Cheap Therapy

I didn't get a lot of sleep last night ( will the teething end?), so I have been wicked grumpy today. One thing that helped was swimming laps in the pool while the girls played at the drop-in daycare. And while I was doing the backstroke, I decided that I really needed to bake something. I didn't need to bake something to fill a sweet craving, but I needed the act of baking to make me feel better.

It's been this way for years now. In addition to haircuts, pedicures, buble baths and new lipstick, baking has become a form of cheap therapy. Well, not so cheap with rising food costs, but probably still less expensive than a co-pay and prescription.

I sew because I like to make new clothes for myself or challenge my skills with a more advanced pattern. I make things for the girls because I like to see their faces light up. Yes, I bake because the finished product makes other people happy, but there's something else there.

As I've said before, my mom was a huge baker. I have pictures of a grade-school birthday party whe she made Raggedy Ann and Andy pan cakes (fully hand decorated) for me and a boy in my class who had a birthday the day after mine. Every year, after Thanksgiving, my aunt and I would go to my mom's house for "CookieFest", where we made a holiday's worth of cookies. So, there's definitely a nostalgia aspect to baking, but I think it's much more than that.

I like the mix of senses, tastes, textures, flavors. I like taking basic ingredients, like butter, eggs, flour, sugar, and making something new when I combine different amounts of them. I love the way my house smells when there's something in the oven. I love the tangible end results.

I guess, in the end, it doesn't really matter why I do it, as long as it continues to make me happy. And the Boy happy. And the girls happy. And my friends and family happy. Because part of baking is putting yourself into what you make and being comfortable enough to share.


As a side note, my theraputic baking today was a Braided Fruit-Filled bread from King Arthur. I used sour cherry preserves instead of lemon curd. It's amazing to eat and smell and look at.