list #27: letting myself off the hook

The June prompt for #Reverb11 asked, “What can you let yourself off the hook for?” Which sounds an awful lot like gentleness, a favorite word lately, and comfort, my word for the year. So this prompt sounds awfully good to me.

I’m letting myself off the hook for…

1. Venting once in a while (because even if I chose something, I don’t always have to like it).
2. Having a style uniform instead of always dressing creatively.
3. Indulging in the occasional chai latte or other little lifesaver.
4. Not always washing the dishes right after dinner.
5. Having a little clutter in the guest room, and sometimes elsewhere.
6. Reading young adult books. A lot of them.
7. Losing my cooking/knitting/crafting/cleaning mojo once in a while. It always comes back.
8. Saying the wrong thing sometimes.
9. Not saying anything sometimes.
10. Getting distracted (sometimes).
11. Making progress slowly instead of quickly.
12. Being imperfect. (Which really sums up all the others.)
13. Ending the prompt sentence with a preposition.

What can you let yourself off the hook for?

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love and the gifts of imperfection

This year, Valentine’s Day coincided with my first day at a new job. We hadn’t planned a big splash, anyway, since it fell on a Monday, and we’d celebrated early with a yummy dinner date in the North End at the weekend (the best lasagna I’ve ever had, finished off with cannoli from – where else? – Mike’s.)

However, I’d been hankering to make Jen’s Valentine sugar cookies, and I was also brain-tired and longing to do something tactile when I got home on Monday. So I tied on my favorite striped apron and began pulling ingredients out of the pantry.

The first thing I noticed? We had no powdered sugar. So I shed the apron, pulled on my coat, and dashed to Walgreen’s, just up the street. No dice. They had regular sugar, but no powdered. I headed home, and discovered via the Internet that if you don’t have powdered sugar, you can in fact make your own – by whizzing regular sugar and a little cornstarch in the blender. Excellent.

When I opened the flour canister, I realized there was no way I had enough flour to make a whole batch of cookies. So I halved the recipe. (The hubs doesn’t have a raging sweet tooth anyway, although I do.)

Problem #3: Not enough shortening. So I substituted butter, hoping it would work. (It did.) And started to wonder if I should have even bothered – but by then, of course, I’d poured half the ingredients into a bowl. So I pressed on, mixing, chilling, whisking up some pink icing (no sprinkles, but the pink looked properly festive), rolling and baking.

And when J walked in, as I was putting the cookies onto sheets, his face lit up. And – bonus! – he had brought me a Valentine cupcake from their office potluck.

I could have given up on the cookies for lack of flour, sugar, shortening, sprinkles, energy or the will to fuss with it. But I’m so glad I didn’t. Because even with limited, imperfect ingredients, I was still able to make something special for my love. And – true to form – he walked out of the kitchen later, munching on a cookie, and declared, “These are delicious.”

Happy Love Thursday, all. May you find some sweetness today.

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