This morning started well. I got up, had my breakfast and went straight in the kitchen. My mother in law and I picked some black currants from her bushes in the garden and I made delicious red currant jam, with a dash of Porto and gooseberry jam, also with a dash of Porto (you should try, it is delicious!) and some home baked scones.
I asked her and my husband to have these freshly baked scones with clotted cream and jam and they came for lunch, they ate them with black currant and red currant jam I had previously made, with my mother in law's fruits from her garden.
It is so true, the kitchen is the heart of a home. I was gladly cooking and tidying up this morning and thinking about feminists. I have always joked about what happened to women that burned their bras...well...their boobs dropped!
I believe since we were living in caves, certain roles came naturally for men and for women. Men had physical strength, better sense of space, so they went hunting, while women stayed in the cave, with the children, feeding, nurturing, caring. I am not at all saying that women shouldn't vote, or work, because those are citizen's rights, but women should not forget that differences are there to be respected and acknowledged. Now, with busy lives, working outside their homes, inside their homes, looking after their children, looking after their husbands, women lead mad lives, children are often neglected and of course, there is no time to cook, so the ready supermarket meals are a must.
I always had freshly cooked food at home, my mother was a housewife, we never ate frozen food and very rarely food from a tin, except when it was necessary and in my family we are all good to exceptional cooks. My mum and dad are wonderful cooks (my dad is no longer with us but he was a fantastic cook), my sisters are great too and my niece is now studying gastronomy and she cooks the most amazing dishes.
I dare say I find that eating together around the table, cooking together in the kitchen (in my family we all gather together and cook together for Sunday meals, parties, etc) creates a bond between people and also creates family ties. Along with cooking, come conversations, come trying the food together, asking each other's opinions, sharing time and even making mistakes and blaming each other for them (when we are alone, who is to blame but ourselves?).
It is a shame to spoil all those beautiful moments with quick frozen/microwave dishes eaten in front of the TV. No more sharing, no more conversations, no more family life, no more flavours in the kitchen, no more rich aromas, no more oven heat warming the kitchen and our hearts. We are all missing that, children are missing that.
My great niece, who is two years old and the most adorable little girl, came over from Brazil for a month. I bought her a little apron and she helped me baking some cupcakes. How much children enjoy to stir ingredients, mix them, see the little cupcakes grow bigger in the oven. It is like little magic. She also enjoyed gardening with me and breaking old cracked pots to put at the bottom of the new planted pots. Children need that kind of attention, they want to be part of everything. In the name of 'children shouldn't work' we are taking the fun away from them, and the fun of sharing. She is very interested in everything we do, she likes standing up a chair to observe us while we cook. She is a lot of fun to be with.
Back to the cooking, I am only warming up for the serious business. The scone recipe I used is from BBC food (I won't lie) and the jams, well, I improvise putting sort of a pound of fruit for half the amount of sugar, a drip of water, a drop of Porto and a prayer!!! It usually works.
I am glad I made people happy today with my cooking, it is a laboratory for a bigger project. I will usually attach all the recipes at the end of those posts.
See you tomorrow, we are having a barbecue at my mother in law's garden with friends. Don't we love summer???
Gisele
RECIPE NUMBER 1
Summer is great! :)
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