From the Pharmacy to Kitchen Counter

I became a pharmacist long before I became interested in baking. In fact, my first batch of chocolate chip cookies were too salty. The second and future batches were too hard and oddly shaped. I did master oatmeal-craisin cookies, which made it into my repertoire of baked goods. Soon this list expanded to banana bread and chocolate cake from scratch. Recently, I made pumpkin bread, pumpkin pound cake, banana-chocolate chip bundt cake, and oatmeal-chocolate chip-craisin cookies. I noticed that I have been bringing my pharmacy skills into the kitchen. Perhaps, like my techniques used on the pharmacy counter, my baking skills just needed practice and, more importantly, accuracy with the measurements and the order of combining ingredients. Baking is essentially compounding the extemporaneous formulations that I used to love making in the hospital pharmacy. So, now I'm measuring milk, oil, and water with a measuring cup instead of cherry syrup or water in a graduated cylinder. I'm molding cookies instead of suppositories. I'm crushing cloves instead of tablets with a mortar and pestle. I'm storing the finished products in Tupperware instead of medicinal bottles and jars. The ultimate users were pediatric patients; the ultimate consumers are my children. Who says I'm not practicing?