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Sunday, October 3, 2010

If Pioneers Had Cadillacs They Would Have Driven Them

It's interesting to me the behaviors a person chooses. I grew up in a home where we had money, more than enough, but not crazy, a lot like Mad Men. My mother (and her mother before her) was a very good cook. I learned to menu plan, grocery shop, cook, and clean before I was in high school. One strong memory is knowing when to buy radishes, if the price was too high we would just wait a week. Cooking, menu planning yes, but baking, not so much. I didn't like sweets when I was younger (my, how things change) so I had little desire to learn to make cakes, cookies and other yum-0 things. I do remember making a cake and cupcakes in a white/silver motif that was from a Seventeen magazine article (circa 1968 or 69), but that was the rare attempt.
With my own family I did a lot of baking. Cookies were baked for after school snacks, quick breads were prepared to share with family/friends, and bread was baked weekly to ease the budget. But baking was not a passion so ...
Well. I've revisited the whole baking thing. I REALLY like Kim's Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie. I have to choose not to make them weekly 'cause I will eat too many. And now I have found the Classic White Bread recipe courtesy of marthastewart.com Pizza has been a staple here in the Young household. We probably ate it at least 2 times a week--lunch and then for dinner and I don't mean leftovers. We were using Digiorno -- kind of expensive here, though, almost $10 for a frozen pizza. Yikes.
Well. Compliments of Wolfgang Puck I have found the pizza crust that works for me. Yummy, yummy, yummy. And it's easy.
All of this would not be accomplished if it were not for the new KitchenAid stand mixer. The drudgery is gone. This baby whips up ANYTHING in no time at all. We have cinnamon bread for breakfast, focaccia bread (Williams Sonoma) for lunch or dinner and then cookies or pumpkin/ginger bread for dessert.
Yes, yes it's hard to stay on the diet, but we have incorporated things like bike riding in the evening and small portions are the key to success. The only down side -- no more eating out; our bodies don't like the food with the artificial additives. (I would like the break, but I just have a glass of wine while I'm cooking and call it good.) Once, when I was extolling the pioneer virtues of enduring hardship, my father said to me, "If the pioneers had Cadillacs, they would have driven them."
Why suffer needlessly. Enjoy the good life. The right tool for the right job.

Posted by Deb at 5:35 PM

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Patricia said...

I too love my kitchen aid mixer, and love baking...thanks. Trying to be a better meal planner, and am definitely a better cook after 9 years of marriage!

October 18, 2010 at 8:01 AM
