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markbt73

The cookie allegory

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(Bear with me a second, this actually is on-topic)

Say you want a cookie. In the past, you'd have to bake it yourself, spending an hour or two in the kitchen, before you got to enjoy eating one. But these days, you have a variety of ways to obtain a cookie: you can buy a packet of store-bought ones, or go to a bakery, or buy pre-made dough that you then bake yourself. But you can also still make cookies from scratch, if you so choose.

And there are advantages to making your own cookies from scratch: that way, you can control the ingredients, and you can get exactly the cookie you want, and you can bake a half-batch, or dozens of them. You're not at someone else's mercy, and you don't have to choose a cookie that's almost what you're hungry for.

But for some people it goes beyond that. For them, the cookie itself is almost an afterthought; sure, they like eating them, but what they really love isn't cookies at all, it's baking. Hours spent in the kitchen aren't work to them. They enjoy the challenge of creating something from raw ingredients, wathcing them come together under their hands, sliding the tray into the oven and watching the cookies turn from pale dough to a perfect golden-brown.

These people will tell you, and rightfully so, that a cookie tastes better when you make it yourself. No store-bought cookie or pre-made dough can match the experience of biting into a cookie that was flour and eggs and sugar two hours ago. It's the purest form of cookie enjoyment. So you listen to them, and try your hand at baking. It goes OK, but there are things you could improve on. So you bake another batch. And then another. And eventually, you get really good at it. And the cookie becomes the final stage of a process you love, not a goal to be rushed towards just to get there.

But someone sees you in the kitchen, sweating over the oven, flour everywhere, stack of dishes in the sink, and asks you, "Why don't you just buy some cookies at the store?" You're going to get annoyed, and you might even make your displeasure known: you're a baker, not some "cookie enthusiast." Those store-bought cookies don't count, they're an abomination, people should feel bad for buying them, and how dare they compare your homemade cookies to those things in a package. You're right, of course; homemade cookies are superior, but maybe this person doesn't know that. Maybe they've only ever had store-bought cookies.

And sure, store-bought cookies are easier. But that only matters if the cookie itself is the point. If you like to bake, then all the hard work to make cookies isn't work at all. And the best thing we bakers can do to save the world from low-quality cookies is to encourage people who like cookies to learn to bake.

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If only you'd posted this earlier, I would've put down my passion with baking as the main reason for bying multiple kits of the same model. 

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As someone who enjoys building even more than running, this post rings especially true for me. I've come to realize that just the mere IDEA of building kits brings me enjoyment, as evidenced by my ever-growing stockpile of Tamiya goodness...that I have no time to build!

 

And your line about it "not being work" struck a chord with me. I find kit-building to be relaxing and even somewhat cathartic; it's an opportunity to work with my hands that my day job does not allow. The payoff of a completed project is nice, but the road that takes me there is what I enjoy most about this hobby.

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oddly enough, cookery can be a very good analogy for many things.  I do pretty much all the cooking at home (not because I am good at it or because I enjoy it but because of all the ways I could leave this mortal plane, death by starvation wouldn't be my #1 choice).

Well, a year ago I had a conversation with my wife.  I said "I do all the cooking at home, and I'm OK with that.  We made that arrangement when we chose to live together.  But, I don't get upset if sometimes you want to, maybe, watch cookery programs on your own, or maybe go over to someone else's house and have them cook for you.  I don't mind if you want to bake some cookies for yourself while I'm away.  In fact, I don't even mind if you want to go to Jamie Oliver's restaurant and pay him to cook for you.  I mean, he's a professional chef, he cooks food for a living - I'm sure, as a professional, he can give you a better meal than I ever could, and who am I to deny you the opportunity to experience something as good as that?  I'm totally OK with that, as long as you accept that you chose me to be the person who will cook for you day by day, and when you come home from Jamie Oliver's restaurant, you don't have to resent the fact that I'm going to serve up the same old meat-and-two-veg the next day."

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You may perfect your cookie-baking abilities if you make enough batches, but you might go insane from a lack of alternatives and the obsession over perfection. That, or you might suffer diabetes from eating all those cookies.  So, maybe a balanced approach doesn't hurt?  Bake a little, buy a little, go out to eat a little...  Variety is the spice of life, they say.  And watch your consumption!  Exercise some and lose the fat...

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Good as I have my favorite home baked cookies.

follow up.. 

