Magic in the Kitchen My wife has a new hobby: baking. Since I bought her Vitamix, a heavy duty blender, she is so in love with it that she bakes even twice a week. I need to say that for the person who has never done this before, she is doing really well. So I decided to watch her make my favorite cranberry walnut bread (which technically tastes like a cake so I am not sure where that "bread" word comes from). It is a Friday evening when she decides to prepare this delicious bread so we can have it for our breakfast the next morning. I am sitting by the kitchen's island quietly taking notes and ensuring her that I will make the next cranberry walnut cake on my own. It is pretty late, almost bed time but she seems full of energy. The snow is snowing heavily and I can hear the snow plough working outside. The kitchen’s island is her favorite place to prepare food and it is also the closest place to the fridge and the pantry. The kitchen cabinets are grey at the bottom and white on top. They have long and wide silver handles. The white quartz countertop shines like she has just polished it. Vitamix is right on top of the cabinet to the right from the island. It is a gigantic mixer, black and silver, with a plastic container. Then, she turns on the Pandora radio to her favorite “Gotan Project” station, pours a glass of Spanish red wine and she starts to do her magic.
The first thing she does is to open the Vitamix's cookbook. She stores it along with other cookbooks in the cabinet above to the fridge. This book is about 300 pages long, with a white hardback cover, full of colorful and tasty looking pictures. I can see numerous sticky notes there. The yellow ones indicate her favorite recipes and the green ones are used to mark the recipes she has not tried yet. You can tell that the book has been used many times as there are food stains all over it. There are also some handwritten notes on the side of each recipe as she always tried to improve them. She promptly finds the correct page. There is not only a recipe but also a picture of this huge piece of brown cranberry bread with walnuts on top of it. She stares at the picture for a moment and then, she whispers: “You will look as beautiful as the one in this picture.”
She starts going over the list of the ingredients. I can hear her reading each one out loud and confirming back to herself that she has them all. She smiles to me and says “This is going to be the best cranberry walnut cake I have ever made. I am going to add a secret ingredient”. Momentarily, she is right by the pantry taking out a big glass jar of white flower and she places it right on the left side of the kitchen’s island. Then, she brings another glass jar of brown sugar, bag of cranberries and walnuts. She tries on a couple of cranberries to make sure they are fresh. She does the same thing with the walnuts. She turns towards the cabinet that is right to the cook top and opens the second top drawer. She is looking through it for quite some time. Finally, she finds what she was looking for as she exhales with relief. She places both, the baking powder and the baking soda, next to the flour. The white box of the baking powder is almost gone. Immediately she grabs a pen and writes it down on the “to buy” list. Using a magnet with the Grand Canyon image on it, she places the note on the fridge. Then, she takes out a green bottle of extra virgin olive oil, salt shaker and the vanilla extract from the top shelf of the pantry and places all the ingredients on the kitchen island.
It seems that she is still missing a few things. She opens the fridge and takes out a dozen egg brown box. The label says “Organic Omega 3 large eggs”. She picks the largest one. There are only 6 eggs left in the box. She places that egg in a small cup. Then, she disappears for a moment in the garage. The garage doors are at the very end of the kitchen so I can feel a little chill going over my back. In a few seconds she is back in the kitchen holding one big orange. She takes out the measuring cup set that is stored in the drawer of the kitchen island. There are 6 cups in that set. They are all black and made of plastic. Each one has a different size. She picks two of them: 1 and ¼ cup and she places them aside. The rest she puts back in the drawer.
She stops for a moment to look over the list of ingredients in the book to make sure she has what she needs. She takes a sip of the wine and set the glass aside. Then, she puts on the black-and-pink embroidered kitchen apron and tights her long blond hair with a pink hair rubber band. Once again she takes a look at the recipe in the book. She is reading the instructions carefully and repeats it out loud. I don’t hear the plough anymore as she turns up the volume of the radio. It stops snowing and I can see a full moon.
She reaches down to the kitchen island cabinet and is looking for a mixing bowl. She picks a large white plastic Ikea bowl and she places it next to the flour. Then, she mixes two cups of flour, some baking powder, baking soda and a pinch of salt. She stirs it well with a red rubber spoon. Then, she turns the oven on and sets up the temperature to 350 F. She pulls out the drawer below the oven and takes out the aluminum loaf pan. Then, she goes back to the pantry and brings a cooking spray. She sprays the pan with a light coat. Next, she takes the cutting board and peels off an orange. She cuts it in quarters. She does not remove the seeds. The skin ends up in the garbage can. The juice spills all over the counter and on my shirt. She seems not to notice as she is so focused on following the instructions.
She places the orange quarters, a ¼ cup of olive oil, 1 cup of sugar, egg, and vanilla into the Vitamix container. The dirty cups are left on the counter. The egg shell is back in the mug. She selects the lowest level and turns the machine on. She increases the level up to the highest one. She is blending for 30 second using the plastic tamper to press ingredients to the blades. I can’t hear the music anymore. I keep watching this noisy blender transforming all ingredients into the liquid.
She switches it off and pours the orange mixture into the bowl with the flower. She does not clean the blender right away and lets it dry. She washes her hands. Then, she starts mixing both mixtures together by hand. After two minutes the dough is ready. Next, she adds the walnuts and cranberries and mixes it couple of times. She drops some cranberries on the floor. She spreads the butter on the pan. She puts some walnuts on top of it. The white bowl full of sticky dough is left on the countertop that now becomes very messy. She washes her hands once again. I can hear the oven making a buzz sound indicating the temperature is set. My wife takes another sip of wine and grabs the loaf pan. She opens the oven and places it in the middle rack. She turns the light on and says “voila”! She sets up the time for one hour.
The clock is showing 10 pm and the kitchen is a total mess. Dirty spoons and cups are left on the counter. The leftover dough dries out in the mixing bowl. The egg shells are left in the mug. But my wife does not seem too much concerned about it. She is sitting at the white bar stool by the kitchen island and keeps staring at the oven. The light is on so she can watch the dough rising. After 15 minutes the kitchen smells like a bakery. The aroma is so delicious that it makes me want to take a bite out of the air. I can’t wait until the cake is ready.
I realized that it takes three things to make a delicious cake: good recipe, right kitchen equipment and a positive approach. It is not so difficult to bake, especially with Vitamix. Therefore, I am going to surprise my wife and I will make the same cake next weekend.