I'm good in the kitchen now, too!

The task at hand was not too difficult. It had been done before by mothers around the world, so I knew I could do it with some concentration, too. I didn't want to be that 'mom', you know? The one who wouldn't even try. The one who complained she couldn't do it. The one who gave up too easily, the one who would give in and find a more simple solution. No, this time, I was going to go through with it. No matter how bad the end result might be, there was no stopping me.

I told my husband to leave the house, to go to Starbucks, as I know in mere minutes the state of the kitchen would look as if a tornado had passed by, and I wanted to avoid any and all discussions about why I had even bothered.

I found what I was looking for in a cookbook I took from my mother-in-law's house. A recipe. A recipe for a simple dessert that most people love to eat. Carrot cake. A somewhat, um, healthy dessert.

I gathered the ingredients I needed, and bought what I didn't already have at home. My oldest son got to work with me. He peeled and grated all the carrots. At one point, I said to him: "Sweetie, I think we have enough carrots. We only need 2 cups." And he, my darling son, said: "No, mommy. When I made this cake with yiayia the other day, we used way more carrots than this!"

Thankfully, my son, my 4 year old son, was right. He peeled and grated more carrots.

Then... we started to bake the cake. And it was... simple, actually. All I had to do was read and follow the instructions. Although, to be quite honest, I didn't follow them exactly as the book said. For instance, when it said to mix the butter and cream cheese together first and then add the icing sugar for the icing? I added all the ingredients together at the same time. I don't think this really mattered, though, because it tasted great in the end!

And after 35 minutes of the cake sitting in the oven, I realized I hadn't really turned it on. I did something, because it was warm, but it was not where it needed to be - at 350F. So, anyway, in the end? The cake turned out perfect. It tasted amazing. And everyone enjoyed it at our big Thanksgiving feast yesterday!



Now that I have baked for pretty much the first time ever, my confidence has grown in the kitchen. I can totally do it again! Just keep me away from anything Martha Stewart - I'm never going to be that good!