“If you plan on keeping him around, you’re lucky that he cooks,” my mother tells me the other evening.

She then gifts RV with a cookbook, so that he can experiment with the recipes and keep me well-fed. Hahaha. Yes, I am very lucky that he cooks. In fact, when there is cooking going on in the kitchen area, I stay out and let him do his thing. I’m only in the kitchen when I’m itching to bake. Itch to bake? Yes, it’s happened. Or maybe it’s just that wonderful smell that only comes from baking goodies that sparked my interest.

This big fat chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe actually didn’t turn out bad. In fact, it turned out way better than my first cookie made from scratch – a peanut butter cookie. As the sister will always remind me, the cookies from the very first batch were rather dry. It was like stuffing your face with a glob of chalk, if you could imagine that. Not pleasant. Someone could choke from inhaling the crumbs of that cookie. I made improvements subsequently. For the big fat chewy chocolate chip cookie, I used organic ingredients, fewer chocolate chips, and a little extra vanilla. I let the dough sit for quite a few hours, unlike another batch I’d made a few weeks before. More proof time was a good call, and the cookies turned out quite good. Still a little sweet for my tastes, but I’d follow a similar recipe again.

Since it appears that baked goods I mix up actually are edible, I might experiment more and bake others! I’m on my way to an edible cupcake, which is one of 101 in 1001. Stay tuned!

Who knew baking bread would take hours and hours and hours?! Well, I’m sure OTHER people know. I just didn’t realize it until yesterday when I tried it for the first time. It wasn’t a baking class or anything. Just a random experience brought on after various Twitter conversations! I arrived bright and early [7am!] at Danny’s place and stayed until about 6pm. Some of the preparation was done the night before, so luckily, we were able to prepare doughs, shape ‘em, and bake ‘em!

So what did we tackle? A whole lot! There was: focaccia, honey whole wheat, cumin whole wheat, sourdough, casatiello, and bagels. I didn’t make everything, but I worked on some things here and there! At times, it was a sticky mess. And other times, I was sitting there calculating percentages and ratios and this and that. Lots of math.

The results, although not always the tastiest, were worth it! I took home a delicious casatiello that tasted like a croissant with salami and cheese inside. Mmm… Danny didn’t use commercial yeast, so many of the recipes had to be altered accordingly…

More photos: here! And yes, that was attempt numero uno. I’ve labeled it as such because I intend to try it again! The long hours and mathematics haven’t scared me off yet.

On a side note, I started working on #030 of the 101 in 1001 – Do a Daily Self Photo project for a year.