I have a very large family; my father, mother, older sister, two younger brothers, and younger sister. We all have our own tastes, preferences, and personalities -- so agreeing on things is a very difficult task especially when it comes to food. When I say food, I specifically mean dessert.
Very rarely do we eat sweets in my house, health is of utmost importance to my parents and it has been that way since I can remember. Everything we ingest has some sort of ulterior motive. “Dandelion greens are high in calcium” or “raw brazilian tree nuts are full of good fats and proteins” and “We are going to eat less meat because studies show…” my mother is a health food encyclopedia.
On the rare occasion that we do make or eat desserts, it is always centered around some sort of holiday season, or birthday. Obviously, for the birthdays, that person gets to pick what we eat or make, but when it comes to holidays, there are always huge dramatic arguments.
My younger brothers and sister will eat almost everything so they really never mind what is made. The elders of the Brandon household are frequently involved in these drawn out fights. My fathers favorite cookies are oatmeal raisin, my mothers favorite cookies are chocolate chip, and my sisters favorite cookies are sugar. I don’t necessarily have a favorite, I like brownies, so I stayed out of the argument, but being the baker and problem solver of the family, I set out to find a solution to their constant quarrels.
I researched and looked around for a while, tried out a few recipes, but nothing was as I envisioned it, they were all missing something. I had given up on my search until I was at a friends house one day working on a project, and her mother served us these warm cookies. They were wonderful. Chewy, soft, absolutely delicious. That night I went home and tried to remember everything in the cookie, researched it some more, and stumbled upon the oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. It contained oatmeal for my dad, chocolate chips, for my mom, and had a buttery softness like sugar cookies, for my sister.
The next day I recreated the cookies, served them to my family, and they were a success. Everyone was satisfied with them. Ever since then, those cookies are my most requested when I bake.
When I read We Are What We Eat by Katheryn Twiss I could relate to it on a personal level, she wrote “Food is an unusually powerful symbol of identity” and it immediately made me think of my family because the different types of food we eat reflect our personal personalities. As I said earlier, everyone in my family has different preferences.
Twiss also said “Food is commonly used to establish intrasocial cultural strata as well.” meaning food builds meaningful social and cultural relationships. My family already shares the same culture obviously, but the social aspect is often missing. As often as we can we try to all sit around the dinner table to eat but with all our conflicting schedules sometimes it just cannot happen. But as I mentioned earlier, desserts in my household mean a special event, and when we eat them, we sit around the table together and catch up on each others lives. Its a chance to all be together in once place at one time, to regroup as a family unit, and my cookies help us do so.
