I Begin

It seems like everyone I know at some point or another in the past several years has said to me, "Why don't you open a bakery?" The short answer is that I sleep too much I think to live a professional baker's life. Actually I probably sleep too much to live any kind of professional life. But that doesn't seem a reason not to share some images and anecdotes from my home kitchen more widely. Especially since I can do it directly from bed on my laptop if I feel like it. Not the baking of course -- though it often happens in my pajamas (or more technically lounge wear) and sometimes even my bath robe.

I am officially underemployed and middle aged, and I have lots of academic projects I could be working on for which no one is paying me in support of a career that isn't exactly happening. Therefore I say:  Let the blogging begin.

These jumbo chocolate chip cookies I made over the last weekend. I had a demoralizing episode in the kitchen a few days previous. I was craving some cookies and needing also to do something else with my hands, so I made my standard dough, refrigerated it overnight (for the record, I refrigerate pretty much everything  a day or two or more before it ever hits the oven), but when I baked the cookies the next day they were puffy nuggets, almost like hermits, not at all the delicate crispy caramelized treats I was anticipating. I tried at first to make the best of them, to tell myself they were "homey," but in my heart I wasn't fooled, wasn't letting myself be fooled. So I tossed the whole batch and took an Ambien and wished the whole episode into oblivion, but when I woke the next morning the memory remained. I was haunted by my failure. Only I knew what had happened, but my sense of isolation just added to my sense of disappointment. So I pulled myself together and put myself back in front of my Kitchen Aid.

The new batch I baked in two sizes, one with a number 50 scoop, the other with a muffin scoop. They turned out fine, but still not as crispy on the base and around the edges as I would have liked. Here's a photo of the smaller cookies.

The pictures I made in a light box using a DSLR that I didn't need and shouldn't have purchased but did anyway. About a month ago at dinner as I was showing the blurry photos I've been taking with my iPhone someone said that my food deserved better. I took the comment personally and decided it was time for a change. I need to work a bit on the sharpening and focus and white balance and everything else to do with making a decent digital image, and don't expect to win any awards for my amateur food styling, but compared to the photos I had been taking it is now at least possible to make out some of the texture and color and finer detail.