Archive for July, 2007

Our new children – for $150 each. Lowe’s most recent ad ran a misprint for a sale on the 5-qt Artisan stand mixer for $150. The store that we frequent honored the sale price through special order – and Lowe’s computer system had the $150 price loaded for all 5-qt mixers except the professional series (we tried… couldn’t hurt!).

The copper mixer above retails for 489-529. There is also a $30 rebate on the Artisan mixers – $120 for one of baking’s most useful tools.

Go to the KitchenAid website, find your model number and head in to the store (some stores have been accepting phone-in orders). The sale price is good through the weekend but I’d call your local store first since there has been inconsistent information on when Lowe’s will stop honoring the sale price.

Christmas in July – or get your Christmas shopping done in July. A great deal, no matter how you look at it!

Updated info:
The ad came out approx 7/11. It was on the inside front page. We special-ordered two artisan mixers in-store with the ad in-hand, and when we realized that the Metallic line was also covered later in the evening, we went to another store. We did not have the ad but it didn’t make a difference because the price for the metallic line mixers in the system was $150.

I’m always on the lookout for a better way to make… well, anything. I’ve been using Alton Brown’s recipe for The Chewy cookie for years. I was more than happy with that recipe until I ran across the Best, Big Fat Chewy Chocolate Chip (Chunk) cookies.

Good Lawd, those are some pretty cookies! Ginormous, perfectly browned around the edges with fractured centers, chewy, and super tasty.

I’ve heard good things about Tyler Florence’s My Big, Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies so I whipped up a batch of those guys as well. My husband usually never passes on the chance to play test kitchen judge when I want to bake!

Long story short, it wasn’t really even a contest. Tyler’s Big Fat Cookies were… ordinary. The cookies puffed up quite a bit, hiding the chocolate chunks. The texture was a bit more cakey than I was looking for, too. They were good, but definitely not pretty.

It’s truth-in-advertising for the Best Big Fat Chewy Cookies – those cookies were big, fat, and chewy and probably one of the best recipes for chocolate chip cookies that I’ve had the opportunity to make.

We’re a converted kitchen!

I formed 1/4 cup cookie dough into balls and froze them since we’re limping along with our trusty little toaster oven.

Unmotivated or lazy?

I’d rather spend 3 hours or so making homemade hamburger buns than trading in my PJ pants for “real” pants and making a 30-minute round trip to the grocery store. Okay, so that’s not quite it…

I spent the bulk of the afternoon simmering pasta sauce destined for the freezer, forgetting about it more than once, and staring out our home office window in disgust. Rain. More. Flipping. Rain. We almost made it a full 48 hours without rain – and then the sky turned black. 20 minutes later, the small trench between our backyard and the golf course was a river. Again.

But there would be no venturing outdoors for me, thanks to The Fresh Loaf. Homemade hamburger buns – a task that I can honestly say I’ve never thought about taking on before today.

Baking bread is one of those things that can brighten the rainiest of days. The smell, the taste of that steamy first bite, the melt-in-your-mouth texture. And it can quickly banish the “boring” from a regular burger night.

The first two came out very un hamburger bun-like (I say “two” because we’re limping along using a toaster oven while the kitchen is very un kitchen-like). Be sure to flatten them out just like the recipe says The rest were absolutely terrific. I sliced two buns in half and served with burgers for dinner. The rest were tightly wrapped, ziplocked, and whisked away to the freezer.

Since I strictly stuck the recipe, I won’t repost it, but head over to the Fresh Loaf and check it out!