The Reluctant Cookie Baker

Tis the season to get your mother’s Betty Crocker book down from the shelf in your kitchen. Dust it off, and crack it open. The pages are covered with sticky molasses stains and memories of when you baked cookies with your mother.

Now it is your turn. Your daughter is begging you to make cookies with her friends. All you can think about is the mess. The flour, powder sugar, eggs, sugar, and butter, lots of butter. You don’t even cook dinner every night. If you do, it is simple. Maybe you belong to Blue Apron or Simply Fresh. The ingredients for meals are wrapped in individual packages with labels. A recipe comes with the box. You follow the directions exactly as they are written. You are a hard -working mother and don’t have the time or the desire to create healthy dishes for your family. It’s easier to order a pizza or call a restaurant that delivers.

It is now the season to bake. It is Christmas. You have to make cookies, or your children will be very disappointed, and they will tell everyone you don’t know how to bake or cook. Your friends will invite you to “cookie exchanges”. You get nervous. You must bake two dozen cookies to pass around to the others who have brought their delicious homemade goods. You don’t want to be the only one who brings store-bought cookies. Those are frowned upon, and you will never be invited to a “cookie exchange” again.

Don’t let your children down. Get into that kitchen and start baking. Soften the butter, add the sugar, vanilla,  and eggs. Mix with a mixer. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, into the mixture. Mix with your handheld or fancy Kitchin Aid mixer your mom gave you when you got married. Is it still in its original box? Don’t worry. Now, is the time to use it.  Heat the oven, follow the directions, put cookies on a cookie sheet. Bake. You did it. You made some cookies.

Don’t stop there. Try some more recipes. Your children are proud of you. Send some of the cookies in their lunch. You might win mother of the year award. Invite your friends over for coffee and serve them your cookies. Or maybe not.

Take your cookies to the “cookie exchange “. Be proud of your cookies.

Women all over the world who don’t bake the entire year are on a mission when it comes to Christmas. Do we get inspired by what we see on TV, the Internet, Instagram?

No one uses their mother’s cookbook anymore. We have Pinterest, Delish, and other cooking sites popping up on Facebook. They make it look so easy, and many of the recipes are easy. A video usually accompanies the recipe. This makes it easier to understand how the ingredients should be added, mixed, and cooked.

So many people can now make money with their cooking videos, easy to follow recipe books that can be printed from the web. Cooking is not as difficult as it used to be. It does require some time and creativity. I now after thirty-five years of marriage enjoy cooking. I have the time. If women were given more time at home, they would be able to create healthy food.

Families are very busy. Children have after-school activities, you don’t get home until about 6:00. You have to pick up the kids, feed them, and tie up any loose ends from work. There is no time for creativity.

I now have the time to look through recipes and be creative. The problem is there is no one to eat my food but me. I must create for myself. Why is it that when we need the time, we can’t get it? By the time we have extra time, there is no one around.

I ask you, please take the time to cook, bake, and spend time with your family. You never know how long they will be around. What would life be like if everyone could live a part of their retirement each year? You would enjoy it more than waiting for the exact day to retire. By then everyone will be gone. There will be no one to bake cookies, enjoy your dinner, or converse with. You will be alone.

I know because this is what happened to me. It would be so lovely to look in the mirror and see the future. Most of us would change our ways.

Don’t wait! Do it now.