For a while now I have been looking for ways to tell stories and create legacies and traditions that I will be able to pass down to my children, (God willing I will have children). One of the things I discovered as an adult is how much I do not know about my parents and the lives they lived before us, the people they met, their lives before they met each other and the like. I also noticed how many core memories were created throught certain experiences my siblings and I had growing up and how we have not done much to remember. There are photos, but I want to be able to tell this stories and also continue the practice.
I think that one of the ways we can break generational trauma is continuing the healthy cycles and even enhancing them. For me this is baking pastries. This is where I explain the title of this post. Growing up, my mother celebrated everything with us, big and small. This taught us gratitude and contentment. This taught me to always thank God in all things. Before the concept of buying birthday cakes was a thing, my mother was already ahead of her time. She baked the cakes and did the icing. She would buy additional snacks and do a whole decoration, it was more like a snack chacuterie board with a cake as its center piece.
Fast track to when I completed highschool and discovered pinterest. This is when I discovered my love for baking and cooking basic foods and making them look interesting. I also discovered how much I wanted the people around me to eat what I cook and tell me they loved it. At the same time I learned that you will burn a lot of the cakes and dishes you cook before you cook them right. Case in point, my first banana bread burnt like coal on the outside and did not cook at all on the inside. It happened two more times, and the fourth time I put too much milk, so it never cooked properly.
Today, I believe I make a really good banana bread. I made it for my crush several times, that did not bear the results I thought it would, but, we move regardless, yes?
So, in this section of my mother’s kitchen I will blog about all the basic and unique desserts, and sometimes foods such as creamy buttery soups (mostly because I’m obsessed), I will also blog about new pastries I have never attempted, and the do’s and don’ts. The goal is to practice this and share the practice so that when we all decide to have children, we will teach them the same lesson.
Meanwhile, what is that healthy generational practice that you would like to carry on and pass on to the next generation?