Friday, February 13, 2026, 12.6* F, 71% RH, 0604
Almost past the house, Luna peeked through branches. In weeks birds will sing, peepers will give voice morning and evening until it gets too warm for them.
I remembered how to bake bread yesterday. It’s been years. Not fancy bread, not yeast bread, a slightly sweet bread for breakfast, not for sandwiches. Bread to slice thick, toast, slather with butter, perhaps drizzle maple syrup Chris gathered, processed.
The recipe was misleading. “Combine the first four ingredients.” Reminded me of another recipe I followed without realizing something was missing. Then, cooking was new, I was young. The entire recipe was lines as above, “blend in the next 2 ingredients” never naming anything. No clue to tell me something was wrong. Cooking isn’t supposed to be a mystery. I made the chocolate pound cake as a special desert for family dinner. It came out perfect! Dad had the honor of cutting a slice for everyone. Mom had raved about the moistness, the rich chocolate of this cake recipe someone at her office typed, distributed after sharing the cake. (The recipe I worked with.) This was going to be great! Mom and Dad took one bite looked at each other, looked at me. “Linda, bring me the recipe.” I knew something was wrong with my masterpiece. I know that you cream the eggs, the butter, add the sugar and I knew it then. I just followed the recipe step by step double checking everything. It was written down; I'd followed recipes before. I don’t like recipes written this way, too difficult to follow. I have to keep going back to the list of ingredients to find the next two or four or however many things to mix in a certain order. It was the worst cake I ever tasted. If I had followed the bread recipe as written, I would have had sugar, egg, milk and chopped walnuts mixed to put in the pan without the Bisquick. :) The cake had no sugar. Sugar was not listed as an ingredient. There was no fixing it. A pound cake doesn’t have frosting.
Lessons learned come without sugar.
Photo: LJ Austin
