30 before 30: cooking from scratch

I am blogging my way through 30 things I have done before I turn 30! This is a bit of an extension of the blog I already wrote about cooking.

I will never forget when I learned that you could make pancakes from scratch. I was having some sort of morning emergency that necessitated pancakes but there was no Bisquick to be found. Oh, woe is me. What will I do with NO PANCAKES?!

And then my roommate said: "Why don't you just make them from scratch?"

Umm, excuse me? You mean to say that you can make pancakes without a box? I was flabbergasted. And intrigued. Ladies and gentleman, I am here to tell you that yes, indeed, you can make pancakes by mixing milk, eggs, melted butter, vanilla, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. I follow the recipe from my cooking Bible, "The Joy of Cooking" but there are plenty of recipes out there.

I make GOOD pancakes. Don't believe me? Be here on Saturday mornings. You won't be disappointed.

I've learned from my mom that most things that seem complicated can be made from scratch. And I have learned through experience that I find great joy in creating things out of nothing.

Today at work Brandon and I were discussing our dinner plans. His dinner suggestion required tortillas, which I told him required a trip to the store. Then my coworker spoke up and said, "why don't you make them?"

So? I made them. I made tortillas from scratch. They were delicious.

Dough. Rolling out the dough. Cooking the tortilla. YUM, tortillas.

We are a society that loves instant gratification and quick, easy solutions. Trust me, there are days when I choose the easy way to feed my family. But I am proud that I am capable of making my food for my family from scratch. I am proud that I can control the ingredients that go into our bodies. And I am happy to show love to them through the food prepared by my own hands.