Open doors society publishes cookbook
Derek Neary
Northern News Services
Fort Simpson (Dec 08/00) - We've all heard that the family that plays together stays together.
What about the family that bakes together? Well, they get full of flour, icing sugar and other baking ingredients. They also have sweets to indulge in and memories to share.
Reflecting on her childhood, Kathleen Gast fondly recalls making bannock, cakes and cookies with her mother. By age seven her mom was teaching her to bake for herself.
"If I had to bring cookies in, she'd say, 'Okay these are your ingredients. Let's read them off together,'" Gast recalled. "She make me crack the eggs open, beat them and do the whole thing."
Now Gast is one of several parents who has contributed some cherished recipes to a family cookbook produced by the Open Doors Society, a family resource centre in Fort Simpson.
The cookbook contains more than 30 recipes for meals and sweets like brownies, muffins, cookies and pie. There are also plenty of pictures of local parents and children together in the kitchen.
Gast said her children, Jennifer, 5, and Michael, 3, love to bake.
"We make cookies all the time ... and they're really good at it," she said, adding that she explains what the ingredients are and what they do. "They totally love it and they're so proud of themselves. They get a real sense of accomplishment out of it. They like to bring it to school and share it with their friends."
Parent Angie Troke wasn't exactly pre-disposed to cooking as a youngster, but she said she makes sure her children are getting a crack at it.
"Devon loves when I make bread from scratch," she said. "He helps me just about every week. He's only three years old but he's already learned the process."
Karen Prime fondly recalls Christmas-time in the kitchen when cupcakes with coloured icing made her mouth water. Her children, at ages one and two, are still a bit too young to earn any blue ribbons, though.
"Sometimes it takes a lot longer when they're helping, but they like to get their hands in there," she laughed.
Page 4 of the cookbook is proof her children like baking. At the bottom of the page is a picture of her son, Noah, with his hand right inside the bowl, while his sister Emily looks on with cookie in hand.
