Why I started baking (and haven’t stopped since)

When I moved away from my hometown, I immediately started learning how to cook from scratch and bake. I remember removing meat from my diet because I wanted to see how my body felt without it. Right away, I realized I had to become extremely creative with my meals. I had to read ingredients because I was also starting to pay to what ingredients were in packaged food and produce. I didn’t think that all of those ingredients were healthy or normal. And lets just be honest here, I have had so many bad experiences with store bought food I had to make some kind of change as to what I was putting into my body. I had always watched the adults around me cook and bake foods from scratch so when I started that journey for myself I just carried what I learned from them and experimented.

One of my greatest memories is watching my great grandmother make all sorts of things in the kitchen. Soup, canned fruits and vegetables, pies, biscuits, cakes, I mean anything you can think of she probably made from scratch. Another thing I learned was that my grandfather on my dad’s side went to culinary school; he has his own book of recipes which is just awesome.

Funny story. There was one time I wanted to make my grandfathers carrot cake (my favorite cake), and I completely botched it. At the time I didn’t know what “sifting” was so ended up just mixing it, and I ended up over mixing the batter so it had a smokey flavor to it. I’ll never forget all of the silly mistakes i’ve made learning to cook and bake from scratch. Its taught me how to be creative in the kitchen; specifically how to add more color to my pallet, how to create flavor from nothing which is one of the best parts. But I would have to say that patience is the greatest lesson that making things from scratch has taught me. Baking especially taught me to be patient, and that things don’t have to be rushed to have a decent outcome. I truly believe that everything is a learning is a learning process; but it can still be fun and silly if you allow it to be. Baking can be tedious especially during the early beginning stages, but it is as tedious as it is relaxing. Even more comforting knowing what is exactly in my food, and knowing that I can do anything I put my mind to if I just stay curious, stay open and just have FUN.

With whatever thing you want to try that’s new to you, just have fun, stay curious, stay open to the unexpected and see where it takes you.