Just call me Martha Stewart

I did it. I pulled together the few domestic bones in my body and entered a Bake-Off at my office last week, and I even finished with respectable results. Why is this worth mentioning? Well, I don’t bake. I barely even cook. Mostly, I’m really good at eating out.

This was the second annual competition in my department (which is only about 10 people). I think I managed to be on vacation when we had it last year. This year, I wasn’t as fortunate and felt slightly obligated to participate. So, I searched my recipes and cookbooks and decided to give baking another try. Although it meant spending several hours in my kitchen on my one free evening of the week, I was excited to use a few kitchen-related wedding gifts that hadn’t been used in a year and a half. Here was the result:It ended up that my triple chocolate peanut butter minis scored a couple votes in both the originality and best taste categories. Was it worth it? Ehh. Will I bake again? Someday. Nevertheless, I think I would have made my more kitchen savvy friends slightly proud of my progress. And while I realize this was no blue ribbon state fair contest, at least I proved to myself that I’m not completely unqualified to be in a kitchen. So, if anyone has any lower-maintenance, yet scrumptious recipes I should try next time, let me know!