Follow The Recipe?

All the time I was growing up, my mom would bake every Saturday morning.  I mean, Every Saturday Morning.  Homemade bread, buns, cinnamon rolls, pies (apple, being my favorite), cookies.  Every Saturday Morning.

The smell filled the whole house.  It made your mouth water.  I can still smell it today as I sit in my office writing this. 

We had the timing down to an art.  Just as mom would take something out of the oven, we’d be there.  Hands outstretched.  Knife and butter ready.  Eyes wide in delight.  Jostling for the first bite, the first taste. Who gets the biggest?  Who doesn’t want a corner piece or the crust or the end?

Nothing beats warm bread with melted butter right out of the oven.  Nothing.  Or, a warm chocolate chip or peanut butter cookie.  Not just one or two.  Three or four snuck when mom wasn’t looking.  Though, if I had to guess, she knew.  She knew.  Probably had a hard time keeping the smile off her face as she went about loading up another tray of something to pop into the oven.

I don’t bake much.  Not really at all.  I’m more of the cook.  Kim and the girls bake. 

For me, it’s Following The Recipe.  I’d much rather experiment.  Dabble.  Pinch of this or that.  My chili is good, but it tastes different each time I make it.  Same with my spaghetti or lasagna.

Kim and the girls Follow The Recipe.  The directions.  Each step.  Measuring.  Stirring.  Beating.

Got me thinking . . .

There are those of us who wing it.  Most of the time, it comes out fine.  Sometimes, not so much.  There are those who Follow The Recipe.  The steps.  The directions.  Almost always, it comes out fine.  Yet every now and then, it comes out too well-done.  Okay, burnt.

I don’t know if there is a right or a wrong, really.  I think it depends upon what it is you’re cooking or baking.  I think it depends upon what it is you’re doing.  I think it depends upon your intended result.  If the result you seek needs to be well-defined, finite, exact, perhaps Following The Recipe is best.  If the result you seek isn’t so defined, if there isn’t the need for it to be exactly so, perhaps winging it is just fine.

I think it depends upon the result you seek, the result you need.  It really comes down to what it is you want in the end.  Something to think about . . .

Live Your Life, and Make A Difference!