Cookies!

So I’m not much of a cook or a baker. Let’s just say that this goes way back, starting when my best friend Lisa and I attempted to make pretzels from a recipe in Seventeen Magazine. The end result? See below.

In all fairness, Seventeen Magazine posted a revised recipe the next month, explaining the original recipe was incorrect.

Every once in a while, I get the urge to make something. That urge struck a few weeks ago and I convinced Mom that we needed to bake some cookies. The good news is that nothing was set on fire. The other good news is that the cookies were edible.

The cookies in progress:

The finished product:

Baking cookies got me thinking about life. There is something very cathartic and relaxing about measuring ingredients and mixing dough. It was fun to spend the afternoon with Mom and talk about old times.

Why baking cookies reminds me of life:

1. Planning ahead can help smooth out the rough times.

We got all the ingredients out a head of time and lined them up on the counter. This made mixing the ingredients a snap.

2. A watched oven never works.

Mom’s oven runs really hot, so we have to be careful when baking something. Except Murhpy’s law comes into play here, since it looks like nothing is burning and then all of a sudden, you look away for a minute and things burn.

Sometimes in life, you just have to let things go and fall where they may.

3. Enjoy the journey.

Not only were the cookies delicious, but making them was fun. There is something so satisfying about working hard to bake and then ending up with a delicious end product.

4. Enjoy things in moderation.

As an fitness obsessed person, er fanatic, I keep reading about the evils of sugar and fat. Well, yummy cookies are made up of sugar and butter and lots of other delicious things. As I read more about healthy and unhealthy foods, it is really about processed foods and the evil trans fat, not pure sugar and butter, that is the culprit. Store bought cookies can’t hold a candle to homemade cookies, both in terms of taste or ingredients.  I was also careful not eat too much of the yummy cookie dough, although that was hard to do.

5. Savor every moment.

There is something so satisfying about biting into a cookie that is warm from the oven. Pure bliss! Nothing like savoring every bite. And you know what, with cookies like this, you only need one or two and you are satisfied. None of that “eating a handful of store bought cookies mindlessly.”

So what about you? Have you found a simple experience that really made your day?

Disastrous kitchen photo is from SmileKiddo.

The cookie dough and finished cookie photos are from yours truly and her smartphone. 🙂