Mix It Up! Great Recipes to Make the Most of Your Stand Mixer

"Everyone who has a kitchen longs for an electric stand mixer," writes Jamee Ruth in Mix It Up!. "It is a sought-after icon -- a trophy that says, 'I'm a cook.'" But like a lot of icons, it's often more awesome than user-friendly. With 13 attachments available, many cooks confine themselves to mixing up cookie batters with the flat beater and calling it a day.
Jamee Ruth, on the other hand, calls her mixer "the costar of my kitchen," and here she's written the essential cookbook for anyone who owns one. In more than 60 recipes you'll discover how to get the most out of this "multifunctional culinary hero," using it to make everything from Homemade Hot Dogs and Just-Ground Meat Loaf to a patisserie-quality Macadamia Crusted White Chocolate Cheesecake.
Use the fruit and vegetable strainer and food grinder to make a sweet and tangy Ginger-Spiked Asian Pear Soup, and the rotor slicer and shredder for Shredded Egg Salad with Belgian Endive. For the easiest, freshest breads you'll ever make, use the grain mill in Blue Corn Bread, and Red Wheat Rolls with Puttanesca Relish.
You'll never want to buy spaghetti again when you use the pasta maker in Basil Tagliatelle and Knockout Gnocchi. And bakers, especially, will appreciate knowing which attachments make to-die-for desserts, like Sugar Pun'kin Pie with Perfect Whipped Cream, and Rum Roasted Banana Bread Glazed with Foster Cream. In these and so many other delicious recipes offered here, you'll revel in taking the icon off its pedestal and making it work for you!

Jamee Ruth is a culinary equipment expert and the author of the Grill Pan Cookbook (0-8118-2417-9). She lives in California.

Maren Caruso is a San Francisco-based photographer whose work also appears in The New Complete Coffee Book (0-8118-2867-0).