Baking in my Favorite Kitchen
When I was reading the chapter "kitchen, food and family" in the book "Religion in the Kitchen: Cooking, Talking, and the Making of Black Atlantic Traditions" I started to think about my own experiences in the kitchen.
Growing up I spent a lot of time at my grandparents' house, especially after I moved in 5th grade to the town next to where they live. In their kitchen was really where I got to explore cooking and baking with the guidance of my grandmother. We would cook dinner every night I was there together. I made many mistakes in the kitchen, but I did learn from them, I also learned how to experiment with cooking.
The quote "fell in love with the kitchen" from this chapter really hit home for me because I really did fall in love with her kitchen. I often would spend more time cooking her kitchen than my own. I know where everything is, and I am the most comfortable when I cook there.
My favorite thing to do in the kitchen is to bake. Yeah, cooking is fun, but I just really love the process and outcome of baking. The first thing I "perfected" was zucchini bread when I was 10. My grandmother's recipe called for walnuts in the bread, but I have never liked the taste or texture of nuts so I was discussing with her different ways to substitute out the nuts. (yes I would make plain zucchini bread without the nuts but I wanted to make something fun) We brainstormed and came up with chocolate chips as the substitute. Naturally, I wanted to try it out right away so we went to the store to get chocolate chips. When we were in the store we realized there were many kinds of chocolate chips, but we didn't know which kind would be the best for our bread. We decided to try a few different ones, semi-sweet, dark chocolate, and mini semi-sweet. After we made 3 loaves with different chips, we decided the mini semi-sweet chips were the best. The reason I wanted to share this story was because it is just my favorite memory I have of my time in that kitchen.
Now anytime I taste zucchini bread I think of both my grandmother and the story I just told you, as well as all my other fun times baking in that kitchen.
In my experience, taste does have memories attached to it. I have some foods that I tried once and had a bad experience related to, and now do not like. The example that comes to mind is Chick-Fil-a (*GASP*). The reason I do not like it is because every time I have had it, later that day I have felt sick to my stomach so I just avoid it because of that. Food can have good memories attached to it too though!
My favorite thing my grandfather makes is chicken gumbo, his mother's recipe from his childhood in Lousiana. It is one of the few things he makes on his own without help from my grandmother. (he is usually the sous-chef to my grandmother) At Wheaton sometimes they have served gumbo in Chase and every time I have taken a bowl of it with hopes that it will taste as good as my grandfather's. I am always disappointed. Over the last 4 years, I haven't been able to figure out just what's so wrong about it, but the taste is off. But maybe the memories I have with the soup is one of the reasons it doesn't taste as good to me.
Growing up I spent a lot of time at my grandparents' house, especially after I moved in 5th grade to the town next to where they live. In their kitchen was really where I got to explore cooking and baking with the guidance of my grandmother. We would cook dinner every night I was there together. I made many mistakes in the kitchen, but I did learn from them, I also learned how to experiment with cooking.
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| I could not find a photo of the kitchen or me cooking in it. Instead here is a photo of my grandparents supporting Wheaton College. (they are standing in their kitchen I was talking about) |
The quote "fell in love with the kitchen" from this chapter really hit home for me because I really did fall in love with her kitchen. I often would spend more time cooking her kitchen than my own. I know where everything is, and I am the most comfortable when I cook there.
My favorite thing to do in the kitchen is to bake. Yeah, cooking is fun, but I just really love the process and outcome of baking. The first thing I "perfected" was zucchini bread when I was 10. My grandmother's recipe called for walnuts in the bread, but I have never liked the taste or texture of nuts so I was discussing with her different ways to substitute out the nuts. (yes I would make plain zucchini bread without the nuts but I wanted to make something fun) We brainstormed and came up with chocolate chips as the substitute. Naturally, I wanted to try it out right away so we went to the store to get chocolate chips. When we were in the store we realized there were many kinds of chocolate chips, but we didn't know which kind would be the best for our bread. We decided to try a few different ones, semi-sweet, dark chocolate, and mini semi-sweet. After we made 3 loaves with different chips, we decided the mini semi-sweet chips were the best. The reason I wanted to share this story was because it is just my favorite memory I have of my time in that kitchen.
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| https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/zucchini-bread/5f75d183-d3e9-431a-9a93-22f0c957b56a |
Now anytime I taste zucchini bread I think of both my grandmother and the story I just told you, as well as all my other fun times baking in that kitchen.
In my experience, taste does have memories attached to it. I have some foods that I tried once and had a bad experience related to, and now do not like. The example that comes to mind is Chick-Fil-a (*GASP*). The reason I do not like it is because every time I have had it, later that day I have felt sick to my stomach so I just avoid it because of that. Food can have good memories attached to it too though!
My favorite thing my grandfather makes is chicken gumbo, his mother's recipe from his childhood in Lousiana. It is one of the few things he makes on his own without help from my grandmother. (he is usually the sous-chef to my grandmother) At Wheaton sometimes they have served gumbo in Chase and every time I have taken a bowl of it with hopes that it will taste as good as my grandfather's. I am always disappointed. Over the last 4 years, I haven't been able to figure out just what's so wrong about it, but the taste is off. But maybe the memories I have with the soup is one of the reasons it doesn't taste as good to me.
I like how you pointed out the connection between memories and taste. I think everyone can relate to that concept of good and bad memories with food. For example I hate green frosting. The color of frosting makes no difference to the flavor, but as a kid I remember eating a cupcake with green frosting and I got really sick soon after so now I have this strange aversion towards it only based upon a memory and not on flavor.
ReplyDeleteI love zucchini bread! I also love that you included fond memories you have with your grandparents to emphasize the fact that food can bring back memories of a specific time and setting. I absolutely hate mushrooms (everything about it- taste, smell, how it looks) because of a bad experience I had as a kid. When they cook mushrooms at chase I want to leave because the smell makes me feel so sick.
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