Now, I am not a baker. I do not pretend to be a baker. But I am an OK cook.

Transitioning from cooking for 9 to cooking for 2, took a bit. That I will give you. My mother-in-law was visiting when I was first married and she said "Debbie, you have 8 pints of sauce in your freezer." Silly me, I responded "I know Mom. It took me a while to figure out that freezing in quarts was too much for one meal for 2 people." She just smiled and said "Debbie, my son travels nine months a year. You are with him most of that time. How long does this much sauce last?" Ok, so then I got it. I just said "Mom, it is my Grandmother's recipe." I opted not to tell her that the sauce was Marinara and there were 8 pints of meat sauce in the freezer on the porch, because sometimes a meat sauce was just too heavy for certain recipes - LOL

I have studied enough Chemistry to know that I can not substitute "Low Fat" yogurt for regular yogurt. Still one year, just before Bruce and I left for Mary Beth's, I decided to make cookies. Don't ask me why. Now if one does not bake on a regular basis, one does not necessarily have all the ingredients to bake. So I just substituted: extract for extract, baking soda for baking powder (baking is baking, LOL) add a bit of salt. Bruce test tasted and said "Ethyl, these are horrid!" But I am thinking Liz and Melissa are 4 and 2, they will eat anything with colored swirls on it. Not so, took one bite and back on the plate. But to give them credit: "Thank you Aunt Debbie, they are good." LOL. Off to the neighbor's dogs. These dogs eat anything - including green bean casserole. Apparently not so. Mary's neighbor called the next day and asked us to please clean up our mess. LOL.

Now I have been trying to find anything to grab Bruce's interest these past years. You all know his history and background. But I have found he loves being involved with anything to do with our home. And last holiday season we did the baking. Bruce's Mom was a baker and he learned from her. He loved helping me and we did fairly good. Colleen helped with substituting some healthy alternatives - but in the correct amounts - LOL.

So now I am retired. I love focussing on what is going on here at home. Still, I like my time off. I picked up some pre-packaged cookie dough. One day last week while I was trying to figure out all the family and arrangements we had to go to, I said to Bruce "please, go make us some cookies." Once I got out the cookie tray and opened the package, I knew I had time to finish what I was doing. Except this was really too easy for Bruce, just break apart, space and cook. Still he tells me the time for the timer and says "They are done when they are golden brown." I learned enough last year to know that overcooking cookies was pretty bad. The timer goes off. There is no way I would say "golden brown." The bottoms are golden brown but the tops are kinda milky color. I bring the tray to Bruce, he does a one finger push into one cookie and says "that's perfect Ethyl." OK and they were.

Tonight I am trying to get another project taken care of and Bruce says "I will make biscuits for dinner." First off, it is amazing that Bruce is even thinking of what is going on, is alert enough to know I am busy and want to finish up and does not need or want something. So I get out the Bisquick - yes, I know. But people, we all go with what works at the time. I had to measure the milk for him, but he did all the rest himself. Give me a 8 minutes and "golden brown." Not golden brown in my definition, but he does the finger press thing and yes, done. They were sure good - he did cheese biscuits.

Now for all you bakers out there - Golden Brown does not work for us novices. If one has never seen Golden Brown, one can not necessarily decide what is Golden Brown. And that finger press test thing - sure, keep all the good secrets to yourself. Debbie