My First Time...

by Cynthia McKenna

It was my first time, and it was beyond my dreams. I have just had my first experience with a Kitchen Aid mixer.

 
I am about to undertake a networking blitz on the town of Boerne,Texas. My marketing coach has suggested that the best way to make an introduction is with something yummy in hand, like cookies.

 
I am a very good cook, but I don’t really have a sweet tooth (weird, I know) and so I rarely make desserts or sweet snacks. But I decided that if my entrée into business offices was going to be a tin of cookies, they better be homemade.

 
I am not a fan of grocery store cookies, at least not my grocery. They taste a lot like boxed or pre-made cookies, mostly flavorless and loaded with chemicals. So, even if cookies from the local HEB would work in theory, they don’t work for me.

 
So I thought about the kinds of cookies people seem to like, and settled on peanut butter – with the crisscross fork design on top, and good old toll house chocolate chip.

 
I went to the grocery yesterday and ventured into the baking aisle. I have been there before when I am making bread. But I cannot recall the last time I bought semi-sweet chocolate chips.

 
This afternoon, I assembled all my ingredients and got a cursory lesson on how to run the Kitchen Aid – it has been in my kitchen for about 4 years, but I have never even touched it – or lifted it, it is quite heavy.

 
I put in one cup of chunky peanut butter, one cup butter, one cup brown sugar; one cup granulated sugar, and slid the switch on. The big white beater turned slowly and then faster and faster as I increased the speed. It was creaming the butter-sugar mixture, actually, effortlessly turning butter and sugar into a fluffy mixture that was ready for the eggs and the rest of the ingredients.

 
I was in love.

 
As I watched the beater whirl around the stainless steel bowl, I wondered how I ever managed to survive in the kitchen without a kitchen aid. It seemed as if I had been living in the 1800’s and with the turn of the switch, I joined the 21^st century.

 
My cookie dough is chilling in the fridge, and I can’t seem to wipe the smile off my face.

Cynthia McKenna - www.cynthiamckenna.com

Creating Healthy Relationships

Comments

[Ann at Vermont Shortbread Company]

Congratulations on losing your Kitchen-Aid virginity! You know, I still have a hand electric mixer that my mother received as a wedding gift 45 years ago. I love that thing not just because of its power but because of its age and history. Many a cake and cookie I devoured as a kid were baked as a result of that old mixer. In fact, I'm feeling inspired to write an essay on it.

May your Kitchen-Aid provide you with many happy food memories and stories. I can't wait to read more!

Ann Zuccardy
Vermont Shortbread Company