Look for me in the kitchen

I might be setting feminism back a few decades by saying this, but one of my favourite places to be is in the kitchen. In an ideal world I would have a kitchen kitted out with whatever I have deemed to be the essentials. However, at the present time, I will have to settle for sharing a smallish kitchen in a not so big apartment with three other people. As I get more consumed by the desire to bake and cook both new items and those that have been tried and tested, I cannot help but dream of my ideal kitchen. I am not sure exactly what it will look like, but I know there will be loads of counter space to work on and nice deep cupboards for storage. Of course, I would be able to find exactly what I was looking for whenever I needed it. While I continue to think about and develop my dream kitchen in my mind, there are still things I can do in the present to tide me over and allow me to keep the creative juices flowing. Well maybe it is not so much things I can be doing, but purchases I can be making. As fellow baking and cooking enthusiasts know, having the right equipment is as important as having the right skills and ingredients. So while a KitchenAid stand mixer might not be realistic for the moment, I definitely think it is time to upgrade my hand mixer to a higher wattage so that it can handle simple recipes such as cookies without having to resort to hand folding in the flour. This little beauty from Canadian Tire has caught my eye and I think will do the trick with its 290 watts:

Also some deeper mixing bowls would be nice so that whatever is being whipped up doesn't end up flying out of the bowl onto the walls and my clothes, of which I am speaking from experience. Again Canadian Tire has some really good options in this area including the following mixing bowl that comes in different sizes:

Not to get too carried away because I do need to store these items when they are not in use, but I definitely need a new spatula as I managed to snap my last one. I don't think it is because I have been eating too much spinach, rather I think it was a testament to the poor quality of a rather cheap purchase. A new website favourite of mine at the moment, Williams-Sonoma, provides some very cute options:

As well as neutral options if that is more to your liking: 

For me, the kitchen is where magic happens! It is where success is baked or cooked in a matter of minutes or hours. However, occasionally it is the site of baking or cooking disasters, which become part of funny stories to tell and lessons to be learnt for next time.