Saturday, September 11, 2010

baking cookies

there is  something I do quite a lot, at work, and that is baking desserts. the demand for cookies increases with each successful batch. from twelve, to twenty, to twenty five per day. I also bake a lot of cakes. when I have time, I take pictures to remember them. the repetition of each day, baking, using similar recipes, I start to understand how I can add ingredients, or modify the process, to get a slightly different result. so far, my favorites have been, oatmeal cookies, lemon cheesecake, sticky date pudding, and chocolate chip cookies. these always turn out well, and are popular with the workers.
although I enjoy baking, I find it is hard to make desserts without tasting them. as I am usually trying new recipes, I should taste them once they have been cooked. I should know how they taste, and whether or not I can be proud to serve them or not. this isn't such a bad thing. some of the baked sweets are quite tasty. the down side to this is the amount of sugar i consume daily, and how it affects my appetite and well-being.

sugar is extremely stimulating, causing my mind and senses to feel erratic and hyper. my appetite for vegetables and fresh food diminishes. also there is the developing habit of eating sweets out of convenience. they are prepared and ready to eat. and when I am tired from a days work, I am sooner to eat a cookie than I am to prepare a bowl of miso soup.
this time around, this work period, I have controlled how much of the sweets I am tasting. since I have baked them a number of times, I am familiar with the taste and the affect. so I can leave most of them for the others to eat.
ideally, I would rather be cooking healthy food for people. there are doubts and debates about what is helpful and healthy about food, and eating. some people claim that sweets are "good for us" because they help stimulate our mood and generally make us feel happy. personally I find the affect of sweets can be positive while influencing a positive mood, but at the same time can cause harm to us. we can easily form habits of eating too many sweets, and therefore risk developing diabetes, erratic moods, and obesity.
what I am most concerned with is the affect on moods, and the habit of mood that can result from a dependency on sweets. I have experienced the affect of habitual eating on my mood, as well as noticed it in others. for example, it is common for the craving for sweets to cause anxiety when we are without sweet foods. and for those who are prone to have emotional imbalances these cravings would no doubt make the ups and downs of emotional waves to be greater.
for now I do my best to eat well, and provide good healthy food, as well as the sweets which we all enjoy. I do not wish to push my beliefs on others. I realize I can only do the best I can to be healthy for myself. if another person wishes to eat certain foods which I would not eat I should not stand in their way. they will either be healthy or not be healthy. I can only be who I am, and hope that my intentions and my actions influence people to take care of themselves.
I do wish, that if I am still working as a chef in the future, that I can serve better foods. perhaps in my own cafe/restaurant, where I need not tell people to eat well. I would simply be providing a place for people to come and eat the foods which I feel would help them be well and feel good. being healthy can feel good too.




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