It’s Friday evening and I should be out with some friends enjoying a glass of wine and unwinding from the long exhausting week. But here I am baking instead, because as usual I was overly ambitious.

Typically during winter months, the farmers market that I sell baked goods at is closed and I get to enjoy a much needed break of not waking up to an alarm on a Saturday morning. However, considering that the weather is behaving like a menopausal woman and we are expecting somewhat warm temps for February, they decided to hold a special market. While I could have easily stayed away, I decided to do some baking and release some stress from the week.

There are people who are stress eaters, stress smokers or even stress drinkers, but me, I am  stress baker or stress runner. I suppose I should be thankful that I my vice is baking and running, because if I had baking and not running, I probably would not be able to fit in the front door. When I have had a bad day I head straight to the kitchen to start baking or put on my running shoes and pound the sidewalk for miles. Of course there are times I have done both.

Today thought I started to bake to relieve my stressful week plus because I had agreed to go to the market, baking added more stress to me.

I decided to experiment making some Ginger infused creme brûlée tarts, I make the crust and bake it and notice that it had shrunk a little, but because I was overly excited with the taste of the filling I decided to proceed not listening to my nagging voice that it might be a little too small.

First Attempt at Ginger Creme Brûlée Tart 

Once done, I realized that it was a little too small and does not really fit into my perfectionist mentality or in other words my OCD personality. I am typically not OCD about things, but when it comes to baking/cooking I obsess with perfection, making it hard for my co-workers… but thats another story.

Since I am not one to easily give up, I decided to try again, making the assumption that I have learnt from my mistake. So I roll and fold and roll pastry again, keeping my fingers crossed, but alas I was wrong again. Still too small.

Sometimes the best thoughts and ideas can go awry, and I seem to be having one of those days.

Thinking of the quote “third time is a charm”, I decided to try again. Maybe this time I will use a different tart pan and roll it bigger and hope it will work. Better but not upto my expectations.

Third time is not always a charm

Maybe 4th time is the charm, but the fact that my stress reliever is stressing me out was a sign to leave the kitchen. I wish I could indulge in my next stress reliever of running, but it is 9 pm and 35 degrees, not really the time to go for a run. Instead I just signed up to run two half marathons in April.

I constantly tell myself that I need to learn to curb my obsessions with perfection and relax and accept that somethings are not worth stressing over, after all it is just a pastry.