Pumpkin bread just prior to baking

Setting up the Best Brownie Recipe Contest taught me something I did not know. Far fewer women are baking. How could that be? I began this post by looking at what baking is, precisely. Here’s what wiki told me:

Baking is the technique of prolonged cooking of food by dry heat acting by convection, and not by radiation, normally in an oven, but also in hot ashes, or on hot stones. It is primarily used for the preparation of bread, cakes, pastries and pies, tarts, quiches, and cookies.

In short, this is a very very old process. Indeed, when humankind mastered the art of fire, they shifted from a hunter/gatherer lifestyle, to an agrarian lifestyle. And the experimentation of what one could do with various grasses and grains, including the first baked breads, emerged. Our soul memory on baking is extremely old. It’s in our genes.

Relief of bakery of Ramses III (12th century B.C.), from his tomb

While I know that many many of my loyal readers do, in fact, bake, my realization is that the majority of women, particularly young women, do not. They are busy and they grab mixes off the shelves of local markets–even health food markets. Here’s what I want you to know.

First, baking is really easy. Impossibly easy. You have access to a zillion recipes in seconds simply by googling. And if you can read a manual, you can read a recipe. And, there are all levels of baking. I’m busy, too. Pick the easy recipes. The fast recipes. If you master one or two or three and you will already be way ahead of your peers, will advance your lifestyle by you won’t believe what quantum number, and your family will never forget that you did.

scone dough, so delightfully ancient a thing

Scones ready for oven–so wonderful in their messiness, and about to be transformed!

Secondly, if you bake you will save tons of money. You may think you are “saving time” by grabbing something off the shelf, but you are spending a lot more of your income. What do you pay for a scone? I make at least eight each week and freeze them as soon as they cool off, each in an individual plastic bag. I have one with tea in the morning. I know I’m getting butter, fresh organic eggs, cream, healthy flour and organic fruit, often blueberries or, in summer, wild blackberries I can pick in my own garden. Let’s see. I am spending under $2.00 for eight scones. What are spending at your local coffeeshop for a muffin? See? And it’s like this with anything you can imagine. You save your money while increasing the value of what’s available to you and your family at any given moment. You have good food on hand.

See?

Thirdly, by learning to bake you will change your relationship with yourself by empowering yourself to create food from virtually nothing. Good nothings, but you know what I mean. You can take flour and water and oil and egg and sugar and create something marvelous. Over and over again.

“Nothin’ says lovin’ like somethin from the oven.” ~Pillsbury tagline

In pondering this post I was recalling last evening something my wonderful teacher Angeles Arrien told us about when I was studying anthropology in grad school. She shared that at some point in her early upper education she had participated in a study conducted in nursing homes. The purpose was to find creative ways to impact the well being of those living in nursing homes. These folks found that residents responded very well to the simple act of allowing the smells that come from baking to filter through the air system into their rooms.

Imagine the wonderful delicious smells that come from peach pie, gingerbread, peanut butter cookies, puddings, baked apples, ah, yes, and pumpkin bread, a favorite in our home. Imagine the impact that has on you and your family. It speaks of well being. It speaks of luxury. It speaks of comfort. And it speaks of deep nourishment, which you provide. How do you pay for that, short of a chef?

Lastly, I am obliged to say that baking is really really FUN! Yesterday I found these heart-shaped cookie cutters and I cannot wait for Valentine’s Day as I am already planning to make butter cookies, the very kind I made when Antonia was a little girl, with frosting. Oh, yes I am.

And I stood pondering that teeny heart in the center asking myself, what can I do with that? And realized that the next pie I make with a top crust (though I tend to weave my crusts as I can’t bear not to, they are so amazing) I will embellish with a small circle of hearts. I am excited just to think of it. Am I part Martha?

