Because I’m such a nice guy, I occasionally make a bunch of chocolate-chip cookies for the missionaries. Last week I whipped up a batch.
After baking them, I sampled a few (quality control is very important!) and realized they tasted… off. Too salty. And they didn’t flatten out much; they were sort of hemispherical. A few had burned because I’d used a dark pan. Hmm.
I thought about it a bit and realized I’d not only used the wrong measuring spoon and put in three times the salt, I’d used baking powder instead of baking soda. Big mistake. That said, the missionaries all devoured the cookies and told me they were fine.
But it didn’t sit right with me, and today I made another batch. I was more careful with my measurements, and double-checked my ingredients. The result was much better.
The lesson: follow the recipe. In life, there are things we should be doing, and if we stray too much from the path, we find ourselves in a bit of a mess. Too salty. Shaped wrong. Burned.
I know what I need to be doing. Am I doing it? Am I following my recipe?