Baking is therapy. Husby knows that a long day = pecan pie, a day rough around the edges = chocolate chip cookies, and if it requires a trip to the fancy carpeted grocery for specialty ingredients, just stay away until I’ve had a bite.
Baking is kind of magical. Taking the tasteless – flour, eggs, baking powder or soda. Adding that which doesn’t taste good by itself – salt, oil, vinegar. Dropping in intense flavors that call for other ingredients to tone them down – sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, citrus zested.
The finished product needs all the ingredients, together better than they were when on their own.
Apron around my waist, which is softer than ever. My kitchen swells with scents, messes, laughter, heat, love. The Boy scoots around the floor, playing with plastic cups, his stuffed puppy, the dogs dishes… =) Daddy and I sample the dish, spin to grab a spoon, add a pinch, mix and stir, dust surfaces with flour, use old woven potholders and older recipes from Grandma.
Baking together muddles time. The techniques are the same as hers, my grandma with the softest skin and hands and dinner rolls. Her life continues to intersect with mine here in my kitchen as we bake cookies that my moms moms mom made, probably as her own babies crawled on the floor. I wonder how she knew to add just enough flour and butter to make impossibly crumbly and rich shortbreads.
On their own, butter is just yellow fat and flour white ground harvest. Stirred with my mixer, butter and flour become cookies, cream colored and perfect on my plate.
We too, this family, are better together than when on our own.
I soften. He slows. Together is our favorite way to be; it’s where I am the best version of myself because it’s the real one. Our bad parts burn bright, yes, but together, our goods are better and our better really good. There’s no start to him and end to me – we’re just one us.
Batter in the oven, we dance in the spice-laced kitchen. We gaze at the grinning boy seated in the middle on the floor, puppy at our feet, both looking up at us joyfilled.
That little baby boy is the best parts of us both.
In baking, we create new things – good things – and isn’t that what God does in us all?
This post is inspired by Sarah McCoy’s The Baker’s Daughter, which I loved and highly recommend. In a small Texan town, Reba discovers Elsie’s German Bakery and falls in love with more than the pastries. She’s drawn to Elsie’s life in Germany during the last year of WWII. Join From Left to Write on August 29 as we discuss The Baker’s Daughter. As a member, I received a copy of the book for review purposes.
anna
{girl with blog}
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A beautiful posts. I can sense the calm you feel when you bake!
Yarmmmm…sweets and Jesus…this blog was made for me! Haha! I’ve been trolling the internet looking for “minnesota blogs” after moving back to the state from a long time away…I’m really digging your site!
This was beautiful- and so true! Your words here are perfection. I adored this post!!
You put into words beautifully how I often feel when I am in my kitchen…I learned to bake from my Grandmother many years ago and don’t bake often enough…love this Anna…
Great post. The book sounds terrific.
🙂 love this. I bake when I’m stressed too. Your marriage is such a beautiful inspiration.
This was such a beautiful post. Thanks for bringing us along your generational journey in your kitchen.
So sweet 🙂 I love the way you described your life intersecting with your grandmothers. I never thought of it that way. Each year at Christmas my mom, sister and I get together to make an old family recipe of Biscochos. This year I’m going to remember your post and how our lives are intersecting with the lives of all the women in our family before us that made the same cookies for their loved ones!
I completely agree that baking is therapy. Any time I’m feeling stressed, I end up in the kitchen. Thanks for sharing!!
Gorgeous post! So glad I stumbled upon your blog today.
What a great post! He truly does make beautiful thing out of us, even if we think we are nothing!
Stopping by from the Allume attendee’s page, I wanted to say HI! I’ll be at Allume, hope to see you there!