There was a time not that long ago when I was classified as a non-coffee drinker. This all started to go down hill (although rather slowly) a few years back while traveling through Pagosa Springs, Colorado. The hot-springs resort had a machine that put out vanilla coffee and hot chocolate; I found that mixing the two made for a most enjoyable beverage. A few years later, again while traveling - this time in Italy, I found discovered the joy of a well made cappuccino. Neither of these were enough to convert me to a regular coffee drinker. You see, that took the work of a single person who is brushing her teeth at her computer right now.

This brings me to the point of this post. What to do with the Christmas money we received? Our coffee maker was on its last leg, and we were buying grounds because we didn't have a grinder that could grind enough for a whole pot. The mixer and knives have some new friends: