Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta! Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta! (Think Rocky theme music)
“Trying hard now
it's so hard now
trying hard now
Getting strong now
won't be long now
getting strong now
Gonna fly now
flying high now
gonna fly, fly, fly...”
This song popped into my head, as soon as I started thinking about the challenge before me. A la Rocky, I will start training as of this weekend. Unlike Rocky, my training regime will not involve jump ropes or trying to catch a chicken, but instead cooking...baking to be exact. You see, my friend came up with the great idea of planning a holiday cookie swap at work. I have signed up for said cookie swap, in spite of the fact that I cannot cook...or bake...or broil...or steam. You get the idea. Cooking, in whatever form, is a foreign concept to me. Since participation requires homemade goodies, I could skip the cookie swap altogether, but the list of cookies sounds too darn good to pass up. The current list includes Fudge Ecstasies (a chocolate lover’s dream), Pecan Tassies, Red Velvet Whoopie Pies with Peppermint Filling (yum), Bittersweet Chocolate Biscotti, and Pepper Jelly-Cornmeal Cups.
In short, in an effort to master the heretofore foreign art of baking, my training will entail baking my selected cookie recipe every weekend from now ‘til December. Said training will not culminate with a triumphant run up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, instead it will culminate in my kitchen, when I bake a perfect (or at least darn good) batch of cookies. If all is a success, I might have to take a victory lap after all...I’ll go around my block, my arms raised in victory (oven mitts in hand, of course) while the cookies are cooling.
P.S. Check back in early December. If I K.O. the cookie challenge, I'll post my cookie recipe and a picture of the finished product.
