Baking

In the kitchen there are bakers and soup makers, and I've always considered myself the latter. I like cooking without rules--a little bit of this, a little bit of that, stir, mix, taste often, and always end up with something a little different each time. In my few attempts at baking, I often suffer from lack or patience or lack of precision and I end up with flat, sloppy, hard, or inedible creations.

The problem with soup-making, whether literally or as it's looseness applies to other culinary creations, is that it's harder to involve children. "Hey Reese, do you want to help Mommy make chowder?" just doesn't capture her attention like "Hey, Reese, how about we bake some cookies?" So, this winter I've been trying my hand at more baking.

I've discovered that it doesn't take as much time and precision as I previously thought. (At least not the recipes we're conquering.) We're currently making one baked good a week. Sometimes it's bread--banana bread, Grandma Bailey's zucchini bread recipe; other times it's cookies--pumpkin chocolate chip last week; and this week it was carrot muffins. Reese enjoys "helping" me measure and mix, and always wants to lick the spoons.

I think I'm getting the hang of things and I haven't made anything inedible...yet.