Holiday Baking

(This blog was originally posted on December 22, 2014)

Photo by Sara Fogan

       I imagine that a lot of people have kept busy baking—or preparing to bake—treats for the holidays in the past week or so. I sure have!

       As I have gotten older, opening gifts has become less of an event for me than selecting, wrapping and giving presents. Especially baking holiday goodies: cookies, cakes, side dishes for the main meal… Whatever can be prepared with love and specific attention, I am totally there to do it. For me, this is the part of holiday cheer that really makes me smile and, well, puts me in the holiday spirit. 

     Perhaps my enjoyment comes from the known of these activities and behaviors. Of course, certain family favorites are on the menu every year: Gingerbread men and sugar cookies cut out into various Christmas and Channukah shapes are a given. (Nothing says Christmas like gingerbread men, right?) Then come the chocolate-chip cookies, peanut-butter cookies and assorted other flavors per my craving. After watching my mom baking goodies and fussing with holiday decorations/preparations during my childhood, I came to associate the delicious smells emanating from the kitchen with the love and attention she put into it. Over the years, sifting flour, measuring sugar, cracking eggs, pouring the chocolate-chips into the batter, cutting out the shapes of gingerbread men all became ingrained in my mind as a subconscious known. 

     Every so often a new goodie would be added to the repertoire: lemon bars and “peppermint bark” are recent family favorites. But I remember how almost resistant I was to adding those new treats to my baking repertoire. Not because I thought it would be too much work, but because they were new (unknown) and not yet part of the family tradition. Yummy as I knew those new treats would be, I was a little reluctant to try a new recipe. What if the recipe was too complicated? What if the finished product didn’t look like the cookie in the picture? Yes, it was fear of the unknown; ultimately, thankfully—with a lot of practice making them—all of these recipes have worked out very well.

Now, rather than strictly follow a recipe I can rely on my mental scripts for holiday baking. Since I have been following this same behavior for so many years, I know I can trust my instinct (muscle memory) to adding just the right amount of a specific ingredient to the mix. Even more important, after “experimenting” with different versions that have come out of the oven over the years, I know what I can substitute (or not) and the recipe will still make a delectable treat.

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

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