Lets talk about Bets.. the new stand mixer.

Black Friday has passed.  Thank God, that was a painful retail "holiday" for me to go through.  I should just invest in Kohl's stock with as much money as I gave to them this weekend.  Although, I don't feel too bad giving them my money since I was able to get 20% off my purchases online, get free shipping, and get Kohl's Cash back from my purchases (hello new pots and pans?)..

Of course the KitchenAid stand mixer was on sale, of course I wanted it.  I had this dream about one day getting married and registering for this sucker.  Normal price is around $400... That is not in Teh Megan's price range for kitchen appliances.  The hand mixer I bought from Walmart when I moved in the new MD apartment?  $6.  Yeah, I'm cheap, judge me.

Teh Bear and I went round and round about how I was NOT going to buy a stand mixer because I wanted someone else to get it for me.  Then I started bitchin' about it on Facebook.  I have enablers for friends.  No jk.  ENABLERS, almost every-single-one-of-my-friends-is-an-enabler.  There should be a help group for that.  Teh Model was the first one to tell me that I could find a KitchenAid mixer for right under $130.  I didn't believe it was possible.  No wai.  So, she sent me a link and I checked it out.  I was right, it was no wai.  It was through various "cash back" incentives that the mixer was so low priced.  So, I had successfully talked myself off the ledge.  By this point, it was Thanksgiving lunch time, saved!

After a very delicious Thanksgiving lunch, I came back home and stared longingly at the Willow Blue Artisan KitchenAid 5qt Stand Mixer on Kohl's website.  I was in love.  Last time I was in love?  I ended up in an apartment upstairs (even though I preferred downstairs, because I loved the floor plan that much).  Time before that?  I bought a couch, even though the color wasn't exactly what I had wanted, I wanted the couch bad enough to accept the color.

I got out my handy dandy computer calculator (side note: best idea ever, put your calculator on your desktop/start menu, so much time saved!).  I begged and pleaded to the internet and calculator and stand mixer and Kohl's gods.. please make it happen!  The "regular price" was $399.  They had marked it down to $299.  When you put it in your Kohl's shopping cart? $269.  With a 20% off code I found not very ninja like?  $236.  The cherry on top?  Teh Sister loves me so much, she "bought" this for me, which meant taking her 15% off employee discount off of the final price.  Which meant the total was right at $200.  Plus, it has a $30 mail in rebate, which can be up to $42 if you decline their magazine subscription..  Which means $158ish for a 5qt KitchenAid stand mixer....  Ok, you got me, Howie.  DEAL!  (If you didn't get that reference, its for the best.)

I had added the mixer to my shopping cart.  HOURS later I finally made the decision to actually buy this sucker.  I figured while I was at it, I'd check and see what their prices were on anything else that I had been looking at buying, mainly a vacuum.  With all the discounts I was receiving, the vacuum ended up being cheaper from Kohl's than Amazon, so that was also added to the shopping cart.  Finally, I noticed a CrockPot for $10 after mail in rebate.  Well, why not.  I've always wanted to try out this CrockPot phenomenon.  Added.

Finally, I'm going to check out, and there's issues with the Kohl's card I was using.  Me=crushed.  It took an hour to get that deal sorted out, and by that point, my Willow Blue option was no longer available.  Me=Crushed.  You may not know this about me, Gentle Reader, but I struggle to have a favorite color.  I love all colors, so for me to have finally come to a decision on which color I liked was an hour long process of itself.  No jk.  I had debated on the Willow Blue, which Teh Bear kept referring to as Duke blue, which I would ignore every time, red, black, dark grey, light green, apple green, a fun color like darker yellow/orange...  It took me a while.  I went through all the colors several times.  My computer was like, seriously lady, just pick a stupid freakin' color.  It's just a stand mixer.  My computer is obviously a boy if it had a gender.

While I was on the phone, having to place my order, because the internet gods were punishing me for taking such a ridiculously long time to make up my mind on if I was going to buy the mixer or not, then what color to buy, then what else I should add to my cart, the lady was telling me that my Willow Blue, red, dark grey, green apple, and pear colors were all out of stock.. ALREADY.  This was only 11pm.  Since when did people become so internet savvy about black friday, gosh.  Finally, I went with Ice Blue out of desperation.  I just wanted to buy a freakin' stand mixer before I 1- got frustrated and changed my mind, 2- just changed my mind.  The photos online made the mixer look like a bearable sky blue ish-y color..  Fine.  Order finally complete around 11:58pm on Thanksgiving night.  HA, take that people standing outside for hours before a store opens.  Hello, $90 in Kohl's cash, yes, we can be bffs.

