This blog, quite literally, came out of nowhere. I have always possessed an affinity for cooking and baking, frequenting other recipe blogs, swapping recipes with friends, and experimenting in the kitchen, sometimes to my detriment. My husband and I, and now with my son, have spent many late nights in the kitchen together trying to "make it just right" for the simple purpose of bringing joy to others. But I have never even thought about putting my recipes, and mishaps, on a blog to share with this thriving community. But then I did. And here I am.
I come from a long (long) line of home cooking folks. Growing up in rural South Carolina, where yes the nearest grocery store was literally 20 minutes away, everything was made from scratch. Vegetables were grown in our backyard, bread was made from a bread starter my great grandmother baked from, and, much to my chagrin as a teenager, we always ate dinner at the table together every night. This seemingly contrived setting actually instilled in me a great sense of sharing and community that I have fostered and now share with my own community in New York City and through Breaking Bread.
Cooking and baking for me is a great deal more than mix, stir, pour, bake and serve. It is an exchange. An engagement and genuine interest in breaking bread with my community, both locally with other New Yorkers and figuratively with the free world. In the biblical sense, breaking bread refers both to common meals among Christians and the Lord’s Supper. While the latter is something I hold sacred as a Christian, it is the former that I find myself seeking every day.
Acts 2:42-47 says:
" 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."
I am one of those cooks who rarely makes a dish the same way twice, prompting my husband after a delicious success to whole heartedly say "write it down!". I often forget to do this, or sometimes at the end of a long day have forgotten what I've put into a dish by the time dinner is over! I also don't like to follow recipes, well exactly that is. I love to search for good recipes, but I always make them my own and alter them in some way. I can hardly remember a time that I have followed a recipe exactly. Perhaps this stems from my intrinsic need to not follow directions, rooted deep since childhood no doubt!
I can usually come up with some pretty good dishes, but I don't measure much; I am of the school of eye balling if you will. Hopefully this blog will help me to organize my kitchen creations, even if that means documenting my mishaps as well. Live and learn, as the saying goes...
Lastly, what I like about this blog is that it is real life. The recipes, and pictures, I post are literally what I made for family that night. Too often I have attempted a recipe, accompanied by a beautiful picture of a dish, that never comes to fruition where I am invariably left thinking that the recipe has never actually been made as prescribed. My mission, then, is hopefully to enlighten people on the right, and wrong, way to get from recipe to completed dish. To community!
Lastly, what I like about this blog is that it is real life. The recipes, and pictures, I post are literally what I made for family that night. Too often I have attempted a recipe, accompanied by a beautiful picture of a dish, that never comes to fruition where I am invariably left thinking that the recipe has never actually been made as prescribed. My mission, then, is hopefully to enlighten people on the right, and wrong, way to get from recipe to completed dish. To community!
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