The Psychology of Baking

The other day a friend of mine said something about how I must be so motivated to bake as much as I do.  Which got me to thinking.  Baking for me is less about being motivated and more about finding something to do that provides me with the illusion I'm accomplishing something.  That and the end product is a yummy treat with makes me (and Hubs) happy.

Yeah, yeah, I know... there's the whole 'food is not happiness' thing.  =op

Anyway, I tend to think (and overthink) about stuff.  So when my friend said what she said, I started to delve into it.  Why am I baking like a fiend right now?

And that's what I came up with - I'm sublimating the urge to do things I cannot do into something I can do.  I have little control over what's happening in my life, but I can control what I bake.  'Rona madness?  Bake something.  Election chaos?  Bake something.  Can't shop?  Bake something.  Can't write?  Bake something.  

Mental, I know.

But hey, my neuroses aren't debilitating and we have a house full of treats, for which Hubs is eternally grateful.  

To that end, today I really have to do a batch of granola bars.  Hubs ate the last of those a couple days ago.  And I need to make a pumpkin cheesecake for Thanksgiving - which we will begin eating as soon as it cools, because cheesecake.  

Does any of this baking really help?  :shrug:  It can't hurt.  Except my waistline and that's been holding steady, so no worries there.

What about you?  Have you baked anything lately?  Does it help?

Sunday Update - Week 47

"Ack!  It's Sunday.  It's Sunday?  Yeah, it's Sunday. Well, crap." - my brain at 5:45am this morning.  Which is why I'm writing this now.

I got about 200 words out Friday.  Not good words, I'm sure, and I definitely don't like them.  But they're words.  I'll most likely kill them sometime today.  Mostly, I'm reading Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Mallory as research and trying to inspire myself to write.  Since I did write Friday, it must be working.  I'm also spending a lot of time thinking about writing.

I read a couple awesome books last week before I started reading LMdA.  Yay.

In baking news, yesterday I got a wild hair and decided to make blondies.  Cuz I'm out of baker's cocoa to make brownies.  I added chocolate chips to the recipe I found.  Umm... the chips sank to the bottom.  And they're not really great otherwise.  Oh, I'll eat them, but I won't be making them again.  Later this week, I'll be making a pumpkin cheesecake.

Also yesterday, I went to Wallyworld (where, no, I didn't remember baker's cocoa... hence, blondies).  Aside from them moving everything around, it wasn't a bad shopping trip.  Thank goodness I didn't need toilet paper, though.  They only had two kinds left and those were the kinds I hate, and there was piddlin' few of those.  Paper towels were also sparse.  Not sure what the hell is going on this time, but there it is.

Anyway, I did get what I went there for - chiefly, a turkey.  I ended up with a 17 pounder.  It was the cheapest I could get for a reasonable price per pound.  I could've gotten a 22 pounder for about the same price, but come on.  We're gonna have enough leftovers with a 17lb already.  Sheesh.  There was a little turkey for $1 less, but I am not paying that much per pound for a damn turkey.  Leftovers are good thing.  Right?  Right.

As for activity, umm, no.  But I made myself step on the scale.  Weight: 180.6.  So no real gains despite the inactivity.  Hubs did goad me into taking a walk with him on Friday which was good because it rained all day yesterday.  Other than that, I am a toad.

Well, I think that's about it for me this week.  How was your week? 

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 11/21/20

:rushes into the room:  Hello.  Sorry I'm late again.  I just woke up, so bear with me.

Only one new ebook acquired last week - a romance.  I still have three others on my Kindle left to read - thriller, mystery, romance.  I'm also still working through the last batch of hardcopy books I snagged.

Books Read:

76) The Edge by Dick Francis (11/16/20) - Mystery - 5 stars.  Not new to me or underappreciated.  Picked up from the thrift store for 50c.
Review: " Ooo, that was a good one! Definitely going on the keeper shelf. "

75) Savaged Devotion by Jennifer Lyon (11/14/20) - Romantic Suspense* - 5 stars.  Not new to me, but since it's a new release, it's probably not as appreciated as it should be.
Review: "5+++ stars! That was freakin' amazing. It was a long wait for this final book in the trilogy, but oh, so, worth it. My heart wrenched along with Liza and Justice as they fought the pain of loss, smiled when they found the strength to be together again, and cheered at the satisfying climax. Good wins, evil loses, and they got their happily-ever-after. Yay! I'm not even sad the trilogy is over because I know the happiness lasts forever. End of story."

No DNFs this week.

Currently reading...  I'm working my way through Le Morte d'Arthur for research purposes.  I haven't read this since high school.  I loved it then.  Now?  It's kind of tedious.

What did you read last week?  Anything good?

Thursday This n That

 We now have 6 bucks frequenting the yard - Arthur, Lear, Midas, Captain, Val, and Spike.

A couple days ago, I glanced out the back window in time to see a skunk ambling his way to the wood pile and disappearing underneath it.  I have named him Pierre.  He's a big dude with a little giddy-up in his step, like one of his back legs is ouchy.  We've never seen a skunk here in the neighborhood.  Smelled one a couple times down near the river, but never even smelled one up here - including Pierre.  (We had the windows open, so we definitely should've smelled something.)  As long as Pierre doesn't cause us any problems, he's free to live under the wood pile.  Hell, if he doesn't stink, he may have been living under that pile for years without us knowing.  If he starts causing problems, we'll find a way to encourage him to move elsewhere.

I don't know why this never occurred to me until I saw Pierre, but Pepe le Pew is a French skunk with a Spanish name.  Maybe Pepe hails from the Spain/France border.  Perhaps he's Basque.  :chortle:

Yesterday, I made applesauce bread.  This time I put diced apple in there.  Yummers.

