Day 4 - 42 --Saturday Baking

Saturday began sunny and ended with cloudiness. The afternoon was wonderful and bright. I shoveled the end of the driveway between laundry loads and cleaning efforts. Most of the afternoon involved baking. I made muffins -- two batches. The first batch was one my mother made often and I haven't made as much as I've thought about them. The recipe for the boiled raisin muffins came from a woman who was part of the church group Mom belonged to when I was a kid. Mine look a little different -- may have been over-mixed a bit by me this time, but they smell great. The second batch is a recipe I make regularly though it has been a few months. These oat bran muffins were a recipe from Mom that I adapted a bit -- adding a mashed banana and raisins. These ones look perfect in shape and colour. So I am now set for a while with 28 muffins.

Baking from the recipes of departed family members and friends brings memories. It is communal in nature making people feel closer to their past. This was discussed in the online course I'm doing in my spare time <smirk>. Readings were from a book I've read in the past -- Baking as Biography by Daine Tye. She wrote this authoethnography based on her mother's recipe box and cards -- linking the changes in baking style and ingredients with women's lives in church groups in the 1950s and 1960s. She wove recipes with life in an amazing way to explain the changing roles of women. Well worth the read.

I giggled when I thought of the song for today. The chorus lyrics explain much of why this blog exists. The group's original name fits the activities of today. Enjoy!

Song in my Head -- Martha and the Muffins (now M+M)