This week’s theme- baking catches me at a bit of a disadvanage. I am not a great baker. I am an adequate baker. I can bake a batch of cookies, whip up a cake, follow a recipe, but I don’t particularly enjoy doing that. I’m more of a casserole/main dish kind of cook. I think that is because I grew up in my grandmother’s house and she was a heart patient. So not a lot of fried foods, not a lot of baked goods etc. During my teenage years, my sister and I tried to achieve that Balanchine body for our dance studio, so baked goods became forbidden food.
But once a year we ventured up to my Grandpa’s family reunion up in Michigan. There my great aunts filled a table full of delicious cakes, pies and other goodies, all from scratch! We also had an honest to goodness old fashioned bakery not far from my school when we were growing up and it was such a treat to go in their and see the baker whipping something up in the back. We pressed our noses against the glass and drooled as we inspected all of the confectionary cookies and other dainties. So I knew what good baking smelled like, looked like and tasted like.
As a teen, my introduction to cooking was the obligatory batch of cookies, and other than some survival recipes, that’s pretty much all I knew how to do.
We were married in August. By that fall I felt that I should embrace my inner Betty Crocker and attempt to bake something for my new husband from scratch! I decided on making a seasonal pumpkin pie! Armed with my Betty Crocker Cookbook, I made my pie crust and it seemed to be at least as good as what I could buy at the store. While I was doing that I had my pumpkin sitting in a pan of water baking in the oven. When it was sufficiently soft enough, I scraped away the pumpkin meat, and followed my recipe, adding the proper spices and other ingredients. It was starting to smell like a pumpkin pie. Finally I was able to fill my pie crust with the delicious pumpkin filling and after an hour or so, I had a beautiful homemade pumpkin pie sitting on my stove top, awaiting the admiration and gratitude of my new husband!
I went upstairs and took a nap.
When Mr. Pete got home, he asked me if I was going to make a pie, and I excitedly told him I already had and it was sitting on the stove top. He then informed me that there was a beautiful pie crust on the stove, but there was nothing in it! I ran downstairs to discover that my one year old puppie had licked the pumpkin pie filling out of my pie crust. He had licked it so clean, you couldn’t tell that any pumpkin had ever been in there. If not for the telltale signs of pumpkin pie filling all over his face, you would have never known what happened to the fruit of my day’s labor! I didn’t even know dogs liked pumpkin pie!
That was not a good day.
I think having children, particulalry little boys, renewed my interest in baking as they were always so eager and appreciative to have homemade cookies and cakes. But my sister-in-law’s example really left an impression on me of the importance of baking in family life. My sister-in-law passed away at age 45. At her wake I was looking through her family albums and I noted that there was always a picture of Helen with something she baked. They were posed shots as if to say, “This is what I made to day and it turned out so well I want a picture!” There were birthday cakes, and goodies for other events. She documented them so well and it was as if her kids could look at the picture and the treat their mother had baked and recall the sighs, sounds, smells and tastes of that day. It reminded me that these home baked treats really do add something special to our homes and are a labor of love for our family!
I’m still not a great baker. But somehow my son Sam caught the baking bug. Ever since he was little he has been interested in stirring and measuring and baking. When some kids walk around not knowing what to do with themselves, Sam will walk around and say, “I just need to bake something!” We always keep some kind of mix up in the cupboard for just such an occasion. Last year he even took a cake decorating class at the local craft store! He says he wants to do that for a career. We’ll see.
In the meantime I am happy to hand over baking duties to Sam, and he is happy to oblige me. Whether for a feast day or birthday, Sam has the desert tray well covered!
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