Is Baking the New Prozac?

On my 28th birthday last September I thought I was still a young buck enjoying life alongside my husband and 2 little people. Among my mommy-friends, 28 is just a baby but when I decided to whip up a batch of homemade oatmeal cookies I started to wonder if I'm on my way to becoming a traditional mother of decades ago. I'm no cook and I've always been okay with that. Afterall my mom, grandmother and aunts were slaves to a hot stove on holidays, after work and before the advent of an affordable microwave it would take 30 minutes to reheat a pot roast made the Sunday before! I knew early on that that would not be my calling.

Then there was my favorite aunt who loved baking, I mean she could easily make a good living on her baked goods. She wasn't big on cooking a regular meal, but chocolate chip cookies and deliciously moist cakes were never in short supply at her house! So women in my family were great cooks, some better than others but they were all able to cook. I was always the designated dish washer and as I got older, the vegetable chopper at which I have become exceptional. So why start cooking? I had a good thing going! Until...

I was having a rough day after being nanny, housekeeper, and short-order cook for hours on end when I decided to get my hands dirty and make oatmeal cookies. They were always one of my favorites and I'd been eyeing the recipe under the oatmeal box top for about a year, so what the heck? As I started gathering my ingredients and searching high and low for measuring cups I never used, I felt my shoulders relax and my mind go quiet. No kids running, screaming, fighting, no phone ringing and no one asking me for anything. I was alone in my own head although my family was nearby. I loved it. There were about 4 batches so I had time to watch and wait for my creation to be completed. I loved every second of the nine minutes they took to cook and no Yankee candle in the world could make the house smell better than those cookies did in my underused oven.

After the cookies were cooked and cooled I wasn't too thrilled with the taste (my family loved them!), but I knew from that moment on that I would have to make baking part of my weekly to-dos just for the relaxing affect I took from it. Maybe that was why my aunt spent hours baking everything from wedding cakes to my all-time favorite chocolate chip cookies. That could explain my grandmother's dedication to making delicious food for her family. I haven't taken to cooking yet, unless I have a detailed recipe, but there's nothing like baking up something delicious for your kids. Having a calmer, more content mommy isn't too bad a deal either.