My grandfather’s KitchenAid mixer remains one of my most prized culinary heirlooms. Passed down to me over 25 years ago, it has travelled everywhere I’ve called home. As with most family heirlooms, there was always a bone of contention as to whether the mixer was really supposed to go to me or to my aunt. Back in those days, a KitchenAid stand mixer was a prize possession.
Expensive and reserved for real food enthusiasts or professionals at the time that he probably bought it, the mixer was most likely not a part of the ordinary cook’s equipment inventory. This thing weighs a ton and it’s heavy duty enough to withstand the heaviest of bread doughs. I can’t recall where he may have purchased it, maybe Service Merchandise or Sears. We didn’t have Amazon back then, and Fort Valley didn’t have many stores that probably would have carried it.
Papa used it to bake large, dense pound cakes and his favorite Japanese Pound Cake. It was always clear that it was Papa’s mixer. After all, Granny had her own mixer, a tried and true Sunbeam stand mixer. She gave her mixer quite the workout from making delicous Red Velvet Cake and German Chocolate Cake especially around the holiday season.
Fast Forward 20 + Years
Years after my Papa passed away, I’m so thankful that my mom persistently lobbied that I should have the mixer. After all, I had graduated from culinary school and was a bonafide chef. Little did I know at that time that I would use it to make plenty of cookies with my own two sons. Making Christmas sugar cookies on Christmas Eve is one of our favorite memories around the KitchenAid. Sharing the simple joy of making Chocolate Chip Cookies reminded me of the days when I would help out my grandmother and grandfather in the kitchen. I hope that my boys will remember these moments when they are older with children of their own. And I promise to make sure that they each have their own KitchenAid mixer.
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