Baking and Rainy Days

Ever since growing up, baking is one of those things I've always turned to when I'm feeling stressed. There's just something so magical about putting together a few ingredients and in a few minutes some magical scents come wafting out of the oven. Then you have something delicious to devour and it seems as if all is right in the world again. It also brings back so many fond memories of being younger and watching my mom make cinnamon buns, and me sneaking handfuls of cinammony sugar, or concocting delicious puff pastries with my Aunt in her kitchen and using them as an excuse to shovel whipped cream and just picked blackberries into my mouth. Yesterday I was watching 'Delicious Miss Dahl' on the Food Network, and I couldn't resist the urge to bake something.

In this case, it was bread. Simple, homey, and delicious slathered with Earth Balance right from the oven. I don't think I'm alone in saying that when I bake things I usually can barely taste them at first cause I'm stuffing my face with piping hot goodies. This bread was quite simple, I used whole wheat pastry flour which isn't optimal for bread since there's not enough gluten in the flour, but it was tasty nonetheless.

So much of the time I read blogs saying 'food is fuel', and while I do agree with that, sometimes I feel like we neglect to give due how relaxing cooking for yourself or others can be. Sure, I agree that more people need to strive to eat healthfully and find balance in their diets, but sometimes I find myself trying to talk myself out of baking since I know that most baked goods don't do much to feed your body most of the time. I truly believe it's about trying to find balance in your life, and the pleasure of making something delicious for myself far outweighs any negative effects. Even though I may have eaten almost half the loaf in one go, under the excuse that 'it just won't taste the same tomorrow!'.