How Pegleg got her name…A story of true survival

PP as she will be called for short, used to have two able beaters. She’s been with the family (i.e. Me) since Christmas of 2006. During her first 6-8 months in our household, she was pretty much the lone ranger. I didn’t have time to cook or bake and I had a general apathy towards appliances. Especially those of the plug-in, silver, varying speed variety. If I hadn’t quit my job in the Spring of 2007 from a bad case of quarter life crisis, who knows if Pegleg Penny would have had such an impact on my life. (A relative impact, of course.) In the time off between jobs, trying to discover my path in life, and watching soap operas on my couch, I decided to bake. And then I decided to bake some more. And then I decided to experiment with gluten free flours and then I really decided to bake a lot. The waves of baking come and go, but PP has always been there. Whether we decided to take on trifles for Thanksgiving AND Christmas (had to justify buying the trifle dish) or alter a boxed cake mix to make new and exciting cupcakes, she has been there, beating her little heart out.

But with every new and exciting culinary challenge I failed to realize that appliances have a life span and a limit. Penny reached her limit when attempting to make Saint Patrick’s Day Bailey’s Irish Cream and Coffee cupcakes. Maybe she just wasn’t used to all the alcohol, maybe the coffee gave her jitters. Whatever the problem was, however, her beaters started to clash against each other. I tried using the whisking beaters, but again, with the same results. I nearly had a panic attack. The idea of whisking cream for whipped cream frosting and mixing together all the ingredients until smooth was daunting. Not to mention, I lack upper body strength. Instead of throwing in the towel, I improvised…

If we only used one beater then she would be fine. Maybe not able to take on as many ingredients at once, but she’s be able to whip something way faster than my poor arm. So was the birth of Pegleg Penny…I know eventually I’ll have to replace her or that one day I should get my screwdriver out and try to fix her, however, I’m in no hurry. We’ll just figure it out as we go along and see what this whole world wide web thing turns into.