Sometimes the cosmos brings into a being a moment where things intersect and leave you in a place where nostalgia and remembrance puts a broad smile of recollection on your face ... Yesterday was one of those moments in my life ...The day began with a posting at the Blog "I Can Fly, Just Not Up" about CandyGirlFlies' mother's pastry (Click here to read the posting) ... then, as I was busily cleaning the dining room Ms H set out to begin baking her OWN birthday cake ... (I'll post a picture of it later - but it was a thing of beauty - a tri-level gem with yellow, pink and green iced layers of rainbow & chocolate cake!!!).
As I read CGF's reflections on her mother's pastry, and the process not just of creating the pastry, but of learning HOW to make the pastry, it took me back to the time in my life when I realized how important my Grandmother's recipes were to me ... I asked her for the recipes, but more than that, I asked her 'HOW do you do that??'
One of my favourite recipes from Grandma was a cookie recipe that had 'a handful of this" and a 'pinch of that' and 'a dash of that'. When I got the handwritten version I went to her the next time I was home and said - "Okay, Grandma, let's make this and I'm going to figure out 'how much' a handful of this and a pinch of that is!!" She agreed and we had fun that afternoon ... the process was by far more fun than the outcome ...
But one of Grandma's gifts was her 'touch'. If you ever had her baking powder biscuits, or her bread or her pastry, you know what I mean ... CGF dances around it in her blog entry ... you can have the best, easiest recipe in the world, but if you lack the 'touch' you are flirting with disaster ... Grandma had the touch when it came to baking ... it may have been from years and years of experience, but I think it is more likely a gift from the cosmos that allows a mundane baked creation become something simply divine. I challenge anyone who lifted a biscuit out of the pyrex bowl on Grandma's counter, to disagree!!!???
I know when I first started baking and cooking, I often wished I had the 'touch' like Grandma ... then one day in Bella Coola, I entered my baking powder biscuits in the Fall Fair Baking competition ... I had been disappointed by the outcome, and wasn't happy with the biscuits I entered ... they were lopsided, they weren't as high as usual, and they weren't up to my normal standards ... But time prevented another batch, so they were taking and entered and I left feeling frustrated and disappointed in myself ...
The next morning we hit the fair and wandered around (it wasn't a BIG fair - I've mused about it elsewhere) and eventually made it to the gardening and baking exhibition area ... M won ribbons for our dahlias and sweet peas and some other flowers, and for her mint jelly ... we wandered over to the baking table and I noticed for the first time how flat and tiny the other baking powder biscuits were ... mine simply towered over them ... and sitting with the remaining five biscuits (one was sacrificed for the judging) sat a beautiful blue 'First Place' ribbon !!!!
I was shocked ... and delighted ... and awestruck !!!
When I wrote Grandma and told her her reply a week or two later affirmed that somehow I had inherited the 'touch' when it came to pastry and baking !!!!
Yesterday, reading CGF's entry I thought about Grandma's baking, the 'touch', and my own culinary experiences ... and as I listened to Ms H thumping around in the kitchen baking her b-day cake I awaited the outcome knowing that right now she has already inherited the 'touch' ... in time her baking powder biscuits WILL give mine a run for their money!!! I look forward to that day when I can say with pride that she, like her Terrific Grandma truly has the 'touch' and I pass the blue ribbon to her!!!
Happily, I don't think that day is far off ...
The best recipes require an intangible that can't be recorded in any ingredient list ... but when it's there the outcome is sublime !!!! CGF knows that ... and in my family, we've lived it!!
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