Back to Scratch: Before the World Got All "Mixed" Up

Well, I'm in Poland with my family for the holidays. It's been 5 years since our whole family has been together for a Christmas, so it is quite special. =)

There are many things that I have been enjoying about being back in Poland. I'm enjoying many of the memories. Many things are just different from the states and it's nice to see things from a little bit different perspective again. One thing that is different is cooking. And not just what people fix here, but how they fix it. It's true that most Polish people fix different things that Americans do, but even when I am with my family and we are having the same things that people in the US have, things are done differently. Very little is done from mixes, or pre-prepared frozen food. No hot pockets or anything like that here, (which can be kind of sad sometimes). =( But things here are done mostly from scratch, and I enjoy that. Instead of just pulling out a cake mix from the pantry, reading the instructions on the back of the box, pouring in the mix, two eggs, and some water into a pan, sticking it in the oven, and Voilà! You have a cake. Instead of that, you pull out the old Betty Crocker's Cookbook, and put in the flower, milk, eggs, baking soda, sugar, butter, and chocolate all yourself, the old fashion way.

The other day I was like, "I want to make pancakes this morning." So what did I do? They don't sell pancake mixes here. =O I don't know how to make pancakes without a mix. So, I find the cookbook with the recipe and find the things that I need. Flower, sugar, baker soda, eggs, milk, water, salt, and butter. Mix it all together and start making some pancakes. They do sell maple syrup here now, but it is super expensive, so I made the syrup from scratch too. Well, almost from scratch. I didn't stick a faucet into a maple tree and drain its sap and make syrup from that, but I put 2 cups of sugar, and one cup of water into a pot and set it to boil. Then added some maple flavoring to it. It actually tastes really good. =) Took the pancakes, and the syrup and had a great breakfast.

Later, I made some hamburgers. Pulled the ground beef from the freezer that morning to give it time to thaw and when it was ready I threw it into a bowl along with some eggs, Worcestershire sauce, and other stuff. Formed the meat into patties and threw them on the skillet. We wanted cheese with our hamburgers so I pulled out the block of cheese, cut off the little bit of mold that was growing on the side, and sliced some cheese. Got the hamburger buns fresh from the bakery that day. Ended up with some very good burgers.
 
And then my brother and I wanted to try our hand and making stuffed crust pizza so we worked on that.  For the dough I got mom's help so that I would do everything the right way, making sure to add the ingredients in the right order and making sure to have the water at the right temperature so as to not kill the yeast, and all that. Once the dough was ready, I buttered and corn mealed the pans, separated the dough into the right amounts and laid it out on the pans. Then my brother and I stuffed the crusts of 2 of the pizzas with cheese, put on the sauce and spices and toppings (and we didn't skimp). After that, we put them in the oven and cleaned up the kitchen while they baked. When they were done, we pulled them out and called the family to dinner. The stuffed crust turned out pretty well, and the pizzas overall were absolutely amazing.
 
 

 I'm definitely enjoying the time here getting back to the basics. Back to the old fashion ways. Not just with cooking and food, other things too. Grandmothers riding their bikes to the store to pick up groceries, buying your vegetables from the old man at the corner, the many unpaved roads, the people with wood burning stoves, stuff like that. =) There's nothing wrong with cake mixes, or frozen pizzas, or hot pockets, but sometimes it's nice to shake things up a bit and see that even things that are the same are different in different areas of the planet.

Hope you are enjoying your Christmas almost as much as I am. ;-)

                                                                                                                                           Tim Petersen