Quote

 
 

If you haven’t had them before chocolate crinkle cookies are soft brownie-like and so rich.

https://preppykitchen.com/chocolate-crinkle-cookies/
 

This is the best sp far I have tried. Since I am not a hugh fan of baking and cakes... my journey stopped here. Its a sugar inhaling cookie once you get the hang of it, really so taste you forget how many you ate and while rushing the sugar hits everywhere. Biting into a light crunchy outside, hitting inside a chocolate cloud, just crumbeling in your mouth you tako another... and thats a thing you could easily regret eating up the whole bowl.

let that tell you something,

Its like taking a bite of a cookie chocolate cloud. 5/5 Stars ️/5

 

edit;

but I also like tea cookie, I give them. 4/5 Star rating ️/5,

https://www.mynourishedhome.com/nannys-tea-cakes/

cookies including wallnuts and nuts with powder sugar on top are so called snowballs a 3/5 Star. ️  ️/5

https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/walnut_snowball_cookies/

 

but honestly I am more a fan of hot cooked Gin, fresh apples, apple juice and cloves. All together as a hot beverage in this cold winter time we have :D

 

 

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1 hour ago, speedy_w_beans said:

You may perfect your cookie-baking abilities if you make enough batches, but you might go insane from a lack of alternatives and the obsession over perfection. That, or you might suffer diabetes from eating all those cookies.  So, maybe a balanced approach doesn't hurt?  Bake a little, buy a little, go out to eat a little...  Variety is the spice of life, they say.  And watch your consumption!  Exercise some and lose the fat...

As a retired chef, still working though but in my home office now, this struck a chord and something I have and always will struggle with is the obsession over perfection, I love to cook and did it purely for the food,it was never work and never for the money, making something from nothing is one of the best things you can ever teach or learn, unless you seriously make it the money is garbage generally, you do it for love and the team you work with, somedays it's like the army, somedays it's spring break!

But that mentality sits with me and a lot of things I do, I want my tamiya bodies to look amazing, they don't, I could do better sanding, painting and basic trimming, but to a point I'm obsessed and find it quite frustrating when the picture in my head isn't quite what sits in front of me, just the same way I picture a plate of food in my head and the disappointment when I finally plate it and it's not exactly how I picture it is immense!

As I've got older I've realised I need to let it bother me less and move on a bit, but I don't think you can ever change some of that really!

I'm wish I had some of the engineering skills I see here, but I'm relatively content to buy some body shells and practice, and as I tell the 5 year old a lot, practice can make perfect!

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There's a phrase in my house - Mama don't cook. So that leaves it to me.

My culinary level is probably TT-01E with occasional XV-01. Scratchbuilds aren't unheard of and I'll even get in the odd RTR.

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13 hours ago, Badcrumble said:

My culinary level is probably TT-01E with occasional XV-01. Scratchbuilds aren't unheard of and I'll even get in the odd RTR.

If I had the budget I'd serve up RTRs every night, eat nicer food and have more time to do other stuff.  But the majority of what I serve would probably considered scratch-build, although usually with a manual.  So probably more akin to a wooden boat or plane kit than a car.

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I like dominos delivered, I like store made pizza, I like making my own dough (from a packet of just add water ciabatta mix), I don’t mind frozen but not enough toppings.

 

I don’t know what that says about me apart from the fact I like pizza 

 

what was the question again? 
 

haha

now I’m hungry and off to look for pizzas 

 

Tak0SOO.jpg

 

JJ

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1 hour ago, Problemchild said:

I like dominos delivered, I like store made pizza, I like making my own dough (from a packet of just add water ciabatta mix), I don’t mind frozen but not enough toppings.

Pizza is my all-time favourite food that isn't chocolate, but these days I settle for the store-bought frozen ones.  3 for £4 at Tescos, then buy a pack of salami / pepperoni to add more meat, usually got some mushrooms in the fridge - chop one of those up, sprinkle on some sliced black olives and bury the lot under a load of grated cheese.  Quite expensive if you buy all the ingredients specially but as we have all this stuff in the fridge anyway it doesn't cost extra.  This is my Saturday Night Special :)

When I worked as a delivery driver for Dominos, a co-driver was a common addition and five-point harnesses were pretty much necessary (quite how I survived without wearing a seatbelt throughout my delivery career is a mystery)

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