Cookies, Sweeties and a Funny

 This morning's adventure with the boys and a funny story about my mixer ensues:

M sneaking cookie dough, N posing like a ham! 

What do you do when your hubby brings home a giant box of dates from his business trip to Dubai?  Make cookies, of course!  Well, not right away...we had to eat a bunch before I decided I needed to do something with the rest.  It's nice to have a hubby who's thinking of me and the kids while he's running through airports and brings us little treats sometimes (better than tchotchkes to dust).  I'll bet you're not at all surprised that my little helpers liked eating dates.  I was chopping them for the cookies and kept feeding them pieces.  N grabbed a whole one and chomped down, surprised to find a pit! 

N, left, and M helping me clean the bowl after we got them in the oven.  I had a LOT of help this morning.  Lunch was a disaster, of course, but that's to be expected after sampling the product before, during and after, which took all morning.

Look again at the white Kitchenaid mixer in the top photo.  Here's a funny story.  I've always wanted a Kitchenaid, but have made do for 9 years with the little $10 hand mixer that cheapskates like me use instead because a real one is almost $300!  I even had to buy a second one this year when my sister in law blew up the first one!  (The poor mixer was 9 years old, how long are those cheapies supposed to last)?  So my parents were here over Labor Day weekend and we were all piled in the van heading out to some escapade, when I noticed that someone in my neighborhood had a garage sale with a GREAT BIG KITCHENAID just sitting there on the table!  I made Hubs stop, hopped out, checked out the mixer, and ran back to borrow a 20$ bill from my mom (we do not carry cash, in case you were thinking of robbing me.  My purse is full of matchbox cars, coupons and smashed up crackers.) 

I know, right? 20 BUCKS for a Kitchenaid?  Well, it's not exactly brand new.  It looks like a 1970's model (like me) but it works (also like me).  A few weeks later, Aunt L and I were mixing Red Velvet Cupcake batter in it and I said, "I love my new mixer so much!"  As the words came out of my mouth - literally, AS I WAS SAYING IT, the motor started SMOKING! 

AAAGH!  It's on fire!!

Okay, not on fire, but SMOKING!  The kitchen was starting to smell bad from the smoke, so we finished the cupcake batter with the cheapie hand mixer (they were delicioso, by the way, complete with homemade cream cheese frosting). 

I couldn't bring myself to throw away my garage sale treasure.  It sat there for another month before I had the heart to test it out again, sure of another near disaster.

But it made pancake batter just fine.  Then it made stuffed egg filling just fine.  And today, it made Frosted Date Creams very well.

So I'm keeping it.  I think it's just a little testy, and doesn't like big jobs, like mixing for more than a couple of minutes!  I think it's got a lot of character (also like me) so it stays on my counter awaiting its next (little) job.