TODAY Food Club

Why do I food?

More specifically, why do I voluntarily add to my workload in this seemingly insane way? I have full-time job teaching high school English and three young children. Shouldn't that be enough?

Well, no. Somehow along the way, the souls of women become endangered. Instead of remembering who we are as individuals, we morph into wives and mothers and in that process, we can easily lose ourselves.

After a life-threatening situation forced me to reexamine my life three years ago, I began doing the things I'd only ever just thought about. I started playing the guitar, went zip lining, learned how to paddle board, and started a dessert blog.

At first, Just About Baked was an emotional purge of sorts. I could do two of my favorite things: make ridiculously decadent desserts and write my way through all the questions that I felt faced women everywhere. What began as a hobby has become not only a part-time job, but also a passion that gets down to the very essence of how food can play a part in so many aspects of existence: love, yes. And joy, and family, and heartache, and togetherness, or isolation. Food is life.

In more technical terminology, I am known as a "home baker." That means I'm self-taught and use regular-sized kitchen appliances when I work. But it also means that I can relate to every struggling woman in America who is somehow trying to do it all in a world that already expects too much of us. My baking is decadent, but it centers around simplicity. Dessert should be delicious, but it shouldn't be hard. It should be accessible for everyone, and ideally, quick. Why spend hours in the kitchen when you're trying to live?

It's so easy to forget who we are. Baking has been the journey to maintaining my individuality in the face of a life that can't help but get crazy. Just think: only a few minutes stand between you and a homemade dessert that tastes much more complex than it is. Who wouldn't want a piece of that?