Baking

I love to bake. I grew into loving to bake. I didn't start truly loving it until I was 25. When I moved to Florida, I started to miss Sunday dinners at my grandparents' house. My grandma would have a whole table of great food and multiple desserts to please every palate. I didn't think much about the tradition until we moved 1200 miles away from it. 

So on a trip back to Indy, I hit my grandma up for some recipes. I got some of everyone's favorites. My dad's favorite jelly roll, family/world favorite sugar cookies (top secret and you will never see published), great-grandma's bread, etc. The time gathering these recipes was precious to me. The care taken to perfect each recipe over time. The little handwritten notes in the cookbooks. The family's little secrets. 

I love to bake. Cooking is cool too, but I love to bake. I love the family time, the gift of a baked good to someone you love, the time it takes to take ingredients that don't really taste good on their own and make it into magical deliciousness. It is kind of like family...they work as a team and in the end magic happens. It makes life slow down a little bit. In life, slowing down every once in awhile is important and anything important is worth the time. Baking is worth the time.

Today, I made Banana Bread. It was a new recipe. I decided to double it because I have this notion of freezing it for later (we shall see). It barely fit in the biggest bowl, but I was careful. My mom was there every step of the way working in tandem. We are a great team. We have that relationship many people dream about. We are friends. Best friends. Friends bake together...they just do.

Anyway, back to the bread. For a first attempt, not too shabby. When I try a new recipe, I always go directly by the book. I respect the recipe maker's vision. After the first run, I start changing things. Maybe nuts next time. Maybe some cranberries. Switch it up a bit. 

I am not giving a recipe here 1) because it is not my own 2) getting back to basics is just about the act of getting back to basics. It isn't about a certain recipe...it is about the journey. 

So take some time and find something you would buy, be it bread, cookies, brownies, cupcakes. Find a recipe and try it out. See what ingredients go into it. Compare it to the packaged version. I am sure you will see a few ingredients on the package you won't find in your pantry. For example, my box of pancake mix includes "sodium caseinate"...spell check doesn't even know what that it. "Sodium" I understand, "caseinate" I don't. Not sure where I will find that in my cupboard. I digress.

Bake it. Share the experience with someone else. Be it bringing them in the kitchen chaos or bringing them the fruits of your labor. Food used to be a social affair and we sometimes demonize it. 

Get back to the basics. Bake something.