The Adventures of Sweet Thang, Part 1

So for those who know me personally, they know that I have a serious sweet tooth. They also know that I like to bake. As a child, I remember watching my grandmother bake from scratch, pound cakes and sweet potato pies. My mother also made a serious chocolate cake. I can also remember my grandmother clipping recipes and watching Mr. Food on the Channel 4 news and taking notes. Even though I was pretty young, I have always wished that I had paid close attention to the memorized recipes, especially since both my grandmother and mother have since passed away. Though what I did manage to learn from them is that baking isn’t just edible chemistry, it’s love.

Before I relocated, I would bake for my roommates and friends all the time. And I really enjoyed it. It’s been several months since I’ve baked anything simply because I have no one to bake for. I moved to a new city with very few friends. So as a result, when I bake a cake, I end up eating the entire thing by myself because I don’t want to waste it (which makes perfect sense, right?). Luckily, I have high metabolism and I don’t notice the fact that I’ve eaten an entire cake (usually in a week or less) in the form of pounds. Although my high metabolism is beneficial, I knew that I couldn’t continue eating whole cakes, so I stopped baking.

Well, lately I’ve had this nagging desire to bake something…anything. I’ve been ignoring it for a few weeks now, but tonight I gave into temptation with a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. This is my very first time baking cookies from scratch. I normally buy them out of the freezer section. Needless to say it was pretty challenging. A couple of hours, some blood, light perspiration, almost a couple of tears, and two trips to Wal-Mart later…I emerged with a batch of my “Not Your Average Oatmeal Cookies.”

The perfectionist in me would love to brag about how I effortlessly executed the recipe found in cookbook as if I had developed it myself, but that’s not quite what happened. I managed to get my teaspoon and my tablespoon mixed up and I didn’t realize it until it was too late. As a result two of the ingredients (vanilla extract and baking powder) were a little on the “heavy-handed” side. After I realized what I had done, I almost started to cry and immediately I wanted to call my mother and ask her what to do. But I couldn’t, so I managed to pull myself together, scoop some of the baking powder out…it was too late for the vanilla extract since I had already mixed it in and continued on my little baking adventure. The cookies actually turned out pretty good. Admittedly, they don’t taste like the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies from Potbelly’s, but they are pretty tasty.

I enjoyed this experience so much that I decided to bake and perfect a different dessert every month. I'm actually considering it an adventure and like most adventures there are bound to be a few missteps which I will be totally honest about. "Sweet Thang" is my baking personality. I like it not only because I like the song, but it also adds a little sass to something many consider very domestic. Until we meet again...Sweet Thang

A Little Experiment…

One day after taking one too many phone calls while sitting in a tight, poorly lit cubicle…I was in desperate need of some fresh air. Luckily, my lunch break was right around the corner, so I decided to make a completely random trip to Target. I figured it would be an awesome way to stretch my legs and clear my head.

Somehow I ended up in the book aisle. I say “somehow” because I usually buy books at a local secondhand book store or online. But I had some time to kill, so I drifted to the book section. And I happened to creep upon The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. The book is basically about how one woman, the author, creates and participates in a project designed to make her happier. She is not clinically depressed. She is just a bogged down by everyday life. So she takes small measures to improve her overall happiness, such as exercising, making time for her friends, and even buying a little happiness. Within reading the first few pages, I related to this woman because lately, I have also been having this suffocating feeling of “Is this it?”  I'm not "unhappy,"  but every so often I do have feelings of dissatisfaction.

I wanted to keep reading it, so naturally I purchased the book (it was 20% off, yay!!) as well as some bowls and cups (even more random, I know). While reading the book, I felt inspired to start my own happiness project. Like Rubin, I will begin by writing out a set of personal commandments, and then eventually move on to monthly tasks/experiments to improve my happiness. Here goes nothing…

1. Be Jasmine
2. Loosen up a little
3. Be nice, even when I don’t feel like it
4. Don’t take it personal
5. Don’t wait until the last minute
6. It’s okay to put myself first sometimes
7. Don’t be so hard on myself
8. Double-check my attitude and my ego
9. Listen, then speak
10. Forgive and move on

Feel free to mention any principles, you live by…

Ms. Jas