My cousin Darryl offered some advice after I posted about making frozen latkes: “Get a real mixer instead of the crappy one you have now!” He even sent a link to a discounted KitchenAid 5-quart bowl-lift mixer at Best Buy so I wouldn’t have to do my own research.

So I did some research and decided that I didn’t want to get that mixer. Instead, I got a discounted KitchenAid 5-quart tilt-head mixer at Best Buy. It’s a little smaller than the mixer Darryl recommended and can only knead 4 pounds of bread dough instead of 7, but I think I can live with that limitation.

We used it for the first time today to make pretzels, and I was impressed. I didn’t have to hold on to the mixer to keep it from wandering; I didn’t have to scrape dough off the walls of the bowl to get it into the dough ball; I didn’t have to add more water to get all of the flour incorporated into the dough after the initial three-minute mix; it took less time to get the dough completely developed.

Thanks for the advice, Darryl!

I spent a long time today thinking about upgrading my A/V receiver to go along with the new TV (I have a Denon AVR-2112CI which works fine, but it doesn’t support 4K video or eARC). The Denon AVR-X1700H has the features I need (it doesn’t have analog video input in case I want to play an old laserdisc, but I should be able to live without that), but it’s not available locally at Best Buy, which seems to be the only remaining store in the area which sells decent but not insanely priced audio gear. There are still some high-end audio shops nearby, but I’m not interested in buying a receiver with a five-digit price tag!

Since I can’t get a new receiver before the TV arrives on Friday, I may as well wait to order a replacement until I see how the new TV works with the old receiver (or if the new TV’s audio is sufficient). Should I order from Denon, Amazon, or Crutchfield? :-)