It can’t be all about photography all the time, right? I’m getting personal on the blog today so I can let you know what I’m all about when I’m not behind my Canon camera.
I grew up in rural Pennsylvania, and while I was itching to move to California since the age of 16, there were some things about my country roots that were bound to stick. One of those things is spending time in the kitchen.
All of the women (and some of the men) in my family are great cooks and bakers. I specify both because cooking and baking are actually very different things. They way I see it, cooking is an art and baking is a science. I can’t tell you the last time I followed a recipe while cooking. Sometimes I will browse a few recipes on Pinterest to get an idea of the tone of the ingredients, but then the cooking is done with feeling and not with measuring. Does it always work out? Nope. But it’s fun to experiment and who has time to recipe search all the time.
Baking, on the other hand, is a science. No one is out there “guessing” how much flour goes into a batch of cookies or a cake. You need to MEASURE that crap! Otherwise you are surely in for a disaster. You might be anyway. Who knows if your oven is accurate, and do you know what your elevation level is? I don’t. Baking is serious business and though I sometimes feel the itch to whip up a batch of home made snickerdoodles, for the most part cooking is more my jam.
When I do decide to venture into a cookbook for a great baking recipe, I decide it’s best to channel my late, great, Grandma Dayley. She was an amazing baker and I bake a pie in her honor every year in November on the anniversary of her passing. I put on one of her old aprons – which I rarely saw her without- and ask her to bless the mess I’m about to make!
My grandma never cared if it looked perfect, as long as it tasted good!
Photos courtesy of Julie Ferneau Photography
