I had a major craving for peanut butter cookies last week and the craving did not go away so I, of course, made a batch this weekend. The process starts with pulling out my recipe. Wait, what? MY recipe. Why do I call it my recipe? It’s not actually mine, I didn’t come up with it. I simply follow the directions. Well, I pretty much follow the directions. There might be a couple of tweaks… like adding chocolate chips or using half whole wheat flour instead of only white flour. I also may have used only baking soda and not baking powder. Sometimes I use almond butter or cashew butter instead of peanut butter; but not if my oldest daughter or son is around because they are allergic to almonds and cashews but not peanuts (I have to keep in mind who is in the house). I also sometimes use some honey instead of sugar. So, I guess it has kind of become my recipe. With some simple changes and alterations, I turn the recipe into something that suits me and my family.
That got me thinking about my stories. I might tell a fairytale from a book, but I never tell it exactly like it is written. With some changes of words, some tweaking of characters, and a bit of magic (just go with me here) I make changes that make the story mine. Other storytellers may use the same book and story but they will make their own changes so the story belongs to them as well.
When I get in front of the audience, I still may have to make some quick changes to suit the audience that is in the house. I could tell the same story to adults as well as elementary children but I would need to change vocabulary, maybe even the length, and I may have to leave some things out.
There are a lot of peanut butter cookie recipes and each one will be a bit different depending on the recipe and who is making them. There are also a lot of fairytales but each one will be a bit different depending on the story and who is telling them.
There’s that craving again… time for some tea, a peanut butter cookie, and a book of fairytales.