My new little {kitchen} friends

When we moved to Italy, I sold most of my 110v appliances. We kept the Kitchen Aid mixer and the Keurig (we had to use a transformer) but the crock pot, toaster, etc...we sold. And then when we got settled in Italy, I bought 220v appliances knowing that I would have to take excellent care of them to be able resell when our time overseas was up. So that's what I did. I kept boxes and instructions and a few weeks before we left, I sold them to people who had just arrived. As I sold them, I held on to the money like a hoarder, knowing I would need to re-buy most of them once stateside. (Though some items...like the hand mixer and the 5 tower fans we owned I won't need again).

Right before we left, I also made the decision to sell my Kitchen Aid mixer...it was only six months old and a beautiful Aqua Sky color but it was a 5qt. When I upgraded to it from my classic white mixer last Christmas, We assumed it having a stronger motor would help me with my pizza dough and breads but I failed to take into account hat my biggest issue was making batches larger than the mixer could handle. You're not suppose to use more than 7 cups of flour and a single batch of my pizza dough uses almost 8. So I checked out the 600 series to discover that the beast can handle 14 cups of flour! Sold...at least in my mind. I knew I would have to get it stateside.

Today I went to Bed Bath and Beyond and to my great joy discovered they had a green apple in stock (aqua sky isn't an option in the 600 series anymore) and it's usually a mail-order item. Add in the 20% email coupon I had, a $50 mail in rebate and ta-da...mama brought home "the Beast" for WAY cheaper than normal.

And just to make sure he felt at home, I used a 10% off coupon for Target and got the funkiest Crock Pot (the French Bulldog collection for Target) I have ever seen to be his BFF. For now they are chilling like villains in the hotel kitchenette :)