Shew! I’ve been cooking and baking and baking and cooking for hours.
And washing a ton of dishes.
About this cooking and baking (and dish washing) marathon I will say two things:
- I love it.
- I’m tired.
I’m glad I planned my entire weekend around this marathon. I got a TON of work done today and still have a long way to go. Will I get it all done and still be able to experiment with homemade ketchup? I’ll let you know.
I’ll let you know if I can still type by Monday. And form complete thoughts. And remember what day it is.
I may actually still be standing at my big freezer with the door open (and my fingers freezing off) trying to figure out where to put all the fruit of my labor. Good problem to have, but wearing gloves for such an activity is advisable.
Anyway, let’s go back to the “I love it” part.
I really do love it. This morning before we left for our home school P.E. time, I started getting out all the ingredients I’d need so I’d be ready to start cooking when I got home. I got SO excited about the fact that I was going to come home and cook and bake all afternoon that I just got giddy!
Is it crazy that someone would get so excited about brown rice, chocolate chips and tomato sauce? Well, not altogether, but you know…all laid out on the counter waiting to be made into various yummy dishes?
Later as I was getting the cookies mixed up and into the oven all I could think of was, “I love baking best.” Then, as I was mixing up Cheesy Beef and Rice I was thinking, “I love cooking best.”
But you can’t love both things best, so now I’m trying to figure out which I like best…cooking or baking.
They are practically the same except that baking involves more flour and baking powder and mixing and kneading and often times it involves chocolate. Score one for baking.
Cooking involves meat and veggies and potatoes and rice and spices and creating dishes that nourish your family and make them happy. Score one for cooking.
I think I like them both the same. They are both my favorite. I can’t help it. I’ve made up my mind.
So…which do you like better? Cooking…or Baking?
Of the two I will say baking. I have a degree in it.
I like baking better. I think it’s because I *have* to cook 2-3 times a day, but baking I can do whenever I feel like it.
Oh, I vastly prefer cooking! Baking makes me cranky. I think it’s all the measuring and recipe-following that comes with baking. If I was one of those people who could intuitively bake, then I think I’d like it. With cooking, I get to use so many different ingredients, and I can pretty much do whatever I want with them.
I agree with Amanda. I have to follow a recipe with baking, so I enjoy cooking much MUCH more!
The real question is which can you do better. I LOVE to bake, but I burn everything I bake. I hate to cook, but I’m great at that. :(
I way prefer baking, but never really could explain why until I read Tanya’s comment, and I must say I totally agree. For me, cooking is a chore. Baking is a pleasure.
I’d say cooking. It usually comes out right. Baking, well you have to go by the directions, not into to that. And I hate waiting to let it set. By I do still try my hand in it.
Baking! It is a major form of stress relief for me. Half the time I don’t even eat what I bake. Thank goodness I have a family (including a teenage boy) that eats whatever I make them!
I do love to cook, but it tends to be more irritating -knowing that if I mess up badly, what we will have for dinner?????
I really love baking! But I also enjoy cooking because it is nourishing for my family. I think people that don’t like to cook or bake are missing out because it is so fulfilling but maybe it’s because like you I usually look forward to it.
Definitely cooking!
I’ve chickened out on the bread. 2 reasons, the honey I could not find in the grocery store!!!!! I still don’t know where it is! It wasn’t in the baking OR the condiment aisle. And do you think I could find ONE person who works there to ask?
And 2. The only WW flour (besides Gold Medal) I saw was King Arthur’s, and the ones who used that on here, didn’t have a good success w/it. So maybe I’ll get honey today elsewhere, and just try and make a loaf of cinnamon swirl w/white flour. Mainly I just want to try kneading bread. If I can do it, I’ll try looking at Costco for WW flour.
Last time I looked for honey I found it in the peanut butter and jelly aisle. Who knew?! :)
Thanks!!! Funny thing is I was down that way. In our grocery store
the peanut butter and jelly is the same aisle w/the milk, eggs, and butter. I should have looked to the left!
I did come home, thinking I had some honey here. I heard once that honey lasts FOREVER. (or at least a long time lol) And I did look, and we did have some. I did taste it, yeah it doesn’t last THAT long lol. Mine was probably 10+ years old (it was in the BACK of the spice cabinet)lol. needless to say it was thrown out.
