I don’t know about you but I absolutely hate cooking. I started cooking when I was about 9 or 10 for our family. I wasn’t very good at it and of course got heaps of criticism at times for it too. I really did hate it BUT had to do it. It was one of our chores when we were growing up. It helped out in the house especially when Mum & Dad were at work. My sister taught me everything I know…she is an awesome cook and I owe her quite a bit to be honest. We used to work together on the cooking – not sure if it was all good but in my memory, we stuck together on most of it.
The downside of all this sucks really as I love food so you I have to cook. Hubby and I used to go out a bit in the early days as neither of us liked cooking but now its turned full circle. You know, we had to cook as kids and now as an adult, I am in the same spot. When you have children, you need to cook to support them and here I am 30 odd years later thinking……..what the heck?? Here I am again in this god awful spot of cooking when I hate it, but I need to. Lucky for me, I’m in the position now where I am currently teaching both my children to cook and honestly, they’re quick learners.
We started small with toast and tea….may as well make most of this while I can!! I get my breakfast made quite often these days and they are well trained on making a cup of tea (its not as easy as you think). We then moved to using the microwave and warmed spaghetti to add to the toast. Nowadays we have moved along and we can make pizza, noodles, pasta, spaghetti Bolognese and we are currently learning how to make butter chicken. This was yummy!! Leftovers for lunch at some point.
To balance my dislike of cooking meals, I have found something that I do enjoy – BAKING. Now I know I have talked about my love of food which is one reason why I cook but I absolutely love to bake. I don’t know why but I love it. Over the years when I worked as a nanny, I always baked for and with the kids. I can be perfectly honest here and say I am not the most wonderful baker but I do LOVE this part of cooking.
There are so many different recipes around but my favourite ones are loaves or slices these days. I also have my trusty Edmonds Cook Book which was given to me when arrived in NZ. Its a bit tatty nowadays but its my go to for all my recipes. Now,I do make biscuits often but not as much as a good old fashioned cake. Maybe I love cakes and stuff because both my grannies used to bake. I don’t remember doing much of that when we were kids. That could be the reason for my rationale.
Anyways, I was just doing some baking today (banana loaf) and all this stuff was going through my head so I thought I would write it down and share it with you. I do think about this kinda stuff a lot and quite frankly, we have to do stuff we don’t want to do everyday. Some days it could just be hard getting out of bed, or dealing with a bunch numpties (just think bananas) or maybe you just aren’t feeling good. When I get in that mood like I did today, then I bake, because food always makes me feel better LOL.
The other thing I think about is the joy baking brings to life whether its your life or someone else. There is nothing like home baking to make your day. Recently, the Karate Kid turned 10 (I know double digits) and so the deal is that they get to choose the cake they want. Nan is usually the baker of the birthday cakes (she loves doing it) and so we left this one in her hands. He chose chocolate cake (he is a chocolate monster) but I am going to leave this here because I think we can all relate to baking. Its just perfect and there is nothing more perfect that a birthday and a home made birthday cake (watch this space for the birthday present saga).
This is my reason for baking right here!! Check out the dimples!! Baking brings out the good in everything!!
Happy bake day peeps.
Rosie 🌹
Life’s Rosie 