No Bananas Were Harmed in the Making of this Blog

Random Fact: The Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun" makes me want to wear the color yellow.

My adventure this week: baking!! I was in the mood to bake a bit and thought what better way to kick off this blog business (or 'bloginess' as Grace likes to say) than to try a new recipe. So I head over to the bookshelf that houses my collection of woefully under-used cookbooks and choose 'Nigella Feasts' at random. Aside from being British and having a knack for describing food that leaves me slightly confused, Nigella is a chocolate fan like myself. What treaures would I discover in her 300+ page cookbook??

As I flip through the book's glossy pages, I find fine British delacacies like Pear Pudding and Eton Mess. I choose to leave those treats to the Brits mostly because I don't quite know what they are, but also because my shotty oven can't handle anything denser than a frozen pizza. And that's when I happened across perhaps the most richly sinful chocolate cookies. After glancing at the ingredient list, I realize I only need butter and chocolate chips to complete the recipe. A quick trip to Jewel later and let the great experiment begin!

Problem #1: Reviewing the recipe a bit closer reveals that it yields 12 cookies. That isn't NEARLY enough if I plan to share them with co-workers who just can't get enough of my treats.
Solution: Double the recipe!
Problem #1.5: I don't have enough ingredients for a double batch.
Problem #2: The recipe lists the chocolate chips in ounces. Huh?
Problem #3: Baking soda and baking powder are not the same thing. I had the soda, I needed the powder

Hmmm, the problems were beginning to outweigh the solutions. At this point, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't discouraged (apparently, I get easily discouraged). Still determined to bake something, ANYTHING, I went to an old standby: Cake Mix cookies. GENIUS. A box of cake mix (banana this time), 2 eggs, 1/3 cup of oil, some brown sugar, and those chocolate chips and VIOLA! Is using a box of cake mix 'cheating'? Undoubtedly. Is it delicious? Absolutlely.

At first, I was upset with myself for not wingin' it with the Nigella recipe, for not livin' life on the edge! Am I such a creature of habit that even a new recipe is intimidating? Am I so lousy at math that attempting to convert ounces to something not-ounces was too difficult? Would this new recipe be another Christmas '08 kolacky disaster?

But as I began baking the Cake Mix cookies, I realized it wasn't the new recipe that I was excited to try, it was just the therapuetic process of baking itself. The satisfying crack of each egg, the clank of the tiny glossy chocolate chips, and the almost hypnotic motion of rolling each warm lump of dough into a tiny ball... *sigh* Who needs Nigella!! Ok, I need Nigella, but I'm still happy with the cookies, and my coworkers certainly didn't have any complaints either.

Sure, I'd like to say that I made some cookies from scratch, but then I'd be a liar. A cheater I may be, but a liar I am not. And maybe I'll attempt the Nigella recipe someday, and maybe I'll chicken out that time too. Either way, I'll have a smile on my face and a delicious batch of cookies waiting for me.