Dibble, Dabble, Double

--Adrienne Miller

I’m a dabbler. I dabble. It’s what I do. 

Not with everything, of course. I don’t recommend dabbling in marriage or parenthood. Chances are you won’t make it very far if you only dabble in writing. Some things take bone-deep commitment, and I’m not afraid of that. But when comes to ways to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon, I’m a confirmed dabbler. 

I’ve learned to crochet and decoupage. I’ve made scrapbooks and collages. I have the afghans and family albums to prove it. Some of these crafts I was semi-competent at and others...well, let’s face it. I was total crap. But that’s the beauty of dabbling--limited ego investment. 

Right now, the dabble du jour is baking. I took it up a few years ago, and tried jumping right into cake and pie territory. But a really good cake or pie takes skill, and developing that skill takes time. We dabblers aren’t big on investing time. It goes against our code. 

My favorite chef hard at work.

So, a few mealy chocolate cakes and crunchy pie crusts later, I moved on and found my wheelhouse. Bread. Yes, I know good bread takes just as much time and skill to make as pastry, but, for some reason, it clicked. The smell of yeasty dough rising in the kitchen fills me with joy. The thought of having warm, fresh bread in the house is comforting. 

I make decent loaf breads and baguettes. My cinnamon rolls are out-of-this-world good, and my Challah is phenomenal. 

Dang, I'm getting the urge to braid some dough just looking at that.

Now, I don’t bake every day. I don’t have any plans to quit my day job, get myself one of those tall, white hats and open up a little boulangerie. Nope. Every other weekend is fine by me.

You see, I’m a dabbler. It’s what I do.