What do you use your stand mixer for?

[Green Bean]

After many, many years I finally decided to bite the bullet and order my first Kitchenaid stand mixer. It hasn't yet arrived and I'm starting to have some buyer's remorse. I realized I don't know what to use it for besides birthday cakes and Christmas cookies.

So please give me suggestions so this big appliance doesn't just collect dust.

[CakeBeret]

I use mine to:

Mix and knead bread dough (if I'm feeling too lazy to do it by hand)
Make spreadable butter (whip regular butter and mix with water and oil to make it into a spread)
Make cake, cookies, frosting, meringues, etc
Make mashed potatoes
Shred cooked chicken

I don't use mine all the time, but I definitely consider it worthwhile because when I *do* use it, I enjoy it and it makes my life easier.

[buvezdevin]

I have had mine for just under two years, though I had a Sunbeam stand mixer for years.  I will note that I have found some of my baking recipes seem to perform better with the KA's extra power and more diverse speeds for creaming, blending, whipping, and especially kneading.

What I *really* love it for is pureeing and grinding, with attachments.  Homemade sausage and ground beef, and processing fruit and tomatoes - it is really great for those things which I would not have tried without it.

Also, creaming butter with some olive oil is great for making spreadable butter which keeps well in the fridge, but didn't work well with my prior mixer.

And it's pretty - not a big reason for having one but a reason to enjoy it more if you do.

There is a book named the "Mixer Bible" which I bought not long ago which has some great ideas, you may want to check into it on Amazon, where I think you'll be able to browse some of its contents.  Mentioning this because I don't yet have loads of experience using mine, but having one has me looking for and trying recipes I would not have otherwise tried.

[Maggie]

I have a serious aversion to getting hamburger meat under my nails so anything that involves mixing ground beef I use the KA.  I use it for meatloaf, my special hamburgers and meatballs.  My kids would rather have my burgers than anybody else's!

[Outdoor Girl]

I use mine quite often - it sits on my counter, mainly because it is too dang heavy to lift up and down from a storage spot.

I use it to make pastry, cookies, cakes, quick breads, yeast breads, decorating icing, whipped cream if I'm making a lot.  Pretty much any baking I do, is done in the KA.

I don't have any attachments yet but I've been thinking about getting some sort of grinder attachment and maybe some sort of shredding attachment.  That way, I could get rid of my food processor and free up some cupboard space.

[magicdomino]

I use mine quite often - it sits on my counter, mainly because it is too dang heavy to lift up and down from a storage spot.

I decorated my kitchen around my fire engine red Kitchenaid mixer.   

Aside from the usual things like cake batter and cookie dough, I make bread dough.  Between the mixer doing the kneading, and the dough rising setting on the oven, yeast breads are easy.  I have used the meat grinder attachment to grind pork loin for making homemade wontons, and just bought the food strainer attachment for making tomato juice/sauce and applesauce. 

[dawbs]

everything.

mine isn't a kitchenaid, but I use the blender attachment to make peanut butter.
I mix my cookie dough in it.
I knead bread dough in it.
I use it for everyting I used to do by hand-mixing cakes, etc.
I can 'whip' my buttercream for 5 minutes so it's fluffy and so much better.
I can make roayl icing w/o my arm wanting to fall off.

[sweetonsno]

I just got one! Yay! I'm one of those folks who loves to do bread and batters by hand, so I normally use mine for things like frosting. It's going to be my best friend when I make royal icing.

[crella]

I have arthritis in my wrists, so I use it to make hamburgers (if I'm making a lot) and meat loaf instead of mixing by hand.

[Shopaholic]

I don't have any attachments (maybe some day...)

I use it to make every kind of dough except short crust. It's especially good with doughs that contain yeast!
Batter for cakes and cookies.
Frosting.
Meringues.
Recently - marshmallows!

Mostly, though - it sits on my counter looking pretty . It's red!

[Harriet Jones]

Mostly I just use mine for cakes and cookies    No buyer's remorse here.

[Outdoor Girl]

I have arthritis in my wrists, so I use it to make hamburgers (if I'm making a lot) and meat loaf instead of mixing by hand.

I've never thought of doing this - you could definitely get a much more even mix doing this and it would break up the ground beef really well.

[crella]

It does mix it very well, dry spice distribution is better than I could do by hand 

[Green Bean]

Now I'm getting excited for it to arrive. I never would have thought to use it to mix ground meat or shred a brisket. Cool.

I, too, am getting the bright red one, and can't wait to decorated kitchen around it.

[Sophia]

I have the grater attachment, so I also grate a block of cheese at the time.  When you buy grated cheese, it has something added that keeps the cheese from sticking to itself, but also makes it harder to melt. 

Pretty soon all your recipes will be sized to be "one kitchen aid batch."  When I was pregnant with all-day sickness, I wanted ONE cookie. After the KA, I started to dislike grocery store cookie and I'm too cheap for bakery cookies.  So, I made one kitchen aid batch of cookies in order to get one cookie.  The rest went into the freezer and my husband was happy. 

I also have the ice cream attachment.  I think maybe one that didn't have to sit in the freezer would have been a better bet.