cookies that make you go hmmmm

if the Food Network ever did a Cookie Challenge (just a baking and art challenge, like the cake challenge used to be) i think i'd at least place. you might say "well you do nice work, but these are pretty unextreme." well yeah, but most of these are shapes that i'm doing for the first time. and if i've done the shape before, i'm designing them a whole new way the next time. so you're seeing a lot of prototypes. and i think even for prototypes, some are darn adorable.

and if you don't believe me, ask my mom.

no really, ask her. my mom marvels that i can design and produce hundreds of cookies, then with equal mental dexterity, turn around and explain the techniques, physics and chemistry involved in creating it. now, mental dexterity is kind of in the eye of the beholder, because i think i'm kind of a screwball who just knows a lot. but Mom would say i'm capable of handing people parts of their world in ways they didn't see before--which is the magic i attribute to cookies, or any art that accompanies a story, which is the bigger artistic umbrella i've always been working under. i'm an *illustrator*.

but when i was 9 i was feeling down, and had a moment of psychological clarity and maturity, and i said, "at home i'm a superkid. out there, i'm a nobody. or worse, they're just mean." and i think that sentiment explains how i can brag on my cookies in one paragraph, then in the next i'm apologizing for their errors. for all i know, these things look terrible to you; i mean, you're not my mom...

long story short, i made my mom a dozen birthday hummingbirds which i thought turned out exceptionally well, and she thought were just awesome. Jeff even felt compelled to walk them in to show his coworkers when we stopped for coffee for the drive downtown--he relayed that multiple jaws dropped. the kiddo even ate 5 of them. self-confidence restored.

back to the Food Network Cookie Challenge--i'd probably recruit Mom as my assistant. not only because she thinks highly of me :) or because we've been decorating cookies since i could see over the table, or because she's driven to see me succeed. those are the big ones. but the one that makes me grin is how we are in a kitchen. when i lived at home, and 6-10 people abandoned the Thanksgiving table for pie and TV, Mom and i could break down that kitchen in 15 minutes and not have to say more than "washcloth" to the other.

i'm suddenly reminded of things that are light, quick, graceful, and operate with a kind of hum... (chuckle) Happy Birthday Mom!

coming soon, dinosaurs, mer-mares, the great big luau, and blue larvae.