Thanksgiving is a week from today.  Feel free to panic.  I know I am.  I haven't even gotten a turkey yet.  It's always just the two of us for holidays.  I feel bad for my family up in Michigan.  No one is coming to Mom's for Thanksgiving this year.  I mean, my one sister who lives close will be there, but she's always there, so while it's nice, it's not special.  My brother and other sister won't be coming with their families for the big special family gathering.  Sad.  Gah, I just realized that also shits out Mom's yearly shopping trip with my sisters.  Every day-after-Thanksgiving, it's a family tradition for the gals to go Christmas shopping.  (Not 'Black Friday' style shopping.  No getting up early, no stress.  Just a nice trip with the girls.  I used to go, too, but I live too far away now.)  Double sad.  =o(

I'm trying really hard to not let all of this crap get to me.  This really has been a shit year, though.  Nothing hugely horrible has happened.  We're all still alive.  It's just a constant droning of pain in the background - like that one bone you broke years ago that still hurts when the weather gets bad.  Sometimes you can forget about it or ignore it, but it's always there, waiting to flare up and hurt like the dickens.  It's either a constant ache or the fear of more pain to come.  Yep, that's what this year has been.

And on that cheery note, I'll let you get back to your day.  Hang in there, everybody.  :hugs:

Not Dead

Hey everybody.  Sorry I haven't posted in a couple days.  I just haven't had anything to post about that wasn't ranting or whining.  And who needs that crap, eh?  

Nothing else new has been going on.  Post-publication writing depression, but that's not new.  Or even very interesting.  

Last night, I did start thinking about one of my left-behind stories from a couple years back - unfortunately while I was trying to sleep, but hey, you get insights when you get them.  This morning, I went back and read the couple pages I'd previously written and, while they're good stuff, I remember why I stopped writing this.  I need to do a shit-ton of research to get it right. I still wrote down some of the stuff I'd thought about last night, though.  It's not a dead idea, I just have to find/make the time to do it.

I posted a snippet of the above story on Silver James' blog, if you're interested.  It fit her prompt perfectly.  How's that for serendipity?  

Anyway, I'm not dead.  I'm not even sick.  I know in these messed up times we all have to wonder and worry when a friend stops posting.  I know I worry when a friend doesn't post like they're supposed to.  But it's all good here.  We're still pretty much hermits, so not a lot of risk of getting the Kung Flu with us.  I did hug another human being I didn't live with and wasn't related to for the first time since March, but I think I'm safe.  (And she really needed a hug right then, so I felt it was worth the risk.)

So, how are you?  How are things going in your lives? 

Sunday Update - Week 46

Oh, what a night.  Apparently, some tornado stuff was swirling around the area.  We're fine here.  When the sun comes up, we'll see what damage, if any, there is to the outside.  At one point, it sounded like a large limb came down.  And there was hail.  Weeee.  As long as all my car windows are intact, I'll be content.

I actually did start the week out with writing.  I got about 750 words out.  Then crickets.  The books are also swirling around but in my head.  When I get them sorted out, I'll probably be able to write more.

Marketing... ahem... The first two books of A Model Curse are still on sale - through to midnight tonight - but I fell down on marketing them.  It's hard to market when you don't see results from the marketing efforts.  

I only finished one book before the wrap-up went out yesterday.  Then yesterday, I inhaled the rest of the other book I was reading.  I'll talk about that one on Saturday.

In baking news, I made brownies.  Oh, so good.  And yesterday, I made homemade pizza.  Always yummy.  I think I've already posted those recipes, so they're not here.  If you missed them and want them, let me know.

The other day, Mom said something about not knowing if one of her cousins was still alive, so I did some genealogy stuff.  As far as I can tell, Cousin Shar is still with us, but one of her daughters is gone and one of her grandsons.  

Let's not talk about exercise, activity, or weight this week, eh?

We saw another different buck in the yard.  A little four point with symmetrical antlers.  Not to confused with the little four point whose antlers look like hooks.  So, now there's Arthur, Lear, Captain, Val, and Spike.  Lumpy is still coming for food, sometimes with the twins and sometimes without.  I don't know if I've ever mentioned White Legs, but she's here, too.  (Her two front legs are white.)  And now we're starting to see other does with white legs, so she's passing on her genes.  Yay.

And that's about it for me today.  How are things in your world?

Satruday Reading Wrap-up - 11/14/20

Hey there.  It's early on Saturday morning and I didn't set this up last night because I was reading, so I get a pass, right?

I have one ebook left from earlier in the month - a thriller.  I also picked up three new ebooks - a romance, a romantic suspense, and a mystery.  I'm reading the romantic suspense right now because I've been waiting for this book for a while and it's finally here!  Yay!  No new hardcopies.

Books Read:

74) Flintelf (Exili's Excellent Elucidation Services, #1) by Victoria Bastedo (11/12/20) - Fantasy Mystery*#. 5 stars.  New to me and underappreciated,  Free off the Book Gorilla newsletter.
Review: "What a fun story! I do love fantasies and mysteries, so fantasy mystery as a genre is perfect for me. And this is an awesome example with a unique premise, interesting characters, and an intriguing mystery. Well done!"

DNFs:

11/8/20 - American Sniper by Chris Kyle.  I just couldn't get into it.  And I really really tried.

Currently reading... the third and final book in a series I have thoroughly enjoyed.  So far it's really good with loads of feels, and despite how long it took to get this last book, I'm falling right back into the story.  

What reading hijinks have you been up to this week?