ike I mentioned yesterday, I was already in the process of making a batch of cookies. I originally had plans to continue baking throughout the whole maintenance window, but due to a sudden stroke of amazing efficiency I was able to finish my work two hours early. So yes, I was able to work quickly all while baking cookies. And these were the results:
After seeing how many cookies this batch yielded, I decided that one batch was enough. The last thing I wanted was a huge pile up of cookies lying around the house, because, really, who else is going to end up eating the cookies? Exactly. In honour of the maintenance window, I nicknamed the batch my “failover cookies.” The name still amuses me.
Yes, I’m going to post a summary of the recipe, though not in this post. Maybe tomorrow? Instead I just wanted to touch on some interesting points that baking seems to bring up. Now, as I was making the cookies last night I had full intentions of bringing them in to work to share with my colleagues. Nice, right? It’s not the first time I’ve brought in baked goods. In the past I’ve brought in brownies and lemon squares, both of which were received really well. Today was no exception. Everyone gave my cookies rave reviews as far as I could tell. Everything was great, although, there was one thing that struck me as surprising. Someone I gave a cookie to asked me whether my wife or girlfriend made it.
Eh…? Well, that’s interesting. Yes, nothing was meant by it, but I’m fascinated by the question. Is it really that out of the ordinary for me, as a manly man, to be the one to have done the baking? What’s even more interesting for me is that this isn’t the first time someone’s asked me that. Sometime last November I brought in some stuff and someone asked me if my wife or girlfriend was sending me in with all of this food. Hah.
For anyone wondering, yes, I’m single.
I’m not even going to go into detail about analyzing all of this because the things at issue are pretty much obvious, aren’t they? Whatever. I get a kick out of surprising people with my talents.
You know, on a related note, I’ve noticed some other interesting trend in terms of assumptions people make about me. I’m assuming that the facial hair I was sporting a little while ago (I shaved two days ago) was making me look way older, but I didn’t think it was that drastic. Maybe it’s unrelated, but this one guy who’s only known me with facial hair seemed to make the assumption that I was married and had kids.
¿Que?
Sure, it’s not really that big a deal, but it’s an interesting jump to make. I don’t talk about having a spouse because, well, I don’t have one. I don’t say anything about my non-existent parenting skills. So, why make that assumption? Do I look old? Do I somehow carry myself in such a way that I’ve got this weird mature dignity thing going? This is something that I can’t figure out.
Anyway, enough pondering. The recipe will follow sometime in the next few days.
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6 comments
Kelvin says:
Sat. May 30, 2009 at 1:02 am (UTC -4 )
Mmmm… cookies. I don’t think I baked any cookies but once and they were plain chocolate chips and turn out nice. They were soft and chocolaty. Sometimes it could be the idea of manly men not making because I don’t know many guys that bake.
Jay says:
Sat. May 30, 2009 at 1:11 pm (UTC -4 )
There’s only a small window where the cookie is perfect. Too short and the dough tastes raw; too long and you get a hardened mass.
I guess it’s true that most men don’t bake–but this one does. I’ll own up to it.
Black Prophet says:
Sat. May 30, 2009 at 3:01 pm (UTC -4 )
Its not just baking. Its a man cooking in general. Any time I bring food to work people assume I didn’t make it. Now people find it amazing that I am actually a good cook. Its funny cause the professional cooking world is dominated by men.
People are going to assume you are married because you are working. You probably still think of yourself not that far out of university, but to them you are a working person, so it would make sence that you are married. To them 27 and 35 are not really that big of a jump. To us it is an lifetime.
Jay says:
Tue. June 2, 2009 at 10:19 am (UTC -4 )
I suppose you’re right. Just everyone else in the group is either married or has a girlfriend/boyfriend. So, it would’ve been a safe assumption.
However, same thing happened when I recently went to East Side Mario’s with a friend. The waiter made the assumption that we were married. There’s no usable “working” context in that case, is there?
Anyway, yeah, 27 to 35 does seem like ages. 30 is knocking on our door. Our return of Saturn is nigh!
Black Prophet says:
Sun. June 7, 2009 at 10:57 am (UTC -4 )
Man and woman alone at a restaurant? Of course they will asume there is some sort of connection. Whenever I go to a restaurant with one of my female friends, the wait person always gives me the bill. Most people are going to assume men and women arent friends because lots of people think that they can’t be friends.
Jay says:
Tue. June 9, 2009 at 9:55 am (UTC -4 )
Well duh, sure they’ll assume there’s a connection. I just didn’t think that we looked old enough to be “married.” Not even dating or anything like that.