Baking for the Baker

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John drove to Charlotte to pick up grandson Nathaniel, and it was fairly late when they got home. We had a cheese snack when grandson David finished work and chatted for a while before heading to bed. I thought about the mirror ritual, but maybe Nate wouldn’t hang the hall mirror on the upper hook for just a weekend.

The next morning I asked myself, “What am I doing??? I’m rolling out biscuits for a young man who is majoring in baking and pastry? Am I out of my gourd?”

The answer to my question was no. I was doing what I always do. In chatting with neighbor Marla recently, truth came out of my mouth unbidden. I surprised myself when I said, “Cooking for people is the way I show that I love them.”

For the foodies, we had bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, and Southern biscuits made with White Lily Flour.

After breakfast, Nathaniel called out, “I didn’t do the mirror!”

David came to the hall, and I had the camera. Nate took the mirror and carefully moved it to the hook where the former owners had a clock. He moved slowly so that I could get a photo.

Egging him on, I told him to smile at himself. That’s why all his teeth are on display. David can see his head in there, but the mirror is useless for the rest of us. Nathaniel will do the ritual in reverse when it is time for him to go. It’s a silly thing, but we enjoy it.

Published by Anne Mehrling

I'm a retiree who loves to write about life in the mountains of North Carolina.

Published

44 thoughts on “Baking for the Baker”

  1. I’ll be he enjoyed the biscuits made with love as well as the rest of his breakfast.I’m glad he didn’t forget his ritual with the mirror even for a weekend, he’d be brushing his chest instead of his hair at the normal height.
    Humongous Hugs xxx

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  6. Anne,
    Like grandmothers from around the world and perhaps mothers too, you cook because you love the people you cook for. I haven’t gotten there yet, but perhaps I will when I learn how to cook well.
    The mirror ritual is something all of us are looking forward to reading about now. Did Nathaniel come for the Memorial day weekend? Where are the hitch hikers headed for now?
    Susie

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    1. Nathaniel was here because John thought Gerhard was flying back to Germany on Thursday. He was going to drop Gerhard at the Charlotte airport and pick up Nathaniel. The flight was Wednesday. John drove to Charlotte and back two days in a row — six hours of driving each day! The other reason Nate is here is for David’s birthday today. He made a cake for him, which I’m sure we’ll photograph later.

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  7. I identify with your comment about cooking. It’s a wonderful way to show people we love them. I bet your grandson enjoyed eating some biscuits he didn’t have to make himself. Bill is not a big cook, but he does make breakfast for both of us sometimes. It always tastes better when he makes it for some reason!

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    1. That’s marvelous that you mother was gracious. I didn’t cook for my mother very often. I think she was a little wary, because I cooked things she never heard of. I would have loved to call her and ask for a recipe or find out how to do something in the kitchen, but we couldn’t afford long distance calls back then. I taught myself to cook from reading cookbooks. My mother had reason to be nervous about my cooking!

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  9. I remember things that became rituals when we visited grandparents. Each set had ducks near them and it wasn’t a ‘real’ visit if we didn’t see or feed the ducks. Rituals last forever in our memories. I like Nathaniel’s. One of my grandsons is very tall. Already at 5’9″ at twelve. They are saying at least 6’2″ for him when he stops growing, but at this rate it might be taller. I wonder if he will move the mirror?

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      1. So true Anne. We have three grandsons and they are all growing so fast. The girls also amaze me with how fast they grow and change…we have five grandchildren, and each one is a blessing.

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    1. I have a confession to make. I refuse to buy canned refrigerator biscuits, because I cannot resist them. We always had homemade biscuits when I was growing up, and I always baked ours after I married. To me, those store biscuits are exotic and so, so delicious. I’d be so happy to make biscuits for you if you’d share your bought ones with me.

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      1. That sounds fun … when my mom and I used to go visit my grandmother and aunt (who lived upstairs), in the nice weather we’d sit out on the porch after dinner and have ice cream. This was a long-standing ritual with the neighbors once the weather got warmer. They had a few lawn chairs and there were the steps to sit on, but my grandmother’s porch was long and covered, so even in rain, they’d go out and had a bucket of ice cream and I want to say it was a 5-gallon pail. That’s how they bought it. She’d bring out the melamac bowls and everyone would come over. My grandmother always bought the ice cream (plus in the morning she supplied the instant coffee and tea bags for their daily morning get together as well). The neighbors were nice to my grandmother and Aunt Frances … they made extra spaghetti and meatballs or mostaccioli and brought it down daily (one woman’s father was an elderly Italian who was set in his ways and wanted pasta with every meal) and other neighbor (older male) would do little fix-it things around the house … so we did the ice cream every night with them. That is about the only ritual I can think of though.

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          1. It was nice, the way that neighbors should be and I read somewhere that porches are becoming fashionable again so people can get to know their neighbors and step away from their devices. I know you enjoy your porch.

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            1. We give our back porch a good workout. It would be lovely to sit on the front porch and see the neighbors, but that’s where the sun beats down. It is rarely comfortable to be on that side of the house.

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                    1. I’m not sure how many insects wander around our house. I’ve seen mosquito larvae, but I’ve never had a mosquito land on me near our house. Lots of people would envy that.

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                    2. You’re right, with all the mosquitoes that squeak in the tiniest hole in the screen. We will have both a tick and mosquito infestation due to all the rain and high grass – they have already told us that. P.S. – Well it can’t be because you are NOT sweet. 🙂

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