Deficient Kitchenaid

For my birthday last month, Michael bought me my very own, beautiful, black and shiny $300 Kitchenaid! It slices, it dices, it mixes....it STINKS!!!! Pardon me, I must explain that last comment. We made a beautiful set of cookies; golden, perfect...I sunk my teeth into the soft, warm, delectable moistness, only to run, gagging to my sink to spit out the offender. My cookies tasted like machine oil. If you don't know how this tastes, go lick your the oil spot on your driveway.
I decided it must be a fluke. A few days later, when I could no longer remember that foul taste, I tried again. With the same disastrous results. Five batches of cookies and one batch of pumpkin bread later, I decided it must be the kitchen aid has a leak or something. So we packed up the kitchenaid in Evelyn's colored boats (the packing styrofoam) and we exchanged it for a different machine. We were a little hesitant to try the new kitchenaid however. Both Michael and I were starting to taste remnants of the oil in everything. Evelyn however pouted daily that so many perfectly good cookies (according to her opinion) ended up in the garbage.
Finally we used the new kitchenaid. I couldn't stomach any of it. Michael made a batch of cookies outside the kitchenaid and compared. He thought both batches tasted much better then the previous kitchenaid's cookies. I started wondering if my problem was psychosomatic.
The next night I slaved all afternoon on a batch of my mom's winning potato soup. Just as I was ready to call Michael in for dinner, I leaned over and smelled the soup. "Strange," I thought. "This smells just like those cookies. I must be insane." But just to be sure, Michael and I sampled the soup. Nasty, Yucky, Putrescence!
We finally narrowed down all the ingredients to see what was common to all the recipes. It came down to the flour. So I smelled our flour, but it smelled just fine! Michael suggested I wet it down to see if that made the smell come out. So I added water and some salt, and the smell just about knocked my socks off! Our flour was RANCID! This was not old flour, we had bought just before opening it to make that first set of cookies.
We had to throw out the potato soup. Michael bought me a Hot-and-Ready to make me feel better. But at least we found out that I didn't forget how to cook after all. So before you return your Kitchenaid, check your flour.