We bake for fun!

I had the privilege of growing up sitting on the kitchen counter watching my father bake on the weekends for the family. During the week, my father was a pastry chef at the 5-star Hotel Hana, Maui Hawaii resort.

I remember my father once made a dozen or so pies for a big party at Richard Pryor’s house. It seemed like the whole town was there. He made chocolate silk pies, banana cream pies, coconut cream pies and others. I remember being in the family station wagon with all the pies in the back trunk area, on the way to the party. That was the first time I got to see my father baking for a crowd.

I think I appreciate baking from being exposed to it so young. I started making chocolate chip cookies on my own when I was 13. Now that I have my own children, I try to let them help with the baking.

Last year, my son’s Friday daycare was cutback and they are only going 5 days/week – so now we have an entire day together. I’ve enjoyed having the one on one time with him, which is rare. We usually do the weekly food shopping and bake something as an activity. I decided that I wanted to keep track of what we make on our Friday’s together.