Must stop... baking.... arrrrggghhh!!
I think I'm addicted to baking.... maybe just cooking in general lately.... I used to plan menus two weeks in advance... but lately I can only go a day or two ahead cuz the thought of all that food make me ill!
I find myself planning the evening meal all morning.... while I bake something usually... then I fix the kiddo his lunch.... then put the kiddo down for his nap at about 1pm and start getting thing ready for dinner (it takes me a long time to actually make dinner cuz of the 2 year wanting to help etc.).... I feel like I'm on a 12 hour cooking shift!! But I can't stop!!!!! I'm addicted to this routine. I don't even have time to shop for groceries becuz I'm cooking! I don't really mind so much right now but I feel like I'm gonna crash or something.... you know the point when an omni mom squeals her tires into a drive thru lane saying, "let's get McDonald's!!!!!!" Not that that will EVER happen... but I feel like I'm going 100 miles an hour with no brakes!!
Maybe I can just cut out the baking part.... since I don't need cupcakes around to tempt me all the time...
ARRRGH.... my plan after posting this is to go make brownies.... I'm a junkie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That happens to me too sometimes. I crash, and my "McDonald's" ends up being tortilla chips and salsa! But then I am back to cooking/baking like mad. Nothing wrong with it--it's a good passion to have!
Is there a certain thing you've ALWAYS wanted to make? You could sort of consider that baked good as a goal: "Once I make xxxxx I am accomplished and satisfied."
I bake and cook allllll the time too. My obsession is veganizing things. If I see something DELICOUS or somebody tells about something they ate, for some reason I take it as a personal challenge to make it vegan. Like the other day I made frickin Sundae Pop-tarts. Why? Just to show I could, lol. I don't even eat the crap, or tell omni's about my creations. All of it just sort of rests in the freezer until a bake-sale rolls by.
For a long time I considered making sprinkles a goal of mine. Once I accomplished it, I didn't really care about baking lots of other stuff. Lol, now I just want to improve on my sprinkles, and figure out better natural colored dyes. One obsession for another!
You figured out the sprinkles?! Amazing! How'd you do it?
I completely understand...I love to bake too, but I have no reason to bake all the time! It's fun for me to take things into the office, though, and watch other people eat them. Maybe you can try baking for neighbors/office mates/other family members and then you won't have the cupcakes hanging around all the time, but you'll have the fun of making them! ;)
You figured out the sprinkles?! Amazing! How'd you do it?
Not to hijack the thread, but it's something like: make an icing with powdered sugar and w/e juice for food coloring. Add in some water and vanilla extract and flour and xathum gum and knead it into a soft dough. Roll it out as thin as possible on wax paper. Let it dry for 8 hours. Flip it over, let it dry another 8 hours. Cut it into the thinnest stripes possible, then into little sprinkle-sized pieces.
It works, but I'm not satisfied. The colors aren't vibrant enough. I want to make a paste food coloring. I was thinking of using flowers? Or dehydrating fruits? I can't find any thing on line about makeing your own food coloring.
i made banana bread last night.
two nights ago i made Strawberry Pie with Macadamia Cream topping
the night before that, i made a Chocolate Almond Kahlua Cake
the night before that i made a Pineapple Upside Down Cake.
and i cook meals in between AND i work 50+ hours every week
i have the same issue, although it's not much of an issue, really, because i love it. it does get a bit expensive, though, and i think that i need to stop baking compulsively- that is, i need to filter out the times when i bake to relieve stress from the times that i bake because i really want to bake. relieving stress with flour and cocoa is awesome, and rewarding, but again-- pricey, given how often i feel under pressure.
i love baking muffins. pumpkin-cornbread muffins.
