Thank you, Easter Bunny

R* and I went to my hometown of Lower Nazareth, PA this weekend to visit my parents and two brothers for the Easter holiday. Just as we had done for Black Friday and After-Christmas, we stopped by Kohl's to see what's on sale. They, again, had a big tempting display of Kitchen Aid mixers on sale. Just before I got to Kohl's, I had read that two other food bloggers just bought mixers and I read about this tour that David Lebovitz took.

So, after much thought (is there enough room in our small apartment kitchen? how much will I really use it? what color should I choose?) and a nudge from my mom, I bought my mixer in Onxy Black.

I wanted to tear it out of the box and start mixing at my parent's house, but I was quickly reminded that if I took it out of the box, I would risk loosing parts or scratching its perfect shiny finish. I had to content myself with the small cook book and brochures that came with it. Sadly, the recipe book that came in the box stinks. Most of the recipes in the book seem to be sponsored by food companies and none of them show pictures of the mixer in action. I surely wasn't going to make a Jif peanut butter and bacon pie as my first .

Its sitting on my counter, like a brand-new car in the garage, wanting for me to run it through its paces. I want first time using the mixer to be something exciting and fun, something that really shows off it's chops, but since this is a busy week at work, it can't be something that takes too much time or a lot of fancy ingredients.

Does anyone have some recipes to suggest? And, does anyone have any options about the pasta making attachments that can be added to the Kitchen Aid?