Ups and downs of baking

My dear, sweet friend David begged me to bake something for him.

Despite the fact that I have sworn off sweets lately, I couldn't resist his puppy dog eyes.

Somehow, "something" got translated in my mind as "every recipe that you are curious about."

I was baking from 6am until 5pm!!!

One of the recipes was World Peace Cookies from Baking: From my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan. Also from her book, I did the sables and blondies (with chopped chocolate, as you see above, because chips are just too vulgar for these lovely pastries). The Korova recipe was absolutely murdered, as you see above. I guess my oven was too hot, because after the prescribed amount of time, there was just a mass of goo that was sliding off the cookie sheet, as you see above. However, I did scrape it up and save it, because it was my first attempt. Also tried Raspberry bars from Homesick Texan's blog, and two sweet potato cheesecake bars adapted from a pumpkin gooey cake by Paula Deen.

I made sure to eat protein before I started and I was good for about 5 hours. Then, all of a sudden, hunger hit me, i guess, and those little crumbs and ends I'd been resisting all day started to look irresistible. I could hear a little voice saying "Don't do it. Noooooo!" I tried to think my way out of it, but it was too late. I grabbed pieces of everything and was shoving them into my mouth, two hands at a time, just to spite that little voice. It was kinda scary but it was, after all, just one of everything. Not a binge. But on a darn-near empty stomach, not good. I got very headachey and stomach achey after a few hours. But everything was yummy. The Korova crumbs were fabulous!!! I have one half log left over... baking that (properly) today. Actually, my oven is apparently not properly calibrated, so I can only say I will *try* to do it properly.