The Reluctant 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…