The Comfort of Good Food

Hello Class 4, hope you are well. It took me awhile to figure out what day of the week it was today, but I looked it up and it is Friday. I will give you a journal break over the weekend, some of you put a lot of effort in so you'll have the weekend to finalise or catch up any tasks.

I have just seen Xanthe's title page of her journal which is sumptuous! It is inspired by two books she has been reading. I didn't even say you had to make a title page, it was her own initiative. Great work Xanthe.

I am part of an online group called Dutchies in New Zealand. Normally we share relevant information or a joke which nobody else than us Dutch immigrants gets. Since the lock down, people suddenly started posting all sort of delicious food they had cooked using their Grandparents recipes. Straight away, I was back feeling like a child and smelling those delicious wafts of treats coming out of my Mum's kitchen. I saved all of the recipes those Dutchies shared and am planning to make lots of those in the coming weeks. Who knows, I might make some for all of us once we are back at school.

It is no surprise that we never used to discuss food much before in my online group and that with the lock down suddenly everyone is baking and cooking. Yes, we all have more time, but also because food, the smells that come with it, the sitting down with your team to eat it, can give so much comfort. It's not for nothing these traditional baking goodies are often called 'Comfort Food".

Family recipe books are a type of journal. David's Mum died many years before I knew David, so I never got to know her. But I have her recipe book.It is full of clippings from the newspapers or magazines from a long time ago and in her handwriting there are little notes on the side. She also wrote down recipes which friends or neighbours had shared with her. So I feel as if I got to know here a little by reading what she was cooking and baking all those years back.

In my own family, we also have a book full of recipes from all over the place. It's technically speaking quite a mess, full of cooking stains and different people's handwriting and it is held together by sellotape, but it's a happy, joyful mess, so no-one really minds.

Remember that apple tree I told you about a few days ago? Well, of course there was an old fashioned Dutch Apple Cake needing to happen.

I didn't get my weaving pattern completely right, but it was absolutely delicious!

Today's task is to bake or cook something for your Team. Of course, you can choose anything you like from the internet or any cookbook which hangs out in your house. It would , however, be more interesting to phone a grandparent or someone else who is important for you and ask them for a traditional recipe. Or talk to your Mum or Dad or other whanau around you. Food is so connected to our families, use this time to learn something about yours. And enjoy the delicious eating of it!

Once you have done your baking and cleaned up the kitchen (remember keeping Team Lock Down happy), write the recipe in your journal and decorate it accordingly. In the writing part, you can tell where the recipe came from, was it hard or easy to make and who did you share it with?

Let us know in the comments below what you have been making. Enjoy and have a great weekend, see you on Monday.

Arohanui,
Angela

ps Any guesses what Nela's family is baking?