An interesting tidbit from my history: I used to work for KitchenAid. Well, Whirlpool, actually, but they manufacture the KitchenAid brand, and the plant where I worked was a KitchenAid plant. I confess, having seen how they’re built I have a ton of respect for KitchenAid products.

Some years ago through the employee-purchase program, I got my mom a KitchenAid stand mixer. At the time she was doing semi-professional cake decorating, with all the baking that goes along with that. She’s always been a big baker. Her mixer has gotten a real workout over the past 20 years or so.

And ya know? It’s still going strong.

Something not everyone knows… KitchenAid was originally owned by a company called Hobart, who make commercial food processing equipment. Sometimes you’ll see Hobart scales in your local grocery store, or an enormous Hobart mixer lurking back in the kitchen of your favorite restaurant. If you’ve ever seen a Hobart commercial mixer, you’ll notice they have the same distinctive rounded look as the KitchenAid mixers. If you ever wondered why that is, now you know!

What that means, of course, is that the original KitchenAid mixers were based on the same design as those industrial-strength Hobart mixers. And they still rank among the toughest kitchen appliances around.

Just like their larger cousins, KitchenAid mixers feature “Planetary Mixing Action,” which refers to the way the wire whip, beater blade or dough hook will spin on their axis while they’re also moving around the bowl. What it means in practical terms is that they do an amazing job of mixing.

With direct drive transmissions, tough all metal gears and commercial-strength motors, these dependable workhorses can knead bread (some models even handle double loaf batches!) or muscle their way through chocolate chip cookie dough. And the multi-purpose attachment hub means you can use the mixer to grind meat or grain, puree and strain vegetables, make fresh pasta, even make ice cream! (With the appropriate attachment, that is.)

You can find KitchenAid mixers, attachments and accessories and other tools for cooking connoisseurs at Kitchen-universe. Fast & free shipping on all orders over $79.

— Diane

Copyright © Diane Aull. All rights reserved.

I’ve been warehouse shopping for years, despite the fact that there are only three of us in the family. I’ve done the comparisions, and in many cases we can get better quality food by warehouse shopping — and often at prices lower than even the discount stores, much less the regular supermarkets.

The problem for me is: with only three of us, what to do with all that food? There’s no savings if we end up throwing away food because it’s gone bad before we can eat it! I need ideas for storing and preserving the food until we’re ready to use it, and recipes that are both easy to cook and easy to store.

Fortunately, we have a freezer for the perishables and plenty of storage space for the canned and packaged goods. But I’m still always on the lookout for interesting, delicious and easy recipes that will keep well, that don’t require a lot of oddball ingredients, and that (most importantly) my familly will eat.

Enter two excellent cookbooks: From Warehouse to Your House: More Than 250 Simple, Spectacular Recipes to Cook, Store, and Share When You Buy in Quantity by Sally Sampson, and Paula Easley’s Warehouse Food Cookbook.

You know what I really like? You can prepare recipes (and components for recipes, such as pre-browned ground beef) ahead of time. Package and freeze for later… then when you get home at the end of a busy day, all you have to do is haul something out of the freezer and you can put a nutritious, economical home-cooked meal on the table for your family in less than half an hour, without knocking yourself out in the kitchen. And with the tips and ideas in these books, you won’t have to slave for hours in the kitchen assembling the meals in the first place, either.

And these books aren’t just collections of recipes! Both offer all sorts of tips for smart warehouse shopping, food storage and preservation, "cook ahead" ideas, and more. If you enjoy warehouse shopping and you want to save money and time on meal preparation, you definitely should check out one (or both) of these books!

— Diane