Extreme Bordem

I am in a very weird situation right now. I just graduated from college, and I have secured a career, but it doesn't start until January. I have been trying to find temporary work, but that isn't panning out as nicely as I would like it to. Consequently, I have a lot of free time on my hands. I know NanoWriMo will eliminate all my free time shortly, but that doesn't relieve the surplus I have now.

Earlier this week I was doing a lot of wandering. However it was very restricted "I don't have a car" wandering. I was pacing around my house and occasionally playing video games. I did discover The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion which killed quite a number of hours, but it still wasn't enough to keep me completely occupied.

During my pacing I found myself in my parents kitchen. On the kitchen table was a bag of Nestle Chocolate Kisses. I walked over and ate a few, and found them very tasty. For some reason I thought of Pixar's Ratatouille and all of a sudden wanted to cook.

So I looked on the back of the bag and found a chocolate chip cookie recipe. I followed the recipe, and baked my first batch of anything ever. I thought it was interesting that I could make something that made my family so happy with so little effort, so the next day I made sugar cookies. They also made everyone very happy. The day after that I made a Vanilla Cake, which everyone liked, but I didn't find as satisfying as the cookies from scratch. I had made it from cake mix, which felt kinda lame. My brother had a birthday on Saturday, so the day before I made him a birthday cake and more sugar cookies. I still used cake mix, but I improved on the design slightly. Here is a couple pictures of the birthday cake:

It was really easy to make, and tasted pretty good. So I figured I'd share my experience. Follow the recipe provided with the cake mix, except add a packet of instant pudding mix of matching flavor to the batter. This makes the cake have more of a pound cake consistency then a fluffy wedding cake consistency. You will notice when you are trying to get the batter out of the mixing bowl into the pan that it is much more sticky then normal cake batter and will fight to stay inside the mixing bowl, this is how it should be. Also, buy some canned icing, and melt it down in a pan, then use that to drizzle the cake. It is more effective time wise and looks nicer then trying to spread it with a knife. It has been two days and I haven't baked anything. I think this random phase of my life is over (baking). If you haven't baked anything before, I suggest you try it. You will be surprised how easy it is and how happy it makes others who live with you.