Why I bake

I've been baking a lot recently. There have been bacon maple whole wheat scones, sour cherry pie, blueberry pie, chocolate chip cookies, and countless loaves of bread (not to mention meat sauce, ricotta, pizza and everyday meals). No, I'm not going to brag about how much time I have as a stay at home mom; that I get so bored that I bake to pass the time, or relate how we just happened upon this beautiful organic fruit that cost more than a decent bottle of wine that I just had to have because we have a huge and varied food budget. No, I typically bake for two reasons: I can be assured that I know what my kids are eating and at the very least I can control what goes into it, and also- we are broke.

It sounds counter-intuitive at first: how can making treats be cost effective? Why not just cut out all treats and desserts and special foods entirely? Yeah, we could. We could live a completely frugal life of beans and rice and dollar store spaghetti (and we have...and sometimes still do). But baking bread and the occasional treats costs less per serving than store-bought and--get this--actually makes us feel like we aren't desperate and poor. Our kids don't know we struggle. They know their mom makes them cookies and that unless mom spends time in the kitchen making it first, we don't have treats. Treats are just that-- special treats, not a commodity we pick up while waiting for the cashier to ring up our "real" groceries. Also, the sour cherries in my last pie came from our own tree!

Believe me, I am anything but superior or judgmental. I couldn't care less what you feed your kids, although I'd hope it's at least somewhat thoughtful and healthy. I'm not smug in my home-baked glory, dusting flour off my patchwork apron while gloating that MY kids don't eat high fructose corn syrup or whatever other demonized additive the crunchy moms are campaigning against this year. Nope, I just want my kids to have what rich kids have-- a full cupboard of snacks and treats and actually decent bread, not the cheap cardboard that fits our meager budget. And until things turn around a bit more, the only way we'll have that is if I make those things myself. So I set myself to making homemade goldfish crackers, graham crackers, and yogurt. I'm making hummus today and pretzels later this week. I bought a 50 pound bag of bread flour from Costco and a few #10 cans of tomatoes to make spaghetti sauce. Do I sometimes wish we could just buy the damn things at the store instead? Yeah, of course, especially when it's time to do all the dishes. But I enjoy baking, I definitely enjoy eating, and while I certainly don't enjoy being broke, I hope our kids never know it. I hope someday they look back and think I baked them stuff because I wanted to and because I could, not because I had to. It's at least partly true :)