Love and kitchen blessings!
Kathryn xoxo

Posted on January 16th, 2010 by Kathryn
Filed under: People at Life | 28 Comments »

Ever a fan of reference books I was delighted to see Timber Press had published The Encyclopedia of Herbs, subtitled with the promise to be A Comprehensive Reference to Herbs of Flavor and Fragrance. Well qualified authors Arthur Tucker, professor of botany and Thomas Debaggio, founder of an herb farm and nursery, do not disappoint. It is both interesting and useful that the book focuses on culinary herbs, as this eliminates the sometimes burdensome and overwhelming task of identifying the medicinal values of the thousands of plants we have available to us for healing. What is also most constructive is that the book is highly readable, even though based in solid sciences. However this observation, taken from the introduction, will kindle the heart of gardening readers.

“We rely on botanists and agricultural scientists for an understanding of herbs and their cultivation, and we believe their research provides useful guidelines, but it is not infallible and should not be read as the last word on the subject. Every spring brings new revelations to the observant gardener, as well as to the careful scientists.”

The Encyclopedia of Herbs is arranged in two large sections. The first provides a very pragmatic overview of how to grow, harvest and preserve herbs. This will appeal to all those now engaging in growing one’s own food so often without the benefit of family members on hand to pass along how we do that exactly. And I am very much looking forward to utilizing the second section, which is an excellent guide which will vastly assist me in identifying, cultivating, caring for and using the herbs I’m most likely to use in the kitchen. At present I always have on hand, throughout the year, rosemary and oregano. I’d have to say other efforts, at, say, sage, and thyme, have not been as successful, though, granted, part of that was the aggressive nature of the oregano which has not only taken over the very large pot it’s in, but has now spread itself at the foot of my arugula and chard. Good to know! So I have yet a lot to learn, dear readers, in this department. How about you?

Following are some of the illustrations that grace The Encyclopedia of Herbs. You will find this book contains all the herbs you are familiar with, offering a good starting point, and then many herbs the authors are inviting us to consider using, and why. I think this book could keep us busy for a long time. It’s certain to take its place beside Back to Eden (old favorite) as an invaluable addition to my garden library.

lemon verbena

I learned this year from the gardener at Frey Winery that you can take cuttings from this plant, and I tried, unsuccessfully, but it’s one I want to establish in the coming year. I adore the tea in the evening. If you are not familiar, it’s extremely pleasantly aromatic.

calendula

I personally associate calendula with healing salves. This informative book tells me it is called poet’s marigold in England. And who knew this?

“The carotenoid-rich yellow to orange petals of this annual daisy were once used to color butter, cheeses, and custards and to thicken soups and add a pleasant taste to salads, and to substitute for expensive imported saffron.”

coriander

I should here mention that one of the fascinating aspects of this book is that when a plant is listed we are then given the name of the plant in various languages! Thus coriander is also listed as:

French: coriandre
Italian: coriandolo
Portuguese: coentro
Spanish: culantro
Arabic: kuzbara

How thoughtful! I love this! I’m always struggling to translate plants into Spanish. Now I won’t have to. Thank you, authors!

sage

I think I will have best success if my sage is given its own pot. I’m reading it cannot stand frost, so looks like it will have to be mightily protected in winter, or grown as an annual. Boo hoo hoo.

And here is my own precious and endeared rosemary.

rosemary

One way to get hooked on rosemary is to purchase those shorn (but fragrant) rosemary “Christmas trees.” I have at least one of those. (It’s in a pot.) Once you grow it you will wonder why it took you so long and you will never go without again. Trust me.

I am wishing each and every one of you a Happy New Year. These are the days we are planning our gardens, dreaming of what we will create when the sun’s warmth returns and we can manifest what’s been brewing in our creative minds. I think you will find that The Encyclopedia of Herbs will inspire and guide you into new rich realms you had only begun to explore, adding to your culinary skills and to the very essence of your lives.

Love and gardening blessings,
Kathryn xoxo

Posted on December 31st, 2009 by Kathryn
Filed under: Book Notes | 8 Comments »