First Cookies, Now Brownies, What Next?

I'm learning how to cook this year. Some days are better than others. I am not however, learning to bake. I feel like I know how to bake and do pretty well as long as I follow directions. And I'm proud to say I'm the only person in my family that can make my grandmother's divinity, which shocks even me since that's a candy and way above my level of expertise. I'm getting to a point where I don't think I should be allowed to bake when I am pregnant because I am just too distracted or forgetful. I don't know how baking is any different from cooking per say, but that distinction seems to be relevant for some untold reason.

For example, I'm always craving chocolate chip cookies. I made them a few months back and accidentally put in a whole stick of butter instead of half a stick and they came out flat and greasy, but still kind of good. Rick made a batch to make me feel better and, of course, they were perfect and fit to be sold at a bakery. He disgusts me. In my attempt three weeks ago I was determined not to foul them up...but I also wanted to get them cooked quickly so I could eat them since I'm doing my best not to eat the dough containing raw egg (raw egg = bad for baby). In my rush, I put the pans in the oven side by side and, according to my brilliant husband, caused all of the oven's heat to be trapped below the pans, thereby causing ALL of the cookies to burn on the bottom. I then proceeded to make my husband bake the second batch of that evening. Do you see the pattern here?

Last night, again, I gave in to my weakness and baked a batch of brownies. Triple Chocolate Ghirardelli brownies actually. Brownies happen to take much longer to cook-- 50 minutes versus less than ten for cookies-- and thereby make me even more impatient. Unfortunately, I forgot to add the egg to the brownie mix this time (Yes, I know it only needs three ingredients added to the mix--water, oil, and an egg--I just got distracted) and when Rick pulled them out of the oven as the buzzer went off, he looked at me like "How can you really screw up box brownies?" My response, "So the egg is important, huh." It isn't surprising that the second batch didn't come out until 10pm and I gave in to the temptation of the brownie mix -- raw egg and all this time -- before the brownies were done. Yeah, I admit I felt some guilt, but it was delicious. Then I forced myself to eat the first brownie when they came out even though I was headed to bed and had quenched my craving with the raw mix and some of the ruined egg-less pile of oily brownie mush that was the first attempt. Sad. So sad.

Moral of the story: Cravings while pregnant can lead to poorly executed cooking attempts. Be sure to have twice the ingredients a recipe calls for to prevent late night emergency grocery runs, and complete mommy meltdowns.