Measuring Cups Essential In Baking And Life

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Measuring Cups are essential in baking and in life. Cooking allows for morevariation, of course...you have the opportunity to taste as you go while cooking.Baking, however, is entirely different. First you decide what it is you want tomake! Today let’s choose to bake a cake.Then we often entrust that outcome to a recommended recipe—our own or one that hasbeen referred to us by trusted friends or sources. Some of our favoriterestaurants publish cookbooks that tantalize us with their tasty treats. Oftendonors to charities donate their favorite dessert recipes to be compiled into fundraiser cook books.All this to say that we tend to follow a recipe, measuring ingredient byingredient, paying particular attention to how many teaspoons of baking sodacompared with how many cups of flour. A quarter teaspoon measurement for bakingsoda is equally important as a cup of flour, even though the measurements are notequal. It’s the combination that is essential to a great outcome.We combine the dry ingredients first, so that there is even distributionthroughout, and then fold in those dry ingredients into the beaten eggs and liquidsubstance. We’ve all learned that no matter how great vanilla smells, the tasteof raw vanilla is quite different! (And no matter how sublime that smell is, wecan’t fall prey to “over doing it” by pouring several tablespoons in, because ofthe tantalizing smell.) We blend our batter well to best ensure smoothness, freeof lumps. Lumps contain pockets of flour and dry ingredients which will remaincakey when baked, rather than contributing to the whole cake or dessert.Air, too, can wreak havoc on an otherwise splendid dessert...so we are taught tograb the baking pans by both sides, raise them a couple of inches from the countertop and then drop them straight down to allow any submerged air bubbles to rise tothe top and break. Otherwise, they’ll remain within the dough/batter, and formcaves and pockets that are unsightly when the cake is cut. So, all theseprecautions to ensure that once we’ve allocated the proper amount of ingredientsin the correct proportions, we are pretty assured of the result that is, presumingour oven temperature gauge is correct.Each recipe calls for the oven to be set at a particular temperature, and for ourbatter to remain in the oven for a certain amount of time for optimum results. Afew degrees hot or cold will significantly alter the consistency of the result,and could either result in over baked, slightly burned or damp or liquid in thecenter—neither of which are desired outcomes. You can’t suppress the temptationto open the oven door for a quick look, you say? Do so at the peril of havingyour cake fall. After all, you DO need all the ingredients in the batter for thecake, so what ingredient would you “sell” out of, mid-way through the final bakingstage without ruining the cake?The same thing with your effectively diversified portfolio too, which somewhatresembles a cake too, with various cake slices invested in various types of mutualfunds—those that invest in large company stocks, small company stocks,international stocks, corporate bonds, global bonds, balanced funds, andTreasuries and Certificates of Deposit. Remember, there are people—you chiefamong them—that will need the sustenance of that complete cake in months and yearsto come. Don’t shortchange yourself and them by a precipitous action now.You see, no matter how tantalizing the press and the media is about snagging ourattention for hours at a time, and nearly roping our minds and eyes to theirscreens and radio waves for the latest updates and breaking news on the markets,we must follow our recipe for success which includes measurements of the namedingredients, following our recipes—inclusive of saving each and every paycheck

preferably into our pension plans and managing our outflows within our inflows--and discipline to limit our exposure to the press’ “high heat”.So measuring enough units of happiness in our lives is in some cases a talent andin others, a learned skill. Especially amidst a tsunami of negativity, we reallyneed to measure and fold in a cup or more of laughter into each day. We need tomeasure our love for ourselves and our love for others—seen and unseen. We needto counterbalance the negative with more measurements of positive so that beforewe put ourselves into bed each night, we can expect to arise the next morning witha smile on our faces.Whole areas of our lives exist outside the realm of our finances, such as ourhealth and that of our families. As I’ve learned from experience, the news of adeath or serious illness in your family of origin or choosing will instantly makeall this press mania background noise. Your focus will be redirected towards whatultimately matters—personal relationships and family. Think of that, and thankGod if you are among the lucky ones today and each day if you are spared suchnews.While money often buys us extra choices in some seasons of our lives, in otherseasons when money isn’t as plentiful for whatever reason(s), these are a few ofthe free or less expensive joys of life, many of whose benefits are priceless:* Our ability to flash someone a smile.* Our ability to pick up the phone and call someone just to check in.* Our ability to show support to someone we love.* Our ability to strike up a conversation with a stranger in the community.* Our ability to access the internet for learning (or buying and selling ourstuff).* Our ability to hand write a thank you for a simple kindness.* Our ability to hike for an hour.* Our ability to hug our family and friends and pets.* Our ability to be grateful for 10 blessings each day.These are things we can “DO” amidst market volatility and I suggest we gaincontrol over ourselves and what we allow to influence us. We can control ourminds and our language. We can control our moods. We can control the number ofcompliments we give out each day or each hour. We can control the emails we sendor forward. We can control the amount of hours we spend watching TV, and we must!We can control our reactions and our emotions. We can control the most uselessemotion of all...worry! So, ok...you say you HAVE to worry. Fine. You worrybetween 1:45-2:00am ok? When you can tell me even one positive thing that youaccomplished by worrying, I’ll be all ears. In the meantime, do yourself (and theuniverse since no action is an independent action after all) a favor; stopspending valuable waking time doing something that won’t produce anythingvaluable! Let’s face it, if what you are worrying about happens, you’ll have todeal with it. If it doesn’t you won’t. Wouldn’t you rather have an overall lifestrategy that contains basic principles like, when the going gets tough, the toughget going, if God takes you to a problem, God will take you through it. Or, theconfidence that as a thinking adult, you can handle it (whatever “it” is) justlike you’ve handled other major decisions—great or small—all through your life.What would we teach our children or grandchildren about choices in times likethese? They’re watching you know. They’re especially picking up things we don’tsay. Do you realize that we communicate MOSTLY without words? Our actual wordsrepresent only 7% of all communication, with tonality and physiology representing38% and 55% respectively.

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