1y + 6d Debut of the Kitchen Aid.

It's beautiful. I re-organized my kitchen shelves just so I could have a spot worthy of such a magnificent machine. KA stands for Katy Acker, but even more importantly it stands for Kitchen Aid! Today after I spent the morning working on the computer for Christina I invited my dear cousin over and set out on a mission to break in my newest kitchen toy. But this is no toy folks, this stretches far beyond the mango pitter, the mandolin slicer, the immersion blender even . . . this is a machine!

(And The Crowd Goes Wild!)

Since I was young I remember my mom's cobalt blue kitchen aid standing mixer. Not easy to get out or put away this machine was used only in serious situations; mashed potatoes, Ally's oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, batter for funny cake . . . these are all things I remember licking off the beater as soon as I was given the go. For some reason I always had it in my head that I would wait to get one until I got married as part of a wedding gift. I don't know . . .  so as you know, Mom and Dad bought this marvelous masterpiece for me for my birthday! It has been waiting for me to return from my trip and today was the day.

We made Pumpkin Spice cupcakes with a cinnamon icing and everything was vegan. While we were skipping through the Bon Appetite magazine we came across a butternut squash gnocchi recipe and Jenna and I figured, Hey, not?

The tricky part about the whole day was that we made a decision to make everything vegan. For Jenna, the vegan cousin, yes, but for me too. For eggs we used a ground flaxseed and water mix, for oil we used applesauce, we substituted some of the sugar for pure maple syrup. We had so much fun and everything turned out great. The cupcakes were good, but they stuck to the cupcake liners pretty bad. The gnocchi were a little scary at first, we finally got the right and they were awesome. We ate them with fresh sage, pecans and a browned butter sauce, vegan butter . . . .yep.

As far of the rest of my day . . .

For Breakfast: Sweet potato hash with grilled veggies (eggplant, zucchini, onion, bell pepper and mushrooms)

I didn't really eat much during the middle of the day.  And Jenna and I started cooking and we munched on some butternut squash.

These are some pictures of our kitchen extravaganza . . .

The first time turning on my mixer.

Vegan Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cinnamon Frosting

Gnocchi dough.

Forming the Gnocchis

Pre- Cooked but ready to go.

Each one scored with a fork by Jenna.

Really impressed with how they turned out. Simple, Vegan, Fun, Delicious.