a carrot tree

i just needed a quick baking fix. it's like how when samantha in the undomestic goddess had a few hours to spare, she baked and frosted a cake and brought it to her neighbour's to share.

this time, i'm going, quite literally, back to basics: cookies are one of the first things we try when we start learning to bake. nothing is more simple than to make a bowl of cookie dough, dolloping spoonfuls of it onto the baking tray, popping it into the oven, and smiling as we present a plate of freshly-baked cookies. and what is more basic than using a premix, adding butter and eggs to it?
ok fine, so i cheated and used betty crocker. the purist in me relented for once today. i just didn't feel like i was up to measuring flour and sugar to pinpoint accuracy. don't judge me: we all have moments of desperation.
don't worry, i will still make a pie from scratch when the occasion calls for it. (i just remembered the one day we baked so many things at jia en's house, and used a store-bought crust for clara's peanut butter pie. on that day i was using yet another betty crocker cookie mix =/ seibu used one for banana bread too!)
oh, now that my oven thermometer is in place and doing its job, i no longer have to use sonya's trick of testing the cookie edges. i can just bake them for as long as the recipe instructs.
right now i'm watching - and crying over - the episode of desperate housewives in which nora is killed. and the episode in which lynette finds out she is cured of cancer.