I started cooking as a child and learned to love it more each year, since. I first learned to bake Toll House chocolate chip cookies, when I was about eight years old. By then, I could start a charcoal fire in the outdoor grill and cook hamburgers or chicken quarters to perfection, but baking was still a challenge. My mother helped me measure the ingredients, something I still hate to this day - measuring, yuck! I like to scoop and dash and pinch and splash, not measure.

After the first time, she left me on my own, but I had trouble with the "tsp" and "Tbs" thing, apparently. I ate them all, since no one else would. They were certainly puffy when they were baking, having put in a tablespoon of baking soda instead of a teaspoon.

My young bride, years later, ran out of baking powder to make cornbread, years later, and instead of driving twenty miles into town for baking powder, she used baking soda in equal portions. Having learned from previous mistakes, I ate the cornbread, which reminded me of the chocolate chip cookies from years ago, but I bought baking powder when I was in town the next day.

Baking hasn't been a strong skill in my family, you see. I loved to cook and said, frequently, "I love to cook, but I hate baking." A friend once responded that a real cook, bakes. "But there's all that measuring," I insisted. She was right and I now love to bake, but I came to it kicking and screaming all the way.

Baking soda is a wonderful thing, when used in proper proportions, and a horrible thing when used in incorrect proportions. I now cheat and use my hand to measure, usually, and never miss it, after years of practice, but it is not recommended procedure.

I sometimes decide at the last minute to bake bread. I use the same old recipe with a dash of baking soda to speed the required rising time and it works amazingly well. I skip all the double rising and pop it into the oven, still looking like pancake batter, cook it on high heat and it comes out beautiful and soft. "Wow," friends say. "How did you do that?"

"Baking soda, it's great stuff," I answer, and then tell some of my stories of my many disasters for dinner entertainment.

Learn more about this author, Will Kester.
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