“I can’t cook.”

“I bake, I don’t really cook.”

That’s what I say all the time. Baking brings me joy – crafting cookies, pies, and desserts? It makes me happy. I’m good at it. It makes me smile when someone compliments the texture of the brownies I’ve made, or shipping off a dozen cookies to a friend in another state. I rarely get nervous preparing a dessert, because I rarely make a bad one.

And then I offered to host my sister’s bridal shower and realized – uh oh. I have to cook for these people. Yikes. What was I thinking? Sure, some family members volunteered to bring some food – but… really? Not enough of them.

So I did what any self-respecting social media junkie would do: I put out a plea for help on Twitter. Fortunately, an awesome foodie replied giving me a recipe for some awesome caprese salad bites (grape tomatoes sliced in half marinated in balsamic vinaigrette, fresh basil, and buffalo mozzarella stacked on a cutesy toothpick). THEY WERE A HIT. There wasn’t much left over, but people asked if they could take this stuff home! And don’t even get me started on my bruschetta – which was pretty good as well.

I guess I can no longer hide behind my “I can’t cook” excuse anymore.