Rachel G.

“The best way to feel at ease in the kitchen is to learn at someone’s knee. Years ago a child (usually a girl) would learn from her parent (usually her mother) by standing on a chair next to the stove and watching intently, or by wandering into the kitchen and begging to help.” ~Laurie Colwin

Baking Together

“Let’s bake cookies together.” My daughter is visiting for the weekend and brought all of the supplies to bake holiday cookie gifts for her friends. I too have holiday baking in mind. She suggests we bake together and share in order to have a broader assortment for gifting. My heart sings, I’m delighted by the invitation.

My mother was a tremendous baker, especially at the holidays. Pinwheels, lebkuchen, springerle, gingerbread, linzer cookies, chocolate crackle cookies, and more. I did not help. Mostly because she saw my presence in the kitchen as an intrusion; I was a nuisance and not welcome, even to watch. Mom had a task to do and if I was there I suspect it made more mental and physical work for her. In spite of her dismissal, I somehow managed to grow up to be a reasonably capable cook and baker.

As our girls were growing up I made it a point to include them in the kitchen. Partly because I wanted to spend the time with them. And also so they would be able to fend for themselves in the kitchen when they moved out. My daughter doesn’t remember baking dozens of cookies with me during the holiday season. But then again she was a teenager and more focused on friends, baking cookies was probably simply a way to have cookies to share. Whether she remembers or not isn’t important. She grows up to be an amazing cook and baker.

Putting on aprons and laying out our ingredients we begin a marathon of cookie making. Oddly enough it turns out I’ve chosen mostly vanilla while she’s chosen mostly chocolate. The swap is going to be better than either of us anticipated.

There’s a comfortable rhythm to being in the kitchen together. We’re enjoying fun conversations, there’s an ease to sharing the kitchen equipment. I’m delighted that I have extras of ingredients she needs and grateful she’s brought several pounds of butter plus already smashed up peppermint candy cane bits.

An amazing bounty of gluten free goodness flows from the ovens. Almond kisses, snowballs, cake pops, and vanilla cloud cookies. Then we make the hand dipped goodies, pretzels twists and sticks, peppermint bark, buckeyes, and coated oreos. We have lots of volunteers for taste testing from the non-baking contingent.

Finally finished, we assemble our gifts into tins and admire them. We’re decide to do this again next year. It’ll be even better because we’ll actually have a plan.