from scratch

Before Travis and I were married he believed me to be a terrible, terrible cook.
Which I am not. I'm actually quite good.

In his defense, in all the time we were dating I had only made him two dinners and one plum cake.
All of which were terrible failures.
The food tasted, looked and was terrible, so it was alright to assume I was a terrible cook.

In MY defense, I had no kitchen, no money for actual groceries, no supplies like spices, flavorings, or sauces except for soy sauce (and I used Soy Sauce for all it was worth) and I had none of the beautiful pots, pans or utensils that I got when we were married.
All I had was one scraped up and very horrible pot and a rice cooker that only half-cooked rice.

So most of the food was either frozen or just-add-water before I tried to turn it in to a meal.
Just like any unmarried college-student though.
Stop with those accusing looks.

There were some things I had down when we got married and that I could make amazingly well even before I had my own kitchen.
Chocolate cake, chocolate chip cookies, and fruit pies among them.

Okay, so mostly desserts.
But there was one dessert that I was not an expert at making and had, in fact, never even had homemade.
Snickerdoodles.
Snickerdoodles were not a homemade cookie. Snickerdoodles were bought on occasion from bookstore cafes.

If one wanted to make snickerdoodles then one would merely roll sugar cookies in cinnamon/sugar. Duh.

Travis LOVES snickerdoodles. And somehow (amazingly) he can tell whether or not I've added that one little teaspoon of powder that makes snickerdoodles different from sugar cookies. Cream of Tarter, which when we were newly married I usually just skipped and didn't notice the loss.
But Travis did.

So I persevered. And I made snickerdoodles all the time.
And now, I can announce to the world that I, Becky Pitcher, am the baker of awesome, awesome snickerdoodles.
The recipe I use is here, but I admit that it took me several times to get it down perfectly.
It probably will not take you so long if you actually use cream of tarter, actually chill the dough, actually cook it for the correct amount of time, actually roll it in LOTS of sugar and cinnamon.

But I am very proud.
It caused someone to recently exclaim "Oh wow, these are good! Are these from scratch?"

And I literally stared at her for about 30 seconds while the phrase "From Scratch" did not ring any bells.
Of course my food is from scratch.
Are there other ways to make food?
My mind went around and around and when I finally mumbled "Yes" she had moved on. It took me too long to respond.

Oh! How quickly the mind forgets.
Just a year ago, I ate nothing "from scratch" and if I did I would lay afterward in a food coma, thinking about delicious it was and how much I missed my mother with her full kitchen and food-stained cookbook and excellent baking abilities.

Now I am trying to be that. A woman with a full kitchen, dozens of well-used and food stained cookbooks and excellent baking abilities.
And I'm already forgetting I was ever anything else.