More Adventures in the Kitchen of Anne Elisabeth

Lessons I've learned through my recent baking endeavors.

1. Cookies don't bake as fast when you don't turn the oven on.

2. Cookies bake all too thoroughly if you leave them in ten minutes extra.

3. Cookies never look as pretty in reality as they do in the photos.

4. Number 3 does not necessarily mean they don't taste amazing.

5. Lemon bars are hard to make without lemon.

6. Cheesecake is hard to make without cheese.

7. The necessity of organization does not necessarily produce the reality of organization.

However, despite my best efforts to frustrate my own plans, I have managed to produce some awesome treats for tomorrow's Spring Gallery Show! And I have even managed to put together a Chicken Broccoli Bake casserole for tomorrow night after the show.

Mummy: "Are you going to make it without the chicken?"

AE: "No, without the broccoli, of course!"

Randomly enough, this is the first time in I can't even guess how long that I have actually had all the ingredients for Chicken Broccoli Bake. Usually I am missing two or three, and I am obliged to improvise. Perhaps the tormenting kitchen fairies decided to go easy on me after watching the throes of agony I went through with the rest of the baking?

So last night, I dreamed that the world was ending. Fire fell from the sky, great gulfs of doom opened up in the streets, all the people fled the coming destruction, homes were abandoned, families separated . . . yet I was still obliged to cart everything over to the Learning Center and set up for my Spring Gallery show! I woke up, relieved that the world was not ending. But I still had to prepare for the show . . . .

You don't think this means I'm stressed about this show or anything?