How I bake

It's often said that in order to be a good baker, you have to follow recipes. Precisely.

That's not exactly true, though. It's mostly true (which is why it's better to bake using scales instead of measuring cups, as you get the same amount of flour/sugar/baking powder every time, which isn't the case when working by volume), but it's not completely true.

I am an experimental baker. Every time I bake something, I end up tossing something different into the batter. Maybe it's a small thing, like using brown sugar instead of white (it's not healthier, I just think it tastes better). Or it's a big thing - like realizing I have a cup of applesauce to use up and deciding to toss it in, then deciding that what this batch of oatmeal cookies (with applesauce!) really needs is some peanut butter*, yeah!

Sometimes, the results can only be described as interesting. Other times, I only wish I'd bothered to write this shit down, because I have no idea how to replicate the results. Most of the time, though, it comes out okay - not fantabuliffic, but perfectly edible and yummy, and maybe a little better than the original.

This is also teaching me more about what the various ingredients do, too. Adding bananas makes it moister, adding flaked coconut makes it drier, and soy milk doesn't boil so you can't make rice pudding with it.

So, if you're tired of your dull baking routine, I suggest you take a page from my book. Start a batch of cookies, then, midway through, go to your pantry or fridge, close your eyes, pick something at random - and then decide if it's worth the risk to toss it into your cookies. (Hint: If it's anchovies, you should probably pass.) You might be surprised.

*_{This is how I found out that peanut butter burns at a lower temperature than margarine.}

Elsewhere, somebody's child accidentally had some Honey Grahams.

And she's only 9 months old - OMG BOTULISM AAAAAAIIIIIIEEEEE!

I'll say upfront that I think it's highly unlikely that her child is going to get botulism from a few cookies. However, what everybody else there is saying, essentially, is that baked honey is not a botulism risk for infants.

Unfortunately, that's not true.

Just so you know.

As a consolation prize, the vast majority of children who get botulism have never had honey (because nobody gives honey to infants anymore?) and the cause of their infection (is that the right word here?) is never identified. So if your kid gets sick, it might be that there was nothing to prevent this from happening.

I... kinda wish I didn't know that, actually. Now I'll be watching every baby I meet for a week, wondering if they're about to get botulism and DIE, despite their parents taking every possible precaution.

Edit: Make that 11 months. Even smaller risk of suddenly dying.

Taken from a comment I was going to make.

Angelique has an acquaintance (not a friend) in her toddler programs.

He's 2 and a half, and every time she sees him she shouts his name really loudly - and proceeds to totally ignore him. Well, he's not on her level at all, and, unlike her sister, he doesn't talk. (This makes it hard to speak to his parents, because all you can really politely talk about in these programs is your kids and theirs, and if I talk about how much she's talking now (which is all she's doing), it sounds like I'm boasting or judging.) He's in speech therapy.

But what I really want to say to his parents (but was not going to) is that I'd be much more concerned about the fact that, at two and a half, he doesn't play with the other kids. At all. I don't mean he doesn't play games with them, I mean he doesn't parallel play. I see this kid every week, several times a week, and he doesn't ever sit with another kid, or copy another child, or take somebody else's toy, or do the motions to any of the songs, nothing like that. He does what his mother tells him to do (come here, give me that, don't!) but he doesn't look to another kid if she goes "Hey, it's so-and-so!" or get a smock if she says "Do you want to paint?" or nod his head and sit down if she goes "Are you hungry? Let's eat". If he and his mom are doing play-dough together, and he decides to do something else, he doesn't look at Mommy before he gets up, he just moves (bolts) towards the other thing. My gut feeling is that all this combined is much more unusual than just not talking - I like kids, I pay attention to them. Evangeline plays with her sister, both in the parallel variety (Angelique is playing "eating dinner", so Evangeline does the same thing) and the social variety (Angelique says "Let's hide!" and Evangeline goes "Where Ana?" and 'finds' her to hide with her), and she's some 8 months younger than this boy, and she's just not that advanced.

Unfortunately, the only time I ever spoke to his mom about this, I was all reassuring "Yeah, it's just because you speak to him in Chinese, and you know boys are slower to talk, he's a bright kid, don't worry too much about it", but now I'm making this list of things and... I don't know.

Now, for those of you who might be new to my journal, I don't think that being unusual in this respect is a bad thing, per se - but his parents... I don't know if they see that he's different like this. I think they're focused on the language, and maybe not seeing the rest of it? Maybe they do, I don't know.

It's just hard to accept your kid if you don't know how they're different from other kids. Or to help him - he should be able to communicate with his parents, and now I'm thinking... well, you know what I'm thinking, I'm always thinking it :) I don't think it's just that he's slow to talk, is all.

Man, how do you say all this to somebody who it isn't their first language and you don't know them that well to begin with because all you do is make nice-talk about each other's kids (or some people gossip about other people's kids who aren't there)? Well, his mom is fluent, anyway, so language barriers should be minimal.