This past year has been the year of discoveries for me. So, for the birthday of my dear blog, I decided to go through this one year and list what I discovered in this one year journey – about baking, about cooking, but most important of all, about myself. So here we go, hope I do not forget anything.. And they are not in any other, just to warn you:
1. I discovered that I was born to bake! No, not kidding. I discovered that what I want to do for the rest of my life is to have my own bakery. And that there is no other way that I can ever be happy from now on… I also discovered that I can stay at home non-stop for days and just bake.. Therefore, I believe that if I ever have my bakery, then I will just spend my entire time there…
2. I discovered that food unites people. I kind of knew of it as I grew up in a huge family that always got together around a table and spent hours there. But I found out that it works for anyone and everyone – even hardcore Finnish friends (haha, just kidding, I love all my Finnish friends!).
3. I discovered that baking is a little bit of science, a little bit of mess and a little bit of patience, and there is always a story behind it.
4. I discovered that you can put salt even in sweet recipes and you can put vinegar in cakes!!! Yes, vinegar! Well, I even wrote a whole blog post about the salt so please go back and read that if you are interested..
5. I discovered that if you fully give yourself to the recipe while you are baking, you can dream about the culture that recipe belongs to. If you can get into the role, you might discover even more. For instance, while making baklava, you can dream about yourself in the Ottoman Palace in whatever century, while making chocolate eclairs you can dream about yourself in a little bakery in the heart of Montmartre with a very sophisticated French accent or while making Finnish rye bread, you can dream about yourself baking this in your own bakery in the heart of Helsinki at 4 a.m. in a minus something winter morning… And in my case, it does not really take much to dream about a minus something weather, yayyy!
6. I discovered that there are men who would love to eat your lovely food and take advantage of this whole thing! And that you should really avoid them… But I also discovered that there are nice and decent men that really deserve your food as well.. So there is still hope in that department…
7. And as you might already get from number 6, I discovered that you can flirt by using food! Please try it, it is usually the most delicious way of flirting!
8. I discovered that if you bake French macarons and take nice Instagram pictures of it, you get tons of likes!!! I still do not understand what is so good about them, while there are great things in French bakery world, but well, I will continue making them anyway, since it is apparently the favourite of many Finns…
9. I discovered that it is not the easiest thing in the world to write recipes! You should be really clear in the instructions, you should give – if possible – a variety of measurements (some use cups, some use volume, some use weight..), and you should be able to give substitutes in case there are people in some part of the world that would not reach the exact same ingredients… Oh, and of course, in the case of living in Finland as a foreigner writing in English, you should give the Finnish word for some specific ingredients (to make my fellow foreign amateur baker friends’ lives easier..).
10. I discovered that I cannot do anything without listening to music!! So thank you my dear archive of some gigabytes of music and thank you dear Spotify. Just beware of the ads in Spotify that come out in the middle of a nice Leonard Cohen or a calm Chopin album and that blow your ears with bad music and high volume speech.
11. I discovered that whenever I am in the kitchen baking something, I smile non-stop. So baking is definitely good for my health. Baking makes me a better person. Baking bring out the humour in me. As I become a baker, I stop being a depressed and miserable person and instead I become cheerful and happy (but still very sarcastic heh)…
12. I discovered that the best time to take good food photos is daytime to benefit most from daylight. I also discovered that you should take at least one good photo of the food from above. So a chair to stand on is a must in your kitchen, if you are a food blogger.
13. I discovered that if you bake a lot and then let other people eat most of it, you can still stay slim and who knows, you might even lose some more weight, because you get even more scared of gaining some…
14. I discovered that if you are writing a blog that is not your personal diary only, then it is very important to listen to your readers and to get their feedback. They help shaping your blog in a very good way, do not underestimate them!
15. I discovered that as I was baking, I actually found a meaning to life that I have been searching since I was little girl. In this world, you have to do what you really want to do. Do not make anything for the sake of others if you are not actually feeling it.. I might not be out there in a peace corps in a way different corner of the world, but with what I bake in my small kitchen, I can still touch some people’s hearts and help them in one way or another..
Happy birthday, my dear kitchen in Helsinki!
My Dear Kitchen in Helsinki 