The latest tool in my kitchen arsenal:  the “beater blade” for the KitchenAid stand mixer.  While the KA will beat the hell out of any substance placed in its bowl, the user still has to stop the mixer occasionally and scrape the sides of the bowl to ensure thorough mixing.  No more!  Now available is a molded plastic beater with a flexible silicone blade edge (like a windshield wiper), which efficiently cleans the sides of the bowl as it mixes.  It speeds things up quite a bit, eliminating the stopping, scraping, and re-starting…I made short work of a heavy cheesecake batter this morning.  One caveat:  it isn’t compatible with very heavy doughs or hard ingredients (like nuts or chocolate chips).  The beater blade is a near-indispensible accessory for any stand mixer, well worth the $30 price tag.