The order confirmation came via email saying my order would arrive Dec 6-9th.  Well, ok then.  That gave me sufficient time to plan whatever my first recipe was going to be in the new mixer.  On the 27th, I started doing some serious research.  I considered challah bread, mousse, or a brownie recipe that had been passed on to me with the review, "THESE ARE THE BEST BROWNIES EVER."  Obviously, the 6th isn't close yet, so I had some time to make up my mind.

Then I received an email saying that my mixer was ready to be shipped on the evening of the 27th.  Okie dokie, it will be here in a few days then, deal.  On the 28th, I came home for lunch, after much debate because I had strongly considered Chipotle.  At my door, there was a box... that said KITCHENAID STAND MIXER.  OMFG IT ARRIVED!!!

So soon????

I brought it inside, did a little happy dance that it had arrived so quickly, but threw in a few confused "how did it arrive so quickly" kicks for good measure.  I then ate lunch, skyped with Teh Bear, and went back to work.  I didn't even take it out of the shipping box, I had plans for it.

Willow Blue (image)

I still wasn't a huge fan of Ice Blue.  I had my heart set on Willow Blue, but apparently, so did the rest of America.  I decided after work, I'd swing by Kohl's and see what other colors they had available.  I crossed my fingers for my Willow Blue.  I brought my mixer to the return desk and said I'd like to exchange it for another color, then went back to look at the selection.  Red, red, red, silver, black, silver, silver, black, black, red.  Seriously?!  It was like NC State had taken over the KitchenAid stand mixer section.  I took a red one back to the front with me, it had been my 2nd choice.. way back when... 4 days ago.  I got it up to the counter and the lady behind me was telling me how red was "in" now.  I explained that I remember when red started coming "in", because I had bought Teh Mom a red microwave with the full intention of having to return it for the silver one the next day.  I really liked the red, much to my surprise and Teh Sister's surprise.. Teh Mom also liked the red.  Jaws hit the floor that day, and I didn't have to do an exchange.  


I looked at the color of the blue mixer through the handle, and I looked at the photo of the red mixer.  I just didn't have the heart to settle for the red one.  I knew that it meant that my kitchen would always be red themed, which is already my bedroom color..   Which would just lead to red taking over my house, and I just couldn't take that risk.  After very much hassling with the ladies at Kohl's who tried very hard to find a Willow Blue mixer for me, to no avail, since my model is apparently no where on the Kohl's website anymore, I just accepted the Ice Blue mixer for the retro 50's color that it was, and lugged it back to the car to return it home.

Since the mixer arrived so early, I hadn't decided on a recipe to try with the mixer, which meant that whatever I made with the mixer required on-hand ingredients.  I had box funfetti mix and box brownie mix, but brownies shouldn't be made with a mixer (ever) and cake mix was just too easy.  After some internet scavenging, I found a recipe for made from scratch cake that I had all the ingredients to.  Well, ok then, made from scratch cake it is.

After putting the cake in the oven and returning to my computer, I felt guilty.  Who makes just a made from scratch cake and has no icing to go with it?  I couldn't be that person, so I looked up my buttercream icing recipe and made more magic happen with the mixer.

Betty Draper would have done it this way.

While I was working on the cake and icing, I kept thinking to myself, this feels like a very Betty Draper type thing.  The made from scratch cake, the retro colored mixer.  I was just 2.5 kids, Don Draper, and a huge house short of an early episode of Mad Men.  The mixer has been properly named Bets, or Betty when I'm mad at it.


Overall, I'm pretty hyped about my purchase.  I'm sure once I start making crazy stuff like challah bread where I can walk away from the mixer and let it do its thing and come back and move on to the next step, I love Bets even more.  But for now, we're at that awkward getting to know each other stage.  She's tepid of how I'm going to handle her gears and I'm working on better accepting the retro-ness of Bets.  I'm sure that soon enough we'll be the best of friends though.  


I mean, I wouldn't have had any reason to create this completely made from scratch masterpiece if Bets wasn't in my life.

That is definitely a ridiculous amount of icing.. Oops.