Ode to the Bosch

I love kitchen gadgets. When people realized I enjoyed cooking they started gifting me all sorts of off the wall kitchen tools. I used to laugh. Turns out many of those tools are now used quite frequently in my kitchen. I laugh no more....well I still sort of wonder why anyone would use the seriously dull scissor/knife contraption or the cloth microwave tortilla warmer/potato baker. Those can only be described as classic "as seen on TV", you know?
Anyhoo, as I've ventured into more and more homemade goodness I've often found that things I used to think just took up space in my cabinets or drawers are actually seriously useful. I've used my mortar and pestle to grind whole spices and herbs (if we're honest my blender or chopper makes more sense but it was fun anyway). I've actually found that a strawberry corer is a beautiful thing. The apple corer/slicer was a lifesaver when I made apple pies and apple sauce with my bushel of apples. However, I now understand the usefulness of one of these.
All of the little things made cooking easier or more fun. Then of course there were the big game changers. Where the strawberry corer is nice the Kitchen Aid my mother-in-law passed down to me changed my life. My hand mixer started dedicating songs to me on the radio in hopes of winning my heart back, but it was all in vain. It seemed like the perfect romance until I started making bread. It was then that the dough hook let me down. I would mix my bread and then have to knead it by hand. Don't get me wrong, I actually love kneading, occasionally. Making all of our breads with three little dudes running around (no, I didn't spontaneously birth another child, I baby sit =D ) isn't exactly easy when you have to hand knead something for twenty minutes. It would go something like this...

Minute 1 kneading dough
Minute 3 run to see what made that crashing noise
Return to dough
Minute 5 ask one of the toddlers to stop riding the baby like a horse
Return to dough
Minute 8 answer phone and let the boys say hello to Gaga/Dada/the telemarketer trying to sell me a new cell phone plan
Return to dough
Minute 9 realize the phone isn't where I put it and track down Derek to terminate the call to the random seven digit number he dialed
Return to dough
Minute 14 finally decide I should have just made this snack time to begin with and bribe children to sit still with peanut butter and graham crackers
Return to dough
Minute 17 pass out the milk
Return to dough
Minute 20 give a last couple pokes to the dough and then run after fleeing stickyfied children with a wet wash cloth

Whew!

I admit after all this work on a regular basis I started to have doubts about my relationship with the Kitchen Aid. Then I met Bosch. At first I didn't think anything of the chance encounter at a friend's house. But then it was like Bosch was everywhere. We would meet at cooking blogs and You Tube videos. I promise it was innocent in the beginning. Then somewhere along the line, I fell in love.

*Sigh*

Imagine my surprise when I was approached after my wheat workshop by a woman at church who just happened to have an older model she was looking for a home for. Could it be? Could I really do that to my faithful, if deficient, Kitchen Aid? I told myself it would just be on a trial basis. Honest.
At first all I had was a dough hook. I made my first batch of dough and stared mouth agape as the beautiful machine not only mixed but kneaded the dough without a single bit of help from me. I set the timer and played referee and returned to a perfectly kneaded loaf of bread that rose higher than my soaring heart.

Yesterday I received the cookie paddles and wire whips I didn't get with the mixer and promptly tried out the paddles with a batch of these.

I just put everything in the mixer. I didn't have to constantly scrape the sides of the bowl down as I creamed the butter and sugar. It didn't miss a beat as I added in the flour and oats. Then I added in the chocolate chips, chopped chocolate, and pecans (yeah, you need to make these) and the beautiful machine just mixed it all up without complaint. The dough was perfect.
Now I just need to put the whips to the test...okay need is a strong word. I just really wanna. I've heard rumors that whipped cream reaches unheard of heights in these things. I even saw a video where a man shredded cooked chicken breasts with the whips in his Bosch. Can you even imagine?
Bosch you are not just a stand mixer, you are a dream come true. I'm so sorry Kitchen Aid. It just wasn't meant to be.