I organize a prompt writing group that meets online once a week to share writing we create based on various prompts. The exercises are meant to develop and solidify a writing habit and to help get the creative juices flowing. You never know when a piece written for a prompt will turn into a longer writing project. I will be sharing some of the stories I’ve created on this blog.
Prompt: What do you enjoy doing in your free time that you don’t consider yourself an “expert” at? What have you learned from engaging in that activity or pastime?
It Turns Out…
By Carolyn Fenzl
© 2021, Carolyn Fenzl. All rights reserved.
In the past six months, I commenced the often delicious hobby of cooking and baking from scratch. I say “often” because when you are not yet an expert, many of your dishes are far short of delicious…or even edible. But with practice and experience, lessons are learned and you get further and further away from that time you almost burned down the kitchen.
Here is what I now know:
- It turns out the more dishes you use to cook or bake, the more things there are to clean up at the end. Except you are already exhausted from cooking, so you ask your husband to do the dishes. But he will forget. Indefinitely.
- It turns out that, even with placing your pot on the stove or dish in the oven with the utmost anticipation of the wonderful aroma that will soon fill your house, if you fail to turn them on then there will be no aroma – or dinner.
- It turns out that meal preparation never takes the amount of time specified on the recipes unless you have everything prechopped like on cooking shows, or of course unless you can move insanely fast like a family of sparkly vampires who will remain unnamed.
- It turns out you need to hold an immersion blender. You can’t just turn it on, put it in the pudding and walk away. I guess the immersion part is important for some reason.
- It turns out that while I consider cats in the kitchen as no big deal, dinner guests don’t appreciate cat hair in their entrees.