SLIDE
DOWNWARD PLANE
The baking began last night. Gingerbread in a bread pan that I think I can inject frosting into like a giant Twinkie. Cream cheese, vanilla and maybe something else. Caramel is always good. Spike cake, also in a bread pan that might be injected as well. Later this week peanut butter loaf and brownies. Cookies and then my infamous mousse.
It was time to start using the oven. It's too cold not to. I have the house in an array that only baking can help. 30 minutes between checking the oven and sorting laundry. 18-22 minutes to rename files on the PC for cupcakes. The directions say 40-45 minutes for brownies - but that isn't entirely true.
The key is to try and not clean the bathroom in between mixing and sliding things into the oven. Or dusting. I am guessing that if I didn't have to lug a vacuum across the street each time the floor became too filthy to stand (figuratively, literally, Italy) I might actually be able to squeeze in a room or two. Actually doing laundry? That's just a hassle. The Laun-DRAT is too far away to try and eyeball 'moist' or 'still not done'.
It's easy to bake. It gives you a timing mechanism. If you can manage the kitchen mess and have something good come out of it once a day that is fairly impressive. Knowing that you can start to experiment. Peppermint brownies. Chocolate mint mousse frosting. Caramel peanut butter cookies.
The best part about baking is that after the first night you don't bother to eat anything you make. It comes down to smell and an occasional taste if things don't seem right. Really, though, if they don't seem right - they aren't right. You can nibble and taste and try to convince yourself everything is kosher. But it's not. There's something amiss.
Is it salvageable? Can you try and infuse another product of your imagination in the kitchen? Does it matter? Can you slide everything into the garbage and try again?
Personally I try to be calculating in the kitchen. I don't like to waste ingredients. For the most part the ingredients are cheap and easily replaced. That's not really the point. Efficiency. Not wasting resources. Make the most of what you have. All that.
The list of people who receive the results in the kitchen seems to change every year. In that there are different names on the list. Some are new and some are not. Some are gone and some forgotten. In the end as long as nobody gets sick from what I make I am fairly pleased. If they hate it, don't care for it or like it doesn't really make a difference.
I would prefer if they liked what I made. I am competing against everyone else who has a kitchen and who has baked for them before. Maybe the fact I made it means something. Maybe it doesn't. But at least they carry part of me with them. It's always better to shove an arm full of baked good at someone than to be empty handed. A passive hug? Taste these freakin' chocolate ginger drops then hug me like you mean it.
DOWNWARD PLANE
The baking began last night. Gingerbread in a bread pan that I think I can inject frosting into like a giant Twinkie. Cream cheese, vanilla and maybe something else. Caramel is always good. Spike cake, also in a bread pan that might be injected as well. Later this week peanut butter loaf and brownies. Cookies and then my infamous mousse.
It was time to start using the oven. It's too cold not to. I have the house in an array that only baking can help. 30 minutes between checking the oven and sorting laundry. 18-22 minutes to rename files on the PC for cupcakes. The directions say 40-45 minutes for brownies - but that isn't entirely true.
The key is to try and not clean the bathroom in between mixing and sliding things into the oven. Or dusting. I am guessing that if I didn't have to lug a vacuum across the street each time the floor became too filthy to stand (figuratively, literally, Italy) I might actually be able to squeeze in a room or two. Actually doing laundry? That's just a hassle. The Laun-DRAT is too far away to try and eyeball 'moist' or 'still not done'.
It's easy to bake. It gives you a timing mechanism. If you can manage the kitchen mess and have something good come out of it once a day that is fairly impressive. Knowing that you can start to experiment. Peppermint brownies. Chocolate mint mousse frosting. Caramel peanut butter cookies.
The best part about baking is that after the first night you don't bother to eat anything you make. It comes down to smell and an occasional taste if things don't seem right. Really, though, if they don't seem right - they aren't right. You can nibble and taste and try to convince yourself everything is kosher. But it's not. There's something amiss.
Is it salvageable? Can you try and infuse another product of your imagination in the kitchen? Does it matter? Can you slide everything into the garbage and try again?
Personally I try to be calculating in the kitchen. I don't like to waste ingredients. For the most part the ingredients are cheap and easily replaced. That's not really the point. Efficiency. Not wasting resources. Make the most of what you have. All that.
The list of people who receive the results in the kitchen seems to change every year. In that there are different names on the list. Some are new and some are not. Some are gone and some forgotten. In the end as long as nobody gets sick from what I make I am fairly pleased. If they hate it, don't care for it or like it doesn't really make a difference.
I would prefer if they liked what I made. I am competing against everyone else who has a kitchen and who has baked for them before. Maybe the fact I made it means something. Maybe it doesn't. But at least they carry part of me with them. It's always better to shove an arm full of baked good at someone than to be empty handed. A passive hug? Taste these freakin' chocolate ginger drops then hug me like you mean it.
I will begin baking Mon., Tues., or Weds. with my mother to mend our strained relationship of the last 3-4 years. She will stop by my boyfriend's house on her way home from work. (He has a much bigger kitchen than the both of us put together). This will be a new moment. Baking brings back the glory memories of better times. Me in high school, still respecting her and her decisions. It really was all about decorating sugar cookies and making each round drop glop the same size. At what point to do you become an adult? When you realize the hidden side of everything.
Bake on brother.