in New York City, right? That's why even though you're not independently wealthy and you work for free you pay $1,600 a month for 750 square feet to be 20 minutes away from the nearest subway station into Manhattan.

(Did I mention that the L inexplicably doesn't run on some weekends or after midnight many days during the week, because, you know, it's not like you'd want to get into the city or anything). I digress. And I'm not angry. I'M NOT ANGRY! I'm kidding, kind of. But you can understand how figuring out where to put a stand-mixer might have been a problem.

But now that the extra blankets have been moved up a shelf to hang out in the far recesses of the pantry with the extra light fixtures that belong to the landlord, and the dehumidifier has been stashed under the bed or put on the curb, the food in the pantry can be viewed all at once and a space on the moveable island has been opened up.

At right, I pose with my new friend (who I mentioned back in May-- can the summer be that old?). She's a Nickel Pearl, KitchenAid, Professional 600 Series Mixer. It has a 575 watt motor, can manage 14 cups of flour, has "direct drive all-steel gear transmission," a six-quart capacity wide-bowl with contoured handle, a "powerknead spiral dough hook," and has commercial-style motor protection. A mail-in, proof of purchase deal gives you a choice of one free attachment-- I chose the pasta attachment.

And finally, at home in the kitchen under the fuse box, my KitchenAid now awaits its first spin. I think our first date will be cinnamon rolls which I hope to make for my final project menu.