The Death of Hammy

As  I have mentioned before, I am a hand mixer girl.  For the last 8+ years, my partner in cooking and baking crime has been Hammy, my Michael Graves Hammilton Beach electric hand mixer.

Last week near the end of mixing up a batch of cream cheese frosting, Hammy mixed his last bowl of frosting.

Out of nowhere one of the beaters stopped spinning.  A very odd sound followed, along with the mixer getting really hot. I knew Hammy was struggling.  My frosting was done, so I thought maybe a break would help.  After frosting my cupcakes, and cleaning the beaters, I tested the old man out again.

He was still sporting the gimp leg.

What does a girl do when this happens?

Cry….

Yup, really.  True story.

Hammy and I had so many good years together, I was in utter shock.  How would I survive without him and his years of grimy build up?

I never needed another mixer, because Hammy had everything. You could whip up a mean batch of egg white based frosting with the whisk attachment, fix up a malt with the blender attachment, or mix a batch of cookies with the beaters, all in the same afternoon.

Don’t get me started on the nice, convenient storage case that came with him. All the tools fit perfectly inside, clicked onto the bottom of Hammy, and stood nicely in the cabinet.

Oh how I will miss my days with him.

I evolved my cooking and baking in the years he was with me.

I made my first batch of homemade frosting, my first cake not from a box, catered my first event, threw countless parties with food made by him, and fattened many a co-worker with the treats he turned out.

He is going to be missed for all he brought to my life.

So what is a girl to do when she has things to bake, a 5% off Target coupon, and no mixer?

She goes and finally graduates to the professional world of cooking, and buys a Kitchen Aid!!

Introducing – Hot Tamale – my new Red Kitchen Aid stand mixer!!

I am not really sure why it took me so many years to upgrade to a Kitchen Aid. Maybe it was the money.

Or that I was holding out to get one as a wedding gift, like most women do. Not me I guess.

But honestly it was because Hammy was still in my life. I couldn’t give up on him. He was so loyal and I couldn’t just throw him to the side until he was ready to leave me.

On May 11th 2013, he spun his last spin, and beat his last batch of frosting.

After I made my peace with the loss of Hammy, and let him go to the garbage dump in the sky. I needed to jump right into using Hot Tamale.  I was so excited about getting her out of the box, not just because she was new, but because I needed to get a cake made, stat!

The first masterpiece turned out by Hot Tamale and I? Grandmother’s Mother’s Day Flower Cakes!

She sure did me proud!

Now off to go figure out what trouble Hot Tamale and I can get into together.

I believe this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship!

RIP Hammy