Series // My Love For Food

I have been thinking a lot lately about where my love for food stems from; about the connection that I have to cooking and why it means so much to me.  This is the first post in what I hope to develop into a series on my love for food.

(my mom's looks nearly identical to this one, minus the big burn at the bottom)

One of my first memories of cooking is with my mom.  I remember when growing up my mom was the main cook in our home.  She made dinner for my sister, dad and I every night after working a 9-5 job (which I still struggle with on many nights and I don’t even have children).  On the weekends she would make my favorite, cinnamon rolls.  The red and white better homes and gardens cookbook would sit out on the counter as my mom would need the dough, let it rise and entertain my sister and I, as we impatiently waited for the baking to be done. 

The process of making cinnamon rolls from scratch is a couple hours from beginning to end.  Often times to help keep us entertained (and probably to keep her sanity as two little girls were running around like little crazies) my mom would have us help.  I remember standing on step-stools helping her roll out the dough with what felt like the biggest wood rolling pin and then sprinkling in the raisins and soft brown sugar.  I can actually close my eyes right now and smell the aroma of the yeast, butter and sugar that would fill our kitchen as the cinnamon rolls baked in the oven. 

Obviously the payoff was devouring a big gooey cinnamon roll filled with sugar, raisins and rich butter but looking back now, I know it was so much more than the food itself.  This was my first real experience cooking.  This past holiday, my mom got out her beatup better homes cookbook and whipped up a batch of these and they were just as tasty as my childhood memories.  I don’t think I have ever told my mom how influential cooking with her as a child was for me but it really made quite the impression.  I loved that we did it together and the final product was then enjoyed as a family.

Click here for the recipe to these delicious cinnamon rolls.  Full disclosure: my mom adapted the filling of her cinnamon rolls from the original recipe but the dough was straight from the book.