Dookie

For good or ill, Cookies of Pilgrim are done and packaged, along with supporting product from missus pilgrim and Zelmo.  For tease, I include a photo of Z's tasty treat here.  Clark Kent duties, as well as Zelmo's unwell state, prevented mailing until today;  If the creek don't rise, the packages should make it in reasonable time.

 

Up here in Milwaukee, it's about the BAKING, not the Video entertainment or Naked Pictures.  If we can't win it with the baking, we don't want it.

Maybe we'll never make the bigs with that attitude, but we prefer to maintain a certain level of integrity.  Bono knows what we're talking about; but when he stood for a photo op with George W. Bush without cock-punching him, obviously making a somewhat different choice.

So don't look for us in the Little Debbie package, or on a Car Commercial; we will keep the faith at the local level, delighting our friends and family with fattening sweet treats; Consumer Addiction will have to be tended by others, and Cornman may indeed join Ronald McDonald and Joe Camel in infamy.

We see Bakery as similar to a Martial Art;  one starts with a white apron, pure and without knowledge of the Bakestemological arts.  As one develops knowledge, the white becomes soiled, stained, getting darker with every passing day.  Representing one's increasing Power in the Kitchen.  

Eventually, the apron is dark, akin to black; at this point, One has gained the skills necessary to be acknowledged as a True Baking Artist.  To obtain High Rank, one must Practice; Learn; demonstrate Honor and Integrity and Self Control at all levels.  A Bake-Off is a meeting of Honorable Opponents; until one violates the Sacred Respect of the Oven, even in defeat a Baking Artist exhibits Grace and Respect.

But;  the Black Apron also realizes that the simplest efforts are also opportunities for excelling.  It is not necessary to bake a flaming moose cordon bleu ala Snag with Everclear-wasabi cornnut pate (a Third-Level challenge) to display Baking Art.

Take, for example, the  simplest task;  boiling water.  Many, not skilled in the Art, would simply put a pot of water over blast furnace heat, waiting impatiently for the water to boil.  But as an Artist once stated, "A watched pot never boils".  This is a zen puzzle, because you CAN watch a pot boil;  but if it is improperly performed, is it Boiling?  You see, as an artist, you must create a chi where the water wants to boil, is desirous of the Excited state.  Water in a microwave gets boiling hot, but never Boils, you see, because the enclosure is not conducive to teh Change of Phase; Gaseous Denial.  You must choose your boiling container for aesthetics and utility; the water gently added and the heat gently applied.  If using gas, you may apply heat somewhat more forcefully, but with electric heat, the temperature must be increased a bit slower to avoid boiling the water without Honor.

So it is with Bake.  The simplest dishes may indeed be done with more artistry than much more complex routines; imported spices and exotic procedures may in fact, hide a lack of mastery of the most basic of techniques.  Easy things, such as sauteeing or making toast, may be failures because of lack of Concentration and improper Preparation.  The Artist is always working to maintain perfect technique at all levels.

Thus, even simple cookies are never 'mere'.  Shayera referred to her entry as 'just' snickerdoodles.  A dreadful lapse of Baking Artistry.  'Just' Snickerdoodles?  The Snickerdoodle was a perennial favorite of my first sensei, the Maternal Pilgrim.  Although skilled at the highest levels of the Art, Sensei's Snickerdoodles were always used as demonstrations.  Seemingly simple, they were an epiphany;  light, sweet, crunchy yet tender on the tongue; the  flavors could be counted as they presented themselve to the Four Corners of Taste:  Cinnamon, Sugar, sweet dough!  Bliss!  A cookie to be meditated upon, while fancier pastries be a whim, a momentary dalliance.

This Bake-Off is but a momentary challenge; the judges may be corrupt, or not; A Lite-Brite may be all it takes to influence the decision.  Such as it always Has Been.  It is, at the end, another Lesson to be Learned and studied, as one studies the Recipe.  

The Art is presented on TV by Hucksters and shams (I'm not naming names, Rachael Ray), who have used ill-learned lessons to turn a quick buck, promulgating the concept that Baking Art is a Commercial Enterprise, and are supported by such as The Evil General.  As Artists, we are Duty-Bound to oppose such, wherever they may appear; though we assault the fortifications in vain, crying out at the  injustice, we rest and tend to our wounds, secure in the knowledge that It has been Brought; the Tyrannical Queens have been Opposed.