The Magic of Cooking

I am a very happy teacher! I've mentioned earlier about our FCCLA Holiday Bread Sales. This week has been bread week. The mass baking extravaganza. Four different types of bread, 211 loaves, 5 days. We actually started last Friday, and so we finished up today. My 1st and 3rd hour classes did all of the baking, which they of course loved! I have to brag on my classes just a little here. They have been wonderful this week! Monday I had to be gone unexpectedly, but thanks to my very capable substitute, bread week went ahead as planned. I was worried all day about how the bread making would go, but these kids stepped right up and baked 50 loaves of lemon bread in one day! Not only that, but I came back to clean kitchens. It's so nice to know that they have learned something this semester! I have some amazing students this year that make it easy to come to work every morning. That being said, there is also something to be said for cooking.

Cooking can be a very magical experience. It does so much more than give us food to feed our bodies. It also helps feed the soul. Years ago women bonded over a cook stove or around the kitchen table preparing meals. They had to, there wasn't other time to spend together unless you were working at the same time. Cooking has also been the time for parents to pass down life lessons to their children. There is a song by Trace Atkins that fits here well. In the song he describes a father fishing with his daughter, but in reality they are doing much more than just fishing - they are making memories together. Cooking fits into that song as well. I have a lot of fond memories of times I cooked with my mom as I was growing up and even now that I am an adult. I look forward to the day that I can have some of those same memories with my future children. In the meantime, I get to make memories like that with my students at school. There have been so many of these this week! There are far too many memories to share them all here, but there have been many times of laughter and smiles in my foods classes this week. I sincerely hope that they have enjoyed the week and made as many memories as I have. I hope that I will have many more bread weeks in my teaching career, but I'm not sure any of them will be able to top the first.