Reading my cookbooks
and then baking recipes from the internet instead
I’ve been pulling out my cookbooks lately—not for the recipes, but to flip through the pages and relax over a cup of tea. Apparently I’m not the only one. Amanda Shapiro wrote about the soothing nature of reading cookbooks like book-books over at BonAppetit, sharing that a careful reading of “How to Jazz Up Plain Rice” helped her come out of a panic attack. By proxy, the article slowed my heart rate and helped me to breathe easier, too.
I’m not a great recipe-follower. I always veer off-course inventing something of my own, whether it’s due to necessary substitutions or my own cooking intuition. This is why, typically, I avoid baking. You cannot improvise when baking a cake (unless, perhaps you have made 1,000 cakes and are being paid to experiment for your food blog).
However, at this moment, I am one of those people with her sourdough starter on the countertop, bread in the middle of bulk rise in the the fridge, and a list of times and reminders for me to stretch and fold and shape throughout my day. It started with boredom. I wanted a new project, and there were sourdough tutorials aplenty online, so why not?
But now, baking bread each week is the ritual holding me together. It requires focus and concentration, which I’ve had trouble spending elsewhere. It provides me with something to look forward to, even if that’s just a round of stretching and folding in the next half hour. It produces something nourishing and delicious, and most recipes make two loaves, so I can easily repay my neighbor for mowing my lawn every week.
I haven’t been baking from any of my cookbooks, so I contemplated culling my collection the other day. I only reach for two or three, and even then, it’s for “inspiration,” not instruction. But they look so cute in my cupboard, and they bring me joy when I pull them out and stack them on the coffee table like a bunch of magazines.
So I’m keeping my cookbooks for when I need a little meditation. And I’m baking bread to keep myself sane. Here are a few of the recipes I’ve baked and enjoyed so far:
I have two starters. One from a friend that I keep on the counter and one that I made that I keep in the fridge. I used the recipe from The Clever Carrot and fed it twice a day from Day 4 onward. I would not recommend making a sourdough starter if there is a flour shortage in your area as they eat up a lot of it. I do recommend visiting a bulk foods store if you have one.
And a few of my favorite cookbooks to read (with Bookshop affiliate links):
A couple more things
Stay tuned for two new podcast episodes releasing tomorrow. Over at He Read She Read, Curtis and I are talking about our favorite picture books to celebrate our new status as Aunt and Uncle. Over at Novel Pairings, Sara and I are discussing the dishy short story “Roman Fever” by Edith Wharton.
Here’s the ASMR room I’ll have on while I work this week: Jane Austen Ambience
You can keep up with my book reviews, podcast news, and photos of my dog at @chelseyreads, @hereadsheread and @novelpairingspod on Instagram.
Have a great week, friends!
Chelsey