Unbelievable

My husband arrived at the doorstep last Wednesday night after an evening of father and sons golfing with a decree: "Thou shall bake cookies and Amish Friendship bread for me to take to my golf outing next week." Okay, maybe it wasn't delivered like that, but the time of "Hey, I was wondering if you could PLEASE HELP ME bake this for next Wednesday", has long past, that is if it ever existed. And in all honesty, my reaction did not fall into either of the typical wife stereotypes: one of disgust and grudging acceptance or one of glowing admiration that I get to make this for my darling husband. I will admit a slight sigh escaped my lips, as my first choice would have been something easy such as chips or plates, even brownies with the 3 ingredient add-ins. But I accepted my task, not even grudging the fact that none of the many delectable foods he will be sampling will ever pass my lips. After 4 years of marriage, I realize that doing so in a good humor will pay off in the long run. Such as when I have to explain that the clothes are still in the dryer because I had to rerun it due to one of Madilyn's disposable diapers being in the load. Or when I call my husband to tell him that I've locked the keys in the car and the car has been running for about 6 hours in the school parking lot. Yes, I've had my moments as well.

So it is with this task in mind that I set out tonight to bake. I decided to use the convection oven for the first time (having only used it so far as a conventional oven). And let me just say that it is UNBELIEVABLE!!! I had 4 trays of cookies in it on 3 different shelf levels, and they are all, ALL, did you hear me, ALL, equally cooked to perfection! I made over 4 dozen cookies in a matter of 10 minutes of baking! I KNOW! It's amazing. It leads me to believe in the 1950's archetypal housewife wearing the apron and at any minute extracting cookies from her nicely polished kitchen. That's right, I am women, wife, and mother--see me BAKE!