Holidays and the Compulsion to Bake

I like to bake, but I don't do it very often. Cooking is something that I do nearly every day but baking is like an extra-curricular activity, something I do after I've done my chores and cleaned my room. Also, I just so happen to live in a climate where turning on my oven is ill-advised. But every year, my bake-ological clock starts ticking a few days before Thanksgiving and thus starts the season of baking compulsion.

It starts innocently enough, bringing apple and pumpkin pie to the host's house for Thanksgiving. And then I start buying butter in bulk. I make Christmas cookies, the same ones that my mom has made my whole life, and most of them are stashed away in the freezer. They get taken out closer to Christmas unless there is some sort of a apocalypse-related cookie emergency. (I need fresh cookies right now! Oh, they have to defrost? Ok... I'll wait). After the Professor and I shacked up together he got to witness the odd cookie behavior firsthand and was wondering why they were even being frozen to begin with. My response went something like, "Cookies aren't for eating. Cookies are for saving!"

And around New Year's, when the un-eaten cookies are getting stale in the cupboard and every host, co-worker, and casual acquaintance has been given a plate of cookies, I say the same thing. "I will not make cookies next year." There's enough happening around the holidays without the self-inflicted pressure of cookie production. Plus, since these are the family recipes I usually get a batch of cookies shipped from home and they usually taste better than mine anyway.

So why do I do it? I don't think it's a true compulsion because I can certainly stop. I suppose it's part of the ritual of Christmas, my mom did it so now I do it (Nature? Nurture?). But I think there is a lot of pressure on all of us to perform and to have the "perfect Christmas." Black Friday specials kick off the shopping season so early that if it's December 10th and you don't have your shopping complete, you feel like you might as well give up. But there is lots of time, and many ways to celebrate. So this year I'm still making cookies. But next year maybe I'll just say to hell with it and give everyone on my list a fruitcake.

"I Hate My Husband Pie" And Other Wisdom from "Waitress"

Last night I settled in for the evening with the Sundance-flick "Waitress" starring former Mouseketeer Keri Russell and was pleasantly surprised at how great she was as a down-on-her-luck pregnant chick, married to a loser with no end in sight. Russell's character, Jenna, has been squirling away money so that she can leave her husband and finally enter the big pie contest, which judging from her reputation in the small town, she would most likely win. But fate hands her a twist when she turns up pregnant and accidentally falls in love with her gynochologist (the adorably hopeless Dr. Pamatter, played by Nathan Fillion). The movie follows Jenna as she tries to navigate through her unwanted pregnancy and unconventional affair as she create pies in her head that fit her mood. Pies like "Pregnant Miserable Self Pitying Loser Pie" are common in her fantasies and they include "lumpy oatmeal with fruitcake mashed in." She thinks about pie the way a killer might contemplate a murder... obsessive and deadly, but thoughtful and meticulous. And of course the whole damn movie made me hungry for pie. I couldn't help rooting for Keri Russell's character and wondering how her big pie of life would turn out. Of course, I would eat mine a la mode.

What's for dinner? Italian-Style Stir Fry

Here is what was for dinner last night:

Rice-a-Roni: Ok, so I know as a wannabe foodie I'm not supposed to actually like this stuff but I'm not very good at cooking rice. It doesn't help that none of my pots keep the moisture in so all the water ends up evaporating and under-cooking the rice. And I refuse to buy a rice cooker because for some reason, that feels like cheating. Rice-a-Roni is nearly impossible to screw up, which is what makes it extra great.

Italian Stir-Fry: I am a SUCKER for leftovers so I always try to make extra so I'm not eating the same boring sandwich every day (or worse, paying someone to make a sandwich for me). So, first I defrosted the chicken and cut into chunks - that way two chicken breasts can be made into three meals (two for dinner, one for lunch). I chopped up some mushrooms, onions and smashed some garlic and cooked in a skillet with the chicken and some olive oil. Then I added some baby spinach and sun-dried tomatoes (an ingredient I recently bought at Trader Joe's for the first time when I accidentally knocked a jar off the shelf. Even though it didn't break, I felt compelled to buy it since the "you break it, you bought it" concept was taught to me early in life when visiting a fancy shop with my mom and spending all my allowance on something I didn't want or need).

Jell-O Butterscotch Pudding: First of all, why didn't anyone tell me how easy it is to make pudding? I'm used to standing over a stove watching the milk like a hawk to make sure it doesn't burn and let's be honest, pudding isn't that hard to make anyway. But with the instant stuff, all I had to do was add some milk, whip for two minutes and pudding just magically appeared. This instant pudding may change my life. AND I get to have leftovers for lunch :-)