Decisions Decisions

This weekend is my birthday.  Actually, it's on Tuesday, but we will be celebrating with family on Sunday! 

I asked hubby where he was going to get the cake, and he said he didn't know.  I said, "I can make it!"  He said fine!  Now I am trying to decide what to make.

This morning, I got up and my little one said, "I don't want you to make your birthday cake".  I said, "why?"  She said, "Cuz that's stupid!"

I thought that was really cute and it made me think.  I know what she was saying, because it seems weird that one would make their own birthday cake.  But what she doesn't realize is, I was actually excited about it!

For anyone who knows me, I love to bake.  It may not always turn out perfectly, but I love it anyways!  This is something that I developed in the last 6 months or so of losing my 52lbs.  Weird, huh?  Baking and losing weight?  It doesn't totally make sense as they don't really go hand in hand!   So how did it develop?

To explain this I have to go back almost 20 years.  When I met Chris, I realized pretty quickly that he was a good cook.  He enjoyed it and was good at it.  However, he didn't make the most...um....lets say "waist friendly" meals.  However, it was delicious and I thoroughly enjoyed it!   One day, he came home and I had made something to eat (this is where the stories differ, so feel free to ask his version.  It's wrong, but it's his version).  When he came home, I offered him some of what I had made.  Little did I know that is was one of the concoctions you would find in his mother's house, (which is what launched him into his snob-cookery lifestyle).  I had made tuna casserole.  (you know....one pound of noodles, one can of tuna with juice and one can of PEAS).  Well, lets just say, this didn't go over well with him.  But as we had been a fairly new couple, and this was his first experience with my culinary 'skills', he didn't mention to me that peas never crossed his lips.  I had noticed, however, that like a 3 year old, all his peas were dissected and put into a pile on the corner of his plate.

Now, to his credit, he didn't say a word to me.  He told me it was good and thanked me (which actually was very sweet, if you know my husband), and took his dish to the sink.
The next time I cooked, I decided to "WOW" him.   I made my aunts Linguine and white clam sauce.  This was a delicacy in my family.  But as we had been dating much longer, he was now more bold and said, "I don't eat clams".  After that, I made lasagna, but apparently the red sauce bothered his delicate tummy.  (are you getting the picture here?).

Finally, with all my (in his opinion) culinary disasters, he finally looked deep into my eyes, put his hand on my leg, leaned forward and said, "You know babe....I think it's  best if you just don't cook".  to which I said, "Fine!"  I really didn't care.  If he was going to be so persnickety, then he could have at!   And for about 12 years....I didn't lift a finger!  (Okay not totally true, but you get the point!).

Now the only variance in all of this is his version is, "I can't cook"....and my version is "He's a snob".  However, I did realize he was a bit more skilled and so I simply took a back seat.  Sometimes it's better to be married than right, so I just went with it.

However, when I was losing weight and realized how fatty some of these muffin recipes were, I decided to make it my mission to create lower "point" muffins.  So I started baking.  And what I found was, not only did I like it....I was good at it!  But that isn't all that happened. Somewhere in all of my baking, I realized that there were so many things that happened.  I could create something where I knew the outcome would be positive.  And I could actually share my positive outcome with friends and families.  And best of all....my kids LOVED it!!  It was a win win win!!!  I also realized that this was a bit of a mantra to me.  When I was stressed, I found myself baking and trying new recipes. 

In a world full of stress, it is really nice to realize that you can take a piece of your day and see some accomplishment.  And when things get bad, sometimes that is all you have. 

So as far as my birthday cake is concerned...yes I want to bake it.  But maybe my little one might find a sense of accomplishment picking out a cake that she feels is perfect for me.  An offering, if you will.  So, as much as I do like to bake and as excited as I am to create a fabulous cake for myself, I think I would much rather see the joy in my childs face when I tell her she picked out the perfect cake for me!