My husband doesn't let me help in the kitchen.
Because...I'm bad at it, and it stresses him out. I pepper him with questions. "Is this done yet? Does it look golden brown? What does it mean to dice? How do you cream butter and sugar? How do you turn on the oven?" I never learned to cook or bake, and have historically felt insecure in the kitchen. Thankfully, my husband is a. an angel, and b. a wonderful cook. He would actually rather come home from work and cook than immediately start wrangling the kids. Although wouldn't it be awesome for him if I did it ALL, in Leave It to Beaver fashion, so that he could come home and put his feet up. But by the time he gets home, I want to put my feet up too. Kids are exhausting!!!
Anyway, I have a friend who adores baking, and she is slowly rubbing off on me. When I first met her, I was already starting to bake muffins on my own. This felt daring. Like jumping off a diving board for the first time. Eventually she brought a pan of homemade cinnamon rolls to our house. They were awesome. And they were healthy. She is a stealthily healthy baker. She sneaks in wheatgerm and whole wheat flour and flax seed and even green vegetables sometimes. She says that the trick is to make the baking transformation slowly, so that the kids don't notice.
My transformation has been slow for a different reason. Namely, my general inexperience in the kitchen. Regular muffins are scary enough for me, but to start monkeying with the recipe? Yikes!!! At this point, I am merely switching out some regular flour for whole wheat flour and cutting the sugar a bit. Funny thing is, my kids prefer it this way. I think that the quite sweet taste of most conventional muffins becomes too much for my kids after the first few bites. They are never up for a second muffin. But these new and improved, somewhat healthier muffins generally mean that they help themselves to another.
I've been waiting for headache medicine to kick in, so that I could start a batch of strawberry muffins. I've never made strawberry muffins before--I'm kind of nervous about how this will turn out.
I'm looking forward to reading some friend journals later today. I really do enjoy your written voices!
Anyway, I have a friend who adores baking, and she is slowly rubbing off on me. When I first met her, I was already starting to bake muffins on my own. This felt daring. Like jumping off a diving board for the first time. Eventually she brought a pan of homemade cinnamon rolls to our house. They were awesome. And they were healthy. She is a stealthily healthy baker. She sneaks in wheatgerm and whole wheat flour and flax seed and even green vegetables sometimes. She says that the trick is to make the baking transformation slowly, so that the kids don't notice.
My transformation has been slow for a different reason. Namely, my general inexperience in the kitchen. Regular muffins are scary enough for me, but to start monkeying with the recipe? Yikes!!! At this point, I am merely switching out some regular flour for whole wheat flour and cutting the sugar a bit. Funny thing is, my kids prefer it this way. I think that the quite sweet taste of most conventional muffins becomes too much for my kids after the first few bites. They are never up for a second muffin. But these new and improved, somewhat healthier muffins generally mean that they help themselves to another.
I've been waiting for headache medicine to kick in, so that I could start a batch of strawberry muffins. I've never made strawberry muffins before--I'm kind of nervous about how this will turn out.
I'm looking forward to reading some friend journals later today. I really do enjoy your written voices!