I love King Arthur flour personally. No problems with it here. Now that I’ve baby-stepped myself into baking all of our breads and things, I’m looking to graduate to wheat berries and a grinder. Hubby said grain mill perhaps for my birthday in April, weee!
Also, when looking for honey look at the ingredients and make sure it’s honey , not corn syrup an honey flavoring.
My first love is baking but cooking is growing on me. I never learned how to cook and I have a sweet tooth so baking came first. Cooking came later when I wanted to eat healthier and my son was born. Until then, the three food groups in our house were bags, boxes or cans.
I enjoy them both, but I love them both if my husband will do the dishes! Dishes are the worst part of cooking and baking in my opinion!
I think baking is much more fun, because it’s so saturdayish. But cooking is so much more satisfying because its stick-to-your-ribs nourishing.
Which is my favorite totally depends on whether I want salt or sugar at the moment.
I always enjoyed baking best until I started my journey to more healthy cooking and now I enjoy them both.
Learning new ways to nourish my family – putting on some bones for broth, cooking up a large batch of spaghetti sauce for the freezer, making homemade pizzas that my family enjoys more than the pizzaria (and I love saving all that money!) – are all very fun and exciting for me.
:)
Baking because the outcome always tastes good. Not so with my cooking!
I am a big fan of both! Your reasons sum up my reasons. There are different days when I prefer one over the other. Today because it is so cold and snowing, seems like a perfect baking day…but on the other hand, it would be great for chicken and dumplings. It’s a good problem to have I guess. :)
I’m all about baking! I can cook a good meal, even be creative with cooking. But baking is where I shine. Must be something about the flour in my hair that just warms my heart.
I used to hate baking. It is too restrictive. If you don’t follow the recipe, it doesn’t turn out. Cooking gives me much more freedom for experimentation and creativity.
However, since I have been following Laura’s recipes baking has grown on me a little more. It’s kind of neat to see a bunch of ingredients become something yummy in the end. So, for now cooking is my favorite, but baking is ok.
I’ve been baking all day today, with a little cooking thrown in. I wanted to try some of your make-ahead things — thanks!
Of the two, I guess I’m leaning more toward baking. I like that you get to mix things up, then leave them for a while in the oven while you clean up.
I would have to say cooking, even though I really enjoy both. I just feel like when I am cooking something over the stove (or even in the oven or crockpot) it is easy to taste and adjust seasonings, liquids, etc., because I am a big time experimenter. Baking is always very intimidating to me, and I never stray far from the recipe because it seems like such a complex chemistry experiment, I never know how little changes will affect the consistency and character of the finished product. Maybe one day I will have a better idea of the chemical properties of each ingredient in baking, but until then I will just use recipes that have already been created and stick to what is written.
I prefer cooking over baking. I am just not a big dessert or bread girl for the most part.
I think I would like both more if I didn’t always feel short on time.
I must admit I’m a little envious of your energy right now! We’re due with baby #3 Feb. 9th or so, and already have a 4 year old son and 2 year old daughter. I’m tired, but look forward to getting back in the swing of cooking ahead in the next month or so!
I love baking the most because it just seems like it’s the easiest to get the little ones involved in the process! Usually with cooking there’s a hot skillet or stove eye somewhere and they just haven’t quite grasped the idea of getting burned by it! For some reason though, they completely understand that when I open the oven door they should move back!!!
Is there anything better then seeing your little one’s pride in their own jobs well done????
I love cooking because it’s an art, I can look in my cookbooks and online and in my fridge and take all that and make a different meal each night! But I am learning how to bake, learning what I can substitute, what I can play with, how to adjust ratios, and I think I get more satisfaction out of baking because it is more work. But cooking is just good easy fun.
cooking… NO, baking! Um, nope, can’t decide either! They both have their uses. Feeding the family dinner, making sure they have bread… Oh, yes, and cookies. Can’t forget that! Sometimes throwing some candy making into the mix isn’t bad either!
Baking for sure! It’s like science lab, but you get to eat the results!
I have to admit, I’m not the best cook and as for baking, Yeah ….. (head hanging) … I buy the one dollar bag of premade mixes, the kind you just add water and an egg. If you had an ‘eating’ option, that would be my choice. I do wish I could enjoy cooking and baking more, especially healthy dishes, with fresh ingredients, not the canned, overprocessed stuff I use. Baking and cooking are not my strengths.