Green Beans in Writing

I am not really much of a baker. I have never seen my mom bake cookies in my lifetime, and the nearest thing she made that comes close to dessert are chinese sponge cake and chinese style mochi. So baking seems very foreign to me — there’s a whole bunch of recipes that require butter for one thing, which is something i’m not used to keeping in the fridge, and then there are all these tools required just for the craft of baking– I don’t own a sifter, a lemon zester, a cake pan, an ice cream scoop or a whisk. Baking also seems to require too many steps. With stirfry, all you have to do is chop up the veggies, chuck it in the wok, and stir fry with a few sauces. Baking seems too high maintenance by comparison. It also requires too many ingredients that I don’t normally have — chocolate chip, butter, confectioner’s sugar, etc.

Well one day, we were shopping at walmart and bought a package of pepperidge farm chocolate chip cookies because they reminded me of my college days when I would convert my unused meal points for free snacks up to $4.50. I started eating these cookies while drinking tea and I realized how well tea and cookies complement each other really well. Tea helps to make the cookies taste less sweet, and also cleans your palate between each bite of the cookie, so that you can enjoy each bite as if it is still your first bite of the cookie. When there were no cookies left, I decided I should make my own!

One of the reasons why I don’t usually bake is because I’m kind of a health nut. I figured the reason why I’m so healthy these days is because I don’t usually cook with butter or eat sweets. But a friend sent me this recipe using no butter and eggs — and the results are just delicious. It obviously won’t beat a cookie with real butter and eggs — but if you didn’t have the two cookies to compare side by side, you wouldn’t have noticed the difference!

I imagine I’ll eventually try other forms of baking with real butter. (My fiance has a sweet tooth that he’s trying to satisfy with supermarket goods which I think is worse than baking stuff yourself!!). But I do pat myself on the back for baking only my third batch of cookies in my life. The first batch came out really droopy (someone used egg substitute), my second batch came out ok but just a little too crisp and I gave most of it away for xmas. I think this third batch is my best batch ever. Perhaps I will surprise myself someday and bake a pie.