Sunday, April 24, 2016

Nerd to the rescue


With the assistance of my new helper I was able to turn out a Betty Crocker sour cream coffee cake for our church coffee hour, and also, ahem, Lacy Oatmeal Cookies. They went, too!! We had a big crowd.

This is what happens when you bring in a Sunbeam Mixmaster. People gather!

I love that ad up above, the seasoned cook gazing admiringly at the appliance. Being a novice I had so much fun, standing over this antique whirring machine. Here is something I love about the Internet: You will always have access to some nerd who delivers arcane information you desire.

Researching my Sunbeam Mixmaster I found this site where, this guy has obviously devoted his life to Sunbeam Mixmasters. He is the biographer of the Sunbeam Mixmaster the way I am of Leonard Pennario.

About the Model 9, the Mixmaster I own, he wrote:

This model appeared in August of 1948. Some of the new features include a plastic tip on one of the beaters to help turn the bowl. Also the decal changes during the model 9 production run. Early model 9s have the early style decal and the later ones have decals like in the picture.

I am reading that fascinated.

I had been puzzling over the plastic tip on one of the beaters! I was thinking: Oh well, it probably got worn off the other one, but that's OK. Now I see it is as God intended.

The chronicler also wrote of a previous model, Model 7: "This model is first with the beater ejector. A simple twist of the handle and out come the beaters."

And I go: "Oh! That's how the beaters come out!"

I could not figure that out on my own! I had begun to think I had an earlier model because I could not find a beater ejector.

Live and learn.

Thanks to the nerds on the Internet!

Saturday, April 23, 2016

The Mixmistress


I haven't written in a while but now that will change. It is fitting that I check back in today, because remember the Sunbeam Mixmaster? I got it going!

A turntable for it arrived from eBay. I spent something like $10 on it including shipping, zut alors. On the other hand, I got the mixer for nothing. On still another hand, it really works!

That bowl flies!!

I don't know what I was expecting, I guess for it to move around sedately. The slow and sedate speeds do not work on this mixer. It kicks in at setting 5, Mashed Potatoes. And it goes from there. I had it mixing cookie dough and it made quick work of the butter and sugar, I will say that. Just to see what it could do, I took it up to the higher speeds. It felt like being in a high-performance car and taking it up to 100 mph.

After I took the picture up above the mixer looked a little smudged so I polished it up. I am kind of sentimental over the $2 price sticker, is one thing. That was a nice deal. This World War II mixer that chugs along like the Memphis Belle. And it has the two bowls. That is lucky because glass bowls tend to break over the years. I will have to learn to recognize these and grab them at St. Vincent de Paul.



Anyway. Good job, mixer that dates to when Leonard Pennario was 24.

Well mixed!

Monday, April 11, 2016

The mixer mix-up


Because I have been baking more for church coffee hour, I did a wild and adventurous thing and I went down to the cellar to find my Hamilton Beach mixer.

I do not think I ever mentioned that I owned this particular small electric. I bought it at Salvation Army for I think $10. Since doing a little research I have learned it is a Model K! Here it is posing on the kitchen counter. If you look closely you can see the 1960s Osterizer in the background.


The Model K dates to the 1950s as I understand it. This mixer runs like a dream -- however zut alors, I am missing the turntable! That is what I have learned the part is called that the bowls sit on.

I know that my nieces Rosie and Millie were working this mixer once when we made Christmas cookies. So I knew it had been in service. Alas and alack and Alaska, I searched the basement but found no mixer turntable. I wonder if it ever had one, I mean while I have owned it. I have dim memories of us jerry-rigging it.

I must needs find a replacement turntable. That should not be too hard to do. And good news: While I was searching the basement I found a World War II-era Sunbeam Mixmaster I did not know I had! This is why it is fun to be me.


The Sunbeam runs very well too! I plugged it in. It is sluggish for the first few settings, but those are Mashed Potatoes and stuff, which I would never use it for. By the time you get to the beating it is going great guns.

However! It too is missing its turntable! Which must have been why I got it for just $2. The price sticker is still on it.

The beaters were wrapped in newspaper dated June 2008, so that must have been around when I bought it. I have dim memories of being at a sale with my mom and picking this up. Knowing my mom we talked it down to $1. Ha, ha!

I love the front of it. It is a Model 9 which dates to 1947 and was known for its grille. It looks like a World War II airplane!


Finding a turntable for this baby should not be that hard either. It seems people charge more for the bowls, which are beautiful white milk glass. The only thing that bothers me is the outside chance that I could have thrown one or another of these turntables out without knowing what it was. I have said it before and I will say it again: NEVER THROW ANYTHING OUT.

NEVER!!

Leonard Pennario agreed with me on this. We had both thrown things out and regretted it.

Anyway. I look forward to baking for my church with one or both of these vintage instruments whirring away.

What fun!



Saturday, April 2, 2016

Color my Saturday



Cheap Dollar Tree coloring books are the greatest. You pick them up for a buck and you can have extras on hand for when friends drop in.

My friend Mari and I did these while listening to Howard playing Gershwin songs on the piano. I have been getting over an, ahem, tooth infection which is a great excuse to kick back like this while letting the antibiotics do their work. I do not know what Mari's excuse is other than that when she walked in the door I tossed a coloring book at her.

It is amazing what can be done with a box of 24 Crayola crayons. Especially in the case of Mari who did the starfish. Mari is a professional artist and I am learning from her.

I did this story in The Buffalo News about coloring. It is a fad I like because it reminds me of something that might have been popular in the 18th century. I know in the 18th century people would sit around together and draw. You would have to do that in the drawing room! Mozart once had to play the piano to a whole room of people drawing. It drove him crazy. Luckily last night Howard did not seem to mind. You can color and listen to Gershwin at the same time.

What about Pennario's great album "The Piano Colors of Ravel"?



OK, I have to get to my real work. This Saturday cannot be flushed down the coloring toilet! Or toilets, as the case may be.


Still, the cool colors of the starfish are so pretty.

I think I will put Mari's picture up on the fridge.