As I’ve mentioned quite a few times, PITA and I have been binge-watching seasons of the Great British Bake Off, awed by even the least of these bakers. When you consider over 10,000 people try out for 12 slots – – that’s a lot of baking skills for zero cash. And now on to the other swing of the pendulum – – Nailed It, which kept coming up on Netflix, so we watched a trailer on YouTube and thought it was hysterical…it’s not. Two episodes in and frankly, these bakers couldn’t tell parchment paper from papyrus, imho. Yes, I know they’re supposed to be “bad,” but these bakers consider themselves good bakers (and probably cooks as well) and that’s scary.
Which leads me to an article I read today about quarantine in the modern age with people who just don’t have the cooking and baking skills of prior generations. I’m just as guilty of buying the rotisserie chicken, making a side dish and thinking I’m the big kahuna ’cause I use the leftovers for tacos, but when you have to cook entire meals – with planning – day after day, well, that explains the explosion of YouTube videos and the hours spent watching ’cause we’re lost, for the most part. We have a few favorites from the slow cooker or air fryer or a family dish we make occasionally, but that’s it. Our moms (or dads) did an entire meal from scratch every friggin’ day. I bow my head in shame and salute them. Of course, my mother never made bread, so that’s my singular baking skill, although honesty compels me to say my loaves, tasty and gorgeous as they are, would never bump me up to a television show.
My mom grew up poor, right after the depression and they had 7 kids and only a father who worked. They did not have much food at times, so when my grandma used to come stay with us for a week or two in the summer (my mom was a school teacher) she used to go around saying we were spoiled. If she saw us grabbing a snack before dinner she would throw a fit!
My mother did cook many meals from scratch, but she was the first to use convenience foods and the microwave….mainly because “she could”. We probably were spoiled…but that’s all we knew. I remember my mother making homemade bread and that was such a treat. Now I realize she thawed out frozen loaves and “baked” them! I never knew yeast packets existed. I never knew you could make a cake without a box!
I love baking truly from scratch and my mom would not believe I even make my own yogurt! I do it for fun and because it tastes better. This lockdown has not changed much for us….except this mask wearing and all the hand washing!