Why I Shouldn't Be Allowed in the Kitchen

My Cookies Looked Nothing Like This

   It’s a common joke that women belong in the kitchen. Honestly, I’m the last person who should be in there. I’ve melted plates, destroyed frying pans, and once I even caused my dinner to explode. I’m just not good at cooking. However, despite all my previous failures I tried once more over Summer vacation.

   My family had just finished our regular dinner time routine of eating dinner and watching one of our “family shows”. I can’t exactly remember what we were watching, but it was probably The Big Bang Theory. Suddenly my sister piped up that she wanted cookies. In my opinion, chocolate chip cookies happen to be some of the best things in the world, so I definitely wouldn’t have minded having them.  Everyone else agreed that they sounded pretty good, too. The only problem is that no one wanted to make them. Mom volunteered me for the job.

   Despite my protests that the cookies weren’t going to turn out right if I made them, I was pressured into cooking. Shockingly, my baking went unhindered for a while. Then I added the baking soda. I swear, I honestly thought the directions said to add ¾ of a cup. I added that much baking soda, and blended the cookie dough.

    After I finished adding all the ingredients and placing the cookie dough on the baking tray, I stuck the tray in the over. I then sneakily walked over to the bowl that once contained the cookie dough. There was still a bit of dough on the side of the bowl, so I tasted it. It was the most horrible tasting food I have ever put in my mouth. I quickly read over the directions, attempting to see where I went wrong. Then I saw it. The directions said to add ¾ of a teaspoon of baking soda, not ¾ of a cup.

   I felt like an absolute failure at cooking. This was no shock, honestly. I was expecting something to go wrong. I think I was honestly more disappointed that we didn’t have enough ingredients to make another batch than I was about my failure. All I could do was sit, wait, and hope that maybe the oven would bake the baking-soda flavor out.

   When the cookies came out, I quickly took a nibble out of one. It was equally as awful as the dough. I walked out to our sunroom to announce my failure to my mom. It only took about two minutes for my whole family to know I botched up the cookies. I remember my dad picking one up to see how bad it really was. He immediately spit it out. We had to throw out at least twelve cookies that night. The worst part was the stomach ache I got after for swallowing that baking-soda infested cookie-dough bit.

   Ever since, the cookie incident has been a running joke in my family. I actually made cookies tonight, for a celebration I’m having in one of my classes tomorrow. All throughout my cookie baking tonight, my family kept poking fun at me, telling me not to botch this batch up. This time, the cookies turned out great, courtesy of last time’s incident. Always double check instructions and read each line carefully, all the way through.