The Trilogy of The Great Trade: Part One

Two months ago, I knew what I wanted for Christmas.

Trevlove was absolutely shocked. I NEVER know what I want for Christmas, or my birthday, or our anniversary, or anything else for that matter. To be honest, sometimes I feel a little sorry for him. Personally, a guessing game like that would just drive me nuts, and he's had to get pretty creative sometimes (not that I don't enjoy planning a good surprise for him every know and then. I just don't relish not having a steady, dependable backup gift in case my creativity fails me [note: relish has been the word of the week. I think I've used relish more in the last week than I have in the rest of the last year]).

This year, though, there is something I've been craving for months and months.

I want a Bosch bread mixer.

I love the idea of making my own bread in the same way that I love shopping at farmers markets, working in my garden, and refinishing old pieces of furniture from Savers. Something about it makes me feel so down to earth and in touch with my creative, self reliant side. I get shivers of delight just thinking about it.

There is one catch.

You may notice that I said, "the idea of making bread" as opposed to "making bread". I do all those other things, but I don't make bread. Honestly, I haven't made bread since we got married more than two years ago. So basically, cancel out all that homey, hardworking creative mumbo-jumbo. The truth of the matter is, the thought of making my hands ache kneading and getting my counters all floury and nasty has been a strong deterrent, and my hand-me-down mixer can't handle bread dough.

Would you like more of the scary, awful truth? There's another problem. I don't even bake. I love cooking, mind you. I adore simmering sauces. Chopping chicken really tickles me. I relish making relishes (Ooo, two pointer!) But baking usually involves a lot of sugar and fat, and heaven knows I don't need more excuses to have all that lying around my house. I only bake for family events or when I know I'm taking the food elsewhere. Bread is the only thing I would really want to bake, and we already went over the barriers to that.

Enter the Bosch Dilemma.

The little angel (or is it the little devil?) on one shoulder says: What? You mean you can have fresh home baked bread without achy hands and nasty counters? And to top it off, you can double other baking recipes to take to family events with the big bosch bowl and use the splashguard to avoid spraying flour all over your kitchen (which is what my current appliance loves to do)?You mean you can actually live the next installment of your homey, creative dream? You may notice that the little critter has been listening to a lot of advertisements.

Then the devil (or is it the angel?) on the other shoulder responds: But can you really justify buying an expensive piece of baking equipment when YOU DON"T REALLY BAKE?!?

So you see, I've been at a months long impasse until The Great Trade was devised...