Easy Peasey or what-have-you

Word on the street is that a lot of people are afraid to bake. I'll be the first to tell you that my baked goods are usually pretty ugly, but they are still pretty easy to make. I do have a couple of rules that I personally abide by because I like things the way they are supposed to be.

1. When I make anything that involves melting chocolate, I use the darkest chocolate I can get, and never use milk or semi-sweet to bake with.
2. When I make a crust, I never use Crisco. Pie crust is delicious with just some flour and butter, why muck it up with that oil crap?
3. I do use Crisco in some cookie recipes, but heck, some of the best tasting cookies have Crisco and it isn't like I'm putting an entire tub-o-oleo in it or anything.
4. Yeah I measure stuff, but I am the most imperfect person on the planet so really, an extra drop of bourbon or an extra chunk of chocolate, or a little extra sugar that 'accidentally' falls into the bowl isn't going to kill me, so . . .
5. There are no rules.

I like recipes because I am good at following directions. I don't like when people tell me what to do, but a recipe is different. So, anywho, that's my two cents on baking and scaredy-cats. And, no, you are not getting your money back.