When I feel anxious, and overwhelmed, I find that making time to do what I love helps me maintain balance in my life. Baking provides for me an enjoyable experience because it is a known structure and utilizes my experiences and skill-set to create delicious outcomes.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls this working in my flow with such intensity that there is no attention left over to worry about life issues. Baking helps me with that balance so I can focus on things I am grateful for which leads to more fully experiencing happiness and joy.
Harding University offers to faculty the opportunity to live and teach for a semester in Italy. One summer my family lived in Harding’s Italian Villa in the hills of Tuscany. We traveled throughout Italy and visited France during a week of traveling Europe. While in Europe visiting coffee bars (we call them cafés), I learned the art of enjoying beautifully handcrafted pastries. Eating in the many coffee bars sparked my interest in mastering European pastries and this spring I was able to continue on my baking journey.
One of my favorite Italian coffee bars in Florence is Caffe’ Gilli. Their window display is overwhelmingly enticing and pulls me in to get a pastry with my tea.
So, during the COVID-19 “stay at home” period, I perfected baking French croissant rolls. For my birthday one year, my friend, Jan, gifted me with the San Francisco Tartine Bakery cookbook and I mostly follow the croissant roll recipe in their cookbook.
The preparation process is soothing to my baking soul and I find comfort in opening up my kitchen pantry and pulling out the flour, sugar, and salt. The rhythm of opening the refrigerator to gather eggs, butter and milk is calming. The pulse of selecting the just right mixing bowl, measuring cups and using my mom’s metal measuring teaspoon sustains the artistic DNA in me. I find delight in choosing between my new French, piano and Danish dough whisks and I thoroughly enjoy using my Carrara marble rolling pin! It makes me happy to use fun and high-quality ingredients and tools while creating.
Reading and re-reading the recipe is delightful for me because I see cooking as similar to developing a story with more successes than challenges, and, most always, has a beautiful (and delicious) ending. Accurate measuring, mixing and kneading the dough gives me satisfaction and cultivates a sense of purpose in creating “flow” time. Being in my kitchen helps sustain me when I cannot make sense of the world around me.
Here are a few pictures of my creative work in my kitchen including my laminated croissant dough ready for the freezer.
I do not always get it perfect but when I get it right – it is really delicious and beautiful!
I am grateful for family and good friends who know me well and still accept me!
I am grateful for working appliances and equipment to support my baking addiction.
I am grateful for the finances to purchase good quality ingredients.
I am grateful for family and friends who are willing to try out my baking adventures.
I am grateful for using my gifts to serve others.
I am grateful that gratitude enhances happiness and joy.
I am grateful for the gift of baking – it truly sustains me and I get to share with friends and family.
A leading scholar on gratitude, Dr. Robert Emmons, notes that “being grateful is an acknowledgement that there are good and enjoyable things in the world.” I agree with him and one of the ways I find joy is baking in my kitchen.
Be strong. Be brave. Be fearless. You are never alone. Joshua 1:9 Sometimes I forget who I am and to whom I belong. Joshua reminds me I am never alone and to be strong and courageous. My kitchen helps me to reconnect to the woman I am and the woman I am becoming. I am grateful.
ClaraJCarroll 