baking n o m e e i've been getting back to baking 101222 ... uoasI Cupcakes make me happy. I think I may like to bake. 111006 ... gja Excitement for new oven. Who’d have thought, eh? 111006 ... tender square i don’t know how i learned to bake, no one ever really taught me. yeah, i took home ec for six weeks in grade nine, but i don’t really count that. my mom has never baked anything in her life; we bought all our cakes and cookies at the grocery store thankyouverymuch. my grandmothers, on the other hand, were both talented bakers but mostly made their goodies for the holidays. and though they never taught me either, i like to believe that my aptitude for it comes from them. don’t ask me about the chemistry of it all—i have no idea how any of it works, it’s alchemy. and i don’t create my own recipes from scratch, i just follow directions someone else has cooked up. * it was a coworker who had first told me about the great british bake off. “it’s such a great show; when the contestants are overwhelmed, the hosts will comfort and encourage them, it’s so different from the reality shows we have here.” chris said he and his wife just adored it. i didn’t look into it then; it wasn’t until i saw a fellow poet at school, cloe, watching it in her office that i took interest. “you watch this show?” i was surprised. “yeah, i find it helps my anxiety,” she said. she was wrapped in a blanket, playing it on her laptop, killing time between classes. i sat with her and watched too. later that week i got started on season seven on netflix, and worked my way backward to the beginning. (new season starts later this month, woot!) i love paul hollywood’s seriousness and watching him award his elusive handshake. i aspire to be as cool and fashionable as prue leith when i’m in my eighties, the woman is a goddess. and mary berry from the earlier seasons—what a delight! don’t even get me started on the contestants; they are all wonderful human beings and they are so fiercely supportive of everyone baking in that tent it’s ridiculous. * witnessing all those baking challenges inspired me to try some of my own. baking became a reprieve from grad school when the stress was overwhelming and hampering my abilities to write. i made simple oatmeal cookie recipes and banana breads, it was a weekly activity. and when michael and i went to houston to care for my mother-in-law while she went through chemo and radiation, my banana bread was what she looked forward to eating back at the apartment following her appointments. and i got her into watching british bake off too. when the pandemic started and limited us to the house, my love for baking grew, though it was hard to come by flour for a while. i started making my own breads, biscuits, and shortbread cookies from scratch. michael liked my goodies so much he said i had to stop making them so frequently—as former alcoholics, they were too tempting, we could not control our portions and our waistlines grew. so i dialed it back, cut the sugar down in recipes and incorporated whole wheat flour to make the options somewhat healthier. on sundays, the day i’d break from all my schoolwork, i’d watch as many episodes of bake off as i could. * i don’t have fancy equipment or gadgets. there’s a set of nesting glass mixing bowls i use that michael’s mamma bought him before we got together. then there’s the silicone spatulas she got me in my stocking for christmas one year. i have grandma kay’s eggnog colored handheld electric sunbeam mixer from the 70s, and grandma grace’s wooden rolling pin with the red handles she used to make pierogies. i recently bought a cheap flour sifter, some cookie cutters, and a muffin scoop. * in preparation for our latest visit to canada last week, i decided to bake a bunch of recipes i’d honed over the pandemic for my family. i baked three hours a day for two days: made pastry and cookie dough with kay’s sunbeam mixer and rolled out both with grace’s rolling pin. stirred homemade caramel on the stove for 15 minutes, and spread it out with the spatulas i’d been gifted by my mom. “how do the contestants on bake off do this?!” i shouted to michael. i was exhausted but happy, jamming in my kitchen to new wave hits and getting flour everywhere. i made glazed lemon loaves, butter tarts, and millionaire shortbread. all from scratch. i bought disposable mini loaf pans, tart shells, and paper goodie bags to hold all the treats for transport and delivery. the final haul filled an entire large tote bag when we crossed the border. when we arrived, i gave my sister, my parents, my aunt, and my girlfriend amanda three containers each: 1 lemon loaf, 4 butter tarts, and 8 pieces of shortbread. “this looks like it came from a professional bakery!” they said. and their compliments about how everything tasted were even kinder. i just wanted to gift them something made with love. 210909 ... unhinged if my mother baked at home when i was young it was usually boxed mixes that didn't require a big mixer. she did have a hand mixer though; i loved licking the beaters clean when we made instant pudding. the only thing i will take the time to make myself now are what most people call russian tea cakes but my mom calls butter balls because her recipe is better than even the fancy french bakery up the street. the secret is you have to sift the flour. with something as simple as literally just flour butter walnuts and vanilla, sifting the flour makes all the difference in an almost indescribable way. 210909 ... unhinged i also came late to the great british bake off party but found myself obsessed during the pandemic. the kindness on that show is refreshing compared to most american reality/competition shows. bake squad is also a good show on netflix where the contestants are kinder to each other than most and the results are amazing. i wish i had my grandma's pierogi rolling pin! my current kitchen is way too small so i haven't made any myself in a long time but it is something i am really glad my mother taught me how to do. 210909 ... tender square so much yes to getting your tongue caught in the beater licking every delicious drop clean! and yeah, i don’t know what it is about sifting all-purpose flour but i do it for everything even if the directions don’t call for it, it makes it softer like cake flour, everything comes out fluffier. thanks for the tip about bake squad, i’ll have to check that out. would you want to teleparty an episode of the new bake off season together? i know we’re in different time zones… jealous that you know your grandmother’s pierogi recipe. my mom has my grandma’s but she didn’t use standardized measurements, the directions literally have like “2 handfuls of flour” but the thing is, my grandmother means the size of HER hand; is it handful or a palmful? no one really knows, it’s all eyeballed and a lot of hit and miss. 210910 ... unhinged time zone might be an issue but bake off teleparty sounds good to me :) my grandma's pierogi recipe is like that too...the dough is very sticky and unwieldy with the recipe i have. my mom played fast and loose with the fillings depending on what we had around the house but potato cheese usually wins out 210910 ... epitome of incomprehensibility I love pierogis! Personally, I've not attempted many dumpling- and crepe-type things, but I can make a number of small desserts. Also savory squares. I'm reasonably good at substitutions. It's fun experimenting. The tricky thing is when steps have to be done in a certain sequence. A batch of cookies turned out too crumbly because I was supposed to mix the ingredients in a different order. 210910 what's it to you? who go blather from