I am actually most excited about summer break from school so that I can bake more :). Last summer I made waffles twice a week for my friends (at midnight of course, at what other hour is it acceptable to eat waffles?!) and I also made weekly cookies, cupcakes, pies, mousse (my favvvveee) etc. in addition to making meals for myself. THis summer I'll be going between two jobs almost every day so I'll be making lots of "eat-it-going-65-on-the-highway-food"
don't be worried. it's good. and maybe you'll just hit a period where you don't have the energy or the drive to cook a lot of food. but then you'll pick up a skillet and magic will happen again. If your'e worried about the cooking thigns and leaving them around you house make a batch, keeep one or two and give the rest away. And any you keep at your house make sure you put AWAY. In a cupboard, fridge etc. I find that if things are left on the counters I eat them more than if they're in the fridge or cupboard and I have to work to get them ;).
Also, throw a dinenr party. Make two dishes for people to choose from and several desserts. It'll get a huge amount of cooking out of the way and help break the addiction ;)
I thought I was the only one! Baking (and food-producing kitchen activity in general) can be sooooo addictive and quickly turn compulsive. I say there are worse things to be addicted to. I am also addicted to feeding people my creations and if they don't say "wow, this is awesome, can't believe it's vegan," I will go and improve the recipe until they do. Though I have given up on my parents, they are just too tough a nut to crack.
I feel almost pathetic in my addiction to baking and cooking. Besides the fact that my food budget shrinks immensely when I cook from scrap, it's just become such a comfort thing. I can't wait to move out of this apartment, not because I will finally have a clean bathroom again or can sleep through the night or won't have to share a fridge with people who let their (omni) food rot, no... I just want a useable kitchen so I can finally start cooking and baking again.
I can't believe you made sprinkles AshleyKimball! How amazing.
My problem is, I don't bake. But my obsession is to veganize everything, like AshleyKimball. I find a recipe I like. Even if I find meat in it, I veganize it. Some how, some way. Somehow, it turns out good. Even my meat-eater boyfriend likes it. He's my taste-tester LOL. As long as he gets his meat three times a week, he's happy. BUT he likes my vegan cooking ;) A+ for me. YAY!
I confess to a similar baking affliction. Unfortunately, I've always loved to bake, hence my life of yo-yo weight issues. Also, unfortunately, I'd rather eat baked goods than "regular" food. I've been doing very well for almost 2 years but I find that I am baking more and more recently. I have to stringently control how much I bake and how much and how fast I eat it. Currently I'm working full time. I do worry,if and when I retire, that I will spend entirely too much time in the kitchen...baking. :'(
haha I m addicted to baking, but Ive slowed down because I baked so much with not enough people to eat it all so it all went bad and I could not stand wasting food anymore )-:
I'm envious of all of you. I turn my oven on six times a year - at best. I don't like cooking or baking. On a weekend day I'll cook something and freeze most of it for the weekdays. I probably eat 75% of my food raw and another 15% is raw food that I've put in my toaster oven.
jenniferhughes: Are you are baking more than usual right now? Do you think it has something to do with being pregnant and super-baking-marathons will naturally taper off? If baking is a compulsive act, have you thought about cutting back to every other day. That way you are still baking, but you have to wait a day in-between.
Glad I'm not the only pastry whore here. What's your favorite thing to bake, jenniferhughes et al? Me - chocolate chip cookies.
Me -- cookies, crisps/crumbles, puddings, almost anything sweet except cake. I love the icing, not so much the cake. However, I love cake batter uncooked and raw cookie dough, of course. Sigh. ;)
For me: Anything I've never made before. Right now I'm fussing over that "poppy seed swirl bread" thing someone posted about the other day. Once I figure out the best way to do that, I will. I'm going to use some left over pineapple to make "pineapple blondies with cream-cheese swirl"
I like to bake different kinds of muffins and whole wheat bread.
My favorites are things with crumb toppings (like streusel bars), things with fresh fruit in them, crisps, and I have never made it, but I think I would absolutely love muffin-type things with a white creamy filling.
I don't like chocolate things with very few exceptions (like the york-a-like peppermint patties), and love white creamy or crumbly things. Hence my assumption that I would love creamy filled muffins.
I like to make anything!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D
I talked to DH about this predicament and he understands and suggested that I bake bread for awhile. Much more downtime with bread for all the dough resting so I can sit down and put my pregnant feet up! LOL Plus, that way we don't have sweets sitting around so much! I think this will work!