Baking in Quarantine

It started with a dream, as all good baking stories do. And as with all good stories, it involved Sarah, one of my best and oldest friends.

Now before I delve into the baking, I feel like I need to provide some background information. You just met me, you don't know my life, so I think its only proper that I help set the scene, introduce the characters, you know?

Sarah and I met on the first day of high school. We both loved Harry Potter to a degree which some may classify as obsession, and at 13 years old, that was enough to for us to become fast friends. Now, over the past 11 years that I've known her (11? Really?!), we've grown much closer, even as our love for Harry Potter has simmered down to a somewhat acceptable degree. An important detail I forgot to mention is that Sarah and I were born on the exact same day, and it shows. While Sarah may tell you otherwise, she is the single-most easily excitable person I know, other than me. She pretends to be the older, more mature, less emotionally labile friend, but let's face it, if there is anything remotely exciting going on in my life, she is one of the first people I want to tell.

I could on and on about Sarah, there is so much I could say. However, I can hear you screaming at me from across the screen to wrap it up and tell you instead about the cookies, which you have been dying to read about. Right?

So long story short, Sarah had dream a few days ago in which we were baking together, which obviously, is quite the impossible feat during these trying times. But Sarah, resourceful as she is, never to let a pandemic get into her dreams' way, came up with the brilliant idea of baking the same thing while isolated, but via video chat, so it would be as if we were baking together.

Chocolate chip cookies was what we decided on. Easy, classic, you can't go wrong with them. I stuck with a very basic recipe, the first google search result, while Sarah decided to tackle on a fancier recipe written by a french patissier.

Sarah's workstation, she made it sound much messier over the phone.

Half an hour later, after failed attempts to brown butter, breaking plastic utensils from stirring, and chopping up Lindt balls to make chocolate chips, our cookies were finally in the oven! Here is how they turned out:

Sarah's cookies ("They didn't spread !" she'd tell you)

My cookies. I will share the recipe in my Recipes tab.

After we both finished baking, Sarah came up with yet another brilliant idea.

S: "We should trade cookies! I'll drive by and drop mine off to your place"

C: "OoOoOH! I love it! When?"

S: "Sometime between now and 10 pm. I'll surprise you"

Sarah grossly underestimated my ability to fall asleep within seconds.

Now that I look back, I do remember hearing her phone call. It was around 7pm, I was asleep, and someone was calling me in my dreams. And since it was a dream, and it didn't matter, I ignored the call and slept some more.

Before any of you get mad at me for my questionable sleeping habits, I have to say that I redeemed myself the next day. I drove to Sarah's place, and dropped off my cookies. Talking at each other from across a glass door, I was so happy to see her and her family again, Sarah is a genius for dreaming up this cookie baking idea. We were talking about trading paintings next, so stayed tuned!

So there you have it, that is my quarantine baking adventure. Despite all the challenges, our story had a happily ever after ending after all. Just like all good baking stories do.

Enjoying my cookie with a cup of steeped tea. All's well that ends well.