the kitchen is my happy place and baking is my jam

I love baking -- bagels, muffins, cookies, bars, brownies, cake -- all of it. I wasn't always this way. It used to seem like torture to work in the kitchen. I assumed a lot of nonexistent rules about what I was supposed to be doing and how I should be doing it. I hated making cakes that were supposed to look good -- I am NOT a cake decorator, and it turns out I don't have to be. Because one day I discovered how much I enjoyed making cookies, and a whole new world opened up. Cookies are the perfect little handheld treat that aren't expected to be fancy or decorative. Once I realized that, I realized nothing else doesn't has to be fancy or decorative either. Baking is about sharing and showing people you care and giving them a little love, indulgence and nostalgia.

Recently I had a resurgence in my desire to bake, try new recipes, and generally have treats around more often for visitors and my family. (It's a bit unfortunate that this resurgence coincided with my husband coming up on an Air Force PT test, but whatevs.) This new zeal for all things treat is thanks to the show Chef's Table. I watched a few episodes and they weren't bad, but they were about fancy, expensive restaurants that regular people could never go to with tiny plates. So it lost my interest quickly. But then, THEN! they released season 4, and that first episode got me good. Season 4 is all about pastry, and episode one is about a woman who's eyes light up when she talks about cookies and cake. She and I are very different, and I likely will never own or run a bakery, but she loves baking like I do. And I might have teared up a little watching it. She speaks my language, and she made me want to bake.
"Life's too short to worry about how many cookies I ate today."

With that in mind: There are two basic elements of baking that are my very favorite: The Process and The Sharing. Let's talk about them.

The Process.
Baking is fun, that's the first thing you have to know. And it starts with deciding what recipe to make. I love perusing my favorite baking websites until I see something that strikes my fancy (and then sometimes perusing a little longer because I'm just having such a good time.) I even enjoy checking to see if I have all the right ingredients, or at least most of them and substitutions for the rest. Being an absent minded baker has encouraged me to learn appropriate substitutions for a lot of ingredients. Then comes the best part: standing in the kitchen measuring and pouring and mixing and kneading and folding and whipping and spreading. It's like meditation -- my mind clears and I relax. I get caught up in the process and nothing else really matters for awhile. This is why I like making bagels: they have a multi step process that includes mixing, kneading, proofing, shaping, boiling and baking. There's just so many things to get excited about there!

The Sharing. 
The very, very best thing about making treats is giving them away. I love making my kids' favorite things and I enjoy sneaking a little into their lunchboxes when I can. I love taking cookies to my neighbors. I love bringing a chocolate hazelnut cheesecake with dark chocolate ganache to a potluck. I loved making cookies for all the volunteers at our church Sunday morning. But what I love the most is watching people eat and enjoy all of it. Not in a weird creepy way, and not because I need or want compliments. It brings me more joy to see people enjoy my treats than it ever would to eat them myself. It's like getting the best hug you've ever had, or like being wrapped in a warm blanket on a snowy day, or like cuddling a puppy, or...well, you get the gist. Enjoying others enjoy my treats is why I bake, and I would imagine it's what lights up the eyes of the baker in the show I mentioned above. Sharing is what it's all about.