Taste Test Kitchen: Our Origin Story, Inspired by the Food and People We Love

Here’s our story, our longest story yet, but there’s lots of good stuff in it – a little family history, a little tangent, but it all describes how we got to where we are now.

The Intersection of Tradition and Novelty

I’m interested in people’s roots, where they come from, their heritage, culture, foods, and family traditions. So many influences go into making us who we are, whether it’s what we incorporate or what we resist. I’m fascinated in getting to know these layers that make a person.

Much of my own family is of Scottish and Welsh origins, with some Czech and a little Dutch. I would’ve loved to inherit recipes from these beginnings, but there are only a few. One is a pork pie recipe that my dad’s dad made at Christmas. I admit, it’s an acquired taste, but it did become something I’d look forward to.

On both sides of the family, I heard many stories about the generations who came before. As important as the stories were, I guess it wasn’t important to hand down recipes. Perhaps the immigrant generations were removed enough – our ancestors had arrived 3, 5 or more generations before – and so their homeland recipes were lost or forgotten.

When I became a mom, I felt disappointed and a little sad that I had no immigrant ancestor recipes. I’d never had a scone, shortbread cookie or Welsh cake made by my grandmothers, and I had no idea if they’d grown up eating these treats either.

One day as I was sorting through recipes online, it dawned on me that my grandmothers, aunts and my mom weren’t locked into making the same thing over and over, restricting themselves only to old-time recipes. What they loved and shared amongst themselves was new recipes – ones they’d find in women’s magazines, on radio shows, and in the newspaper. (In the time-before-blogs there was the Wednesday food section of the local paper.)

Some of these recipes became beloved hand-me-downs, starting new traditions. My mom’s dad clipped recipes and liked to try them out. We still refer to one favorite he found as “Grandpa Lou’s Potato Salad.”

I did find a scone recipe one year that became a Christmas and anytime favorite for the family. And now they’re a family tradition.

Down the Recipe Rabbit Hole

What I came to realize is that I did inherit a tradition, a love of finding new ideas and experimenting with cooking and baking. Mom and I used to laugh at how we’d get exhausted browsing recipes (me) or watching cooking shows (her) and have no energy left to get into the kitchen and try something.

We took our time going through recipes and planning holiday meals or family gatherings, much to the dismay of my husband and girls. When Mom and I finally got started cooking, we were a kick in the kitchen, her giving advice and me thinking I had a better way.

One time we hammed it up and acted as if we were our own snarky mom-daughter cooking show. Perhaps that moment when we laughed, with my two girls as our live studio audience, became the kernel of an idea that became the mom-daughter food blog Rebel and I do now.

My girls had their own opinions of my menu planning style. They commented when I began pulling out magazines and cookbooks each year to plan Thanksgiving (Rebel says, “in July” – bit of an exaggeration). But ever since the second Thanksgiving I hosted for our West Coast family, I decided not to lock into one set menu.

There were favorites we couldn’t skip, such as the monkey bread rolls I’d made the first year that my father-in-law loved and always requested. But I set a tradition of allowing space for new recipes, like stuffing, gravy, yams and how to roast the turkey. I’ll have to recount for you sometime about the year we set the turkey on fire…

From Rule Follower to Rebel

With my early attempts at cooking, I especially liked the precision of baking with its exact measurements and instructions. For main dishes and meals, I also relied on ingredients and instructions just as they were spelled out, yet I admired people who could experiment or create something without a recipe.

Now I make up and adapt recipes pretty freely. Rebel asks me how I create a new one, and it’s fun to wonder at what point I learned enough to rely on my experience of seasoning, flavoring, how different oils work, or how the ingredients of a cake or pie succeed or flop. I realize that as much as I learned by trial and error, all that reading of recipes, tips and how-to’s also sunk in and knowledge accumulated.  Plus, I’m still learning and just not afraid to try and fail, or to serve up a totally new dish for friends and family.

Rebel still asks how I can make up a new recipe, so I told her my secret. I go online and search for the type of thing I want to bake, or something similar to what I have in mind. I might open a couple of cookbooks, too. I compare a half dozen or more recipes for basic ingredients and instructions as well as new ideas and methods. From there I decide what I’ll swap, replace, take out or add.

The Food Intolerances and Allergies Arrive

Cooking and baking are more enjoyable when everything you try doesn’t involve a giant learning curve. However, within a span of several years, our family developed, discovered or married into a host of food allergies and intolerances. A lot of the skill set I’d built up got scrapped, and it felt like starting over, a big effort especially when feeding the whole family.

If you’ve tried moving away from dairy in foods or going gluten free, you know it’s not as simple as replacing one ingredient for another. Thankfully there are a ton of people out there trying the same thing and making progress, not to mention writing informative articles. There are some great food blogs and recipes that accommodate food intolerances and allergies.

Then again, some of the recipes turn out to be not quite what I was looking for, or honestly, not as delicious as I’d hoped or not quite the right texture. Eventually the kids and I gained more skills and shared what we’d learned with one another so that family dinners again became delicious and fun to prepare.

After I got some of the basics down, like which gluten free flours work better for baking and how to substitute in coconut or nut milk for dairy, I knew enough to get curious. What happens when nut or coconut milk bake at higher temperatures? What about substituting almond flour for part of the gluten free flour? And many more questions, plus those related to healthier eating, like the difference between cooking oils and how to reduce sugar.

One time, I thought strawberries and rhubarb would be delicious in a muffin, but I found big differences in recipes online and wasn’t sure what the best ingredients would be. I needed to experiment with a few options, but after I’d made two batches, we had more than we could eat. I used a simple technique that became a trend for our experimental kitchen. I divided the recipe into small batches and changed ingredients in each portion.

Rebel and I did this – dividing the recipe in fourths, which was hilarious, you do the math – with the first four scone recipes in the Sconedays series, putting in different spices and dried fruits and zest. That gave us small batches to taste, which was plenty.

Making Traditions from Scratch

The courage we have to experiment and try new things in the kitchen comes from what others have taught us, our experience, or the necessity to make a change. Sometimes the influences are hidden or unexpected. They may become obvious when we uncover our own family stories.

We could only hope that one of the recipes you find at Burnt Toast Food Blog becomes a new tradition when you gather with those you love.

~ Lee