The Christmas Spirit got the better of my common sense, and I baked cookies this afternoon. The recipe seemed easy enough, even for me.

Seemed Easy Enough

I know baking is not my strong suit. But watching new episodes of The Great British Bake Off,  hope welled up.  After all, some of the contenders were . . . old.

There is a difference, however, between even the mature bakers on those shows and me. They had a reputation for being good bakers, albeit amateurs. I do not.

They know what they are doing, no matter how gob smacked they appeared with a particular recipe.

They know about ingredients and mixers. I can mix up baking soda and baking powder.  So even easy baking recipes, in my hands have a common denominator:

Recipe: A series of step-by-step instructions for preparing ingredients you forgot to buy, in utensils you don’t own, to make a dish the dog wouldn’t eat. ~Author Unknown

Those British bakers also know the difference using steel cut oats and regular rolled oats. I didn’t. They also would have known seven to eight minutes was not enough time for cookies packed with butterscotch chips. . . I didn’t.

The Insanity of Me Baking Cookies

What an interesting texture the cookies that I just finished making and baking have!  However, both Doug and our grandson approved; enough sugar and butter makes even the crunchiest of textures palatable.

Finished Product

What an interesting experience it was, too, to discover the shiny bowl of my Kitchen Aid was not securely anchored . . . I don’t remember seeing the bakers grapple with a wildly gyrating mixing bowl.

Moreover, seeing the disasters with which they coped convinced me, they knew culinary secrets of which I have no notion.  Which is why I keep watching all kinds of cooking shows, staggered by what people create with a little of this and a lot of that.

At least I am teachable, right?

Who knows?

Stubbornly persist, and you will find that the limits of your stubbornness go well beyond the stubbornness of your limits. ~Robert Brault

Even at my age . . .

I think if I make it through the next 36-48 hours, this insane baking desire may subside, and I’ll get back to painting.

 Life is too short to stuff a mushroom. ~ Shirley Conran, English Writer 1975