So... the wife rarely pressures me for kitchen devices. She acknowledges that I usually have a better sense of what goes on in there... :D
However, she has ALWAYS wanted a KitchenAid stand mixer. Those gorgeous-looking pieces of counter-candy that are always prominently featured on any graphic cooking show or (in particular) baking media.
I certainly don't blame anyone for falling for their allure. They really are quite attractive.
The only issue I had was the cost/utility value. Sure I'd spend close to $500 on a kitchen appliance... but only if I think I'd use it often.
And that's where this device just wouldn't really pay out. We just don't do enough baking to make it worthwhile. I mean, it would be AWESOME... in particular I wanted one with a dough-hook, as one thing I do make semi-regularly is freshly-baked bread.
That, actually, was one of the things I was able to use in my justification for our new-ish Ninja kitchen system. It has dough blades (among many, many other things).
However, that ninja system also made it easier for us to justify NOT getting a KitchenAid stand mixer, as the Ninja is capable of handling many of those tasks.
But, I still do use a hand-mixer sometimes. Not often, but I'd say about once a month. And my old one was quite poor. I think it was literally the cheapest model available at the time, as I bought it when I first moved away from home and was assembling my kitchen with whatever Ikea and Superstore had that was cheap at the time. :)
And I've been using the same piece of crap for almost 15 years. It worked OK. I mean, it started to smell like an ozone electrical fire if you turned the speed up higher than 2 or 3, but it worked. :)
Anyway, one day we were out for an unrelated errand, and happened to see a KitchenAid hand mixer on sale. Plus it came in one of the gorgeous colours normally reserved for the stand mixers.
So, we bought it. And it satisfied the wife's desire to have a candy-coloured KitchenAid mixer. :)
And it is MUCH nicer than my old one.
And, on the plus side, it actually came with a decent amount of attachments, including some curly dough-ish kind of beaters. Very handy!
But, perhaps the best thing, is it takes up SIGNIFICANTLY less room than a stand mixer would! It very compactly resides in a small space in (fittingly) my baking cupboard.
:)