Ben has been experimenting with baking…here are the results of a joint scone effort a few weeks ago:

He has mastered the chocolate chip cookies he made before Christmas, and I expect an upswing in production now that we have…a mixer! Not just any mixer, either. After years of insisting I didn’t want a Kitchenaid, I did tons of research and realized that the KA Pro was probably my best bet. We went for the Professional instead of the Artisan because I want to experiment more with bread making, and I figure that in a couple years it would be annoying to have to upgrade to the bigger machine. We also both liked the design with the bowl that raises and lowers instead of the head of the machine lifting up. It also meant I didn’t have a color-picking dilemma, since the Pro comes in only a few finishes, including shiny dark green, matte pale green (too minty for me), matte copper, matte silver, and matte white. The black is gorgeous but would show every speck of flour, so I went with the silver:

Ben put it to the test as we got it home yesterday, and made banana bread according to Rachel’s mom’s recipe. It took forever to bake (at least an hour and a half, and we cranked the heat to 375 after the first hour or so) but was tasty even to my banana-loathing taste buds. It came out sort of dark, but soft and tender on the inside:

This afternoon I think I’ll make molasses cookies—I want to try the mixer for myself, and I have a stitch and bitch meeting tonight where cookies would be appreciated, I’m sure.