What Baking Can Do (Thank you, Sara Bareilles)

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Sugar, butter, flour

I love theatre. Especially musical theatre. A good musical score can impress dialogue, deepen plot and expand character in remarkably thoughtful and provocative ways. The music – the lyric coupled with melody, harmony, and whatever orchestration the composer imagines - communicates the intangible, what might otherwise be left unknowable. It conveys not just art, but the essence of our humanity. Songs reach into the core of our being.

At least that’s what Sara Bareilles' song What Baking Can Do from the 2015 musical Waitress does to me. It smacks me in my soul. I know this song. I know Jenna, the character who sings this song, even though our lives our dramatically different. I can feel her disappointments, her vulnerabilities, her strengths, and the redemption that she finds in baking. This one song reminds me how pouring myself into a creative endeavor can connect us with what’s real and open new worlds to us even as old worlds close and the new ones seem so far beyond our reach.

Perhaps I’m drawn to this song because I get baking. Yeah, I get baking. It’s a lot like music: sugar, butter, flour – follow the instructions, add a bit of imagination…and poof, magic. Sure, the result might be garbage. It might be boring ("just" chocolate chip cookies). But, there is a pretty good chance you’ll hit the yum jackpot and bring a smile to someone’s face.

Make it work; make it easy. Make it clever, craft it into pieces…Even doubt can be delicious, and it washes off of all the dishes. When it’s done, I can smile; it’s on someone else’s plate for awhile.

Baking is an art form in which to get lost. Unlike Jenna, I didn’t learn to bake from my mom. That is not something she and I bonded over. But, my love of baking did come through her line. I learned to follow a recipe from my Grandmom Adele, and I learned the fun of veering off course from it (of braking the rules) from my mom’s BFF, known to me my entire life as Aunt Helene. It was in her kitchen where I learned to separate an egg by letting the egg white slide through my fingers as the yolk remains whole (and squishy) in my palm. It was in her kitchen where I learned brown grocery bags work perfectly fine for cooling cookies. It was in her kitchen where I learned to make hand cookies with left over roll-out "Christmas" cookie dough and how to change up a cheese pie on the fly. In both of their kitchens, I found a place to escape.

Sugar, butter, flour. Isn’t it amazing what baking can do.

Baking, like music, has never intimidated me. Oddly, other kinds of cooking does. I know. I’m a bit of an anomaly on this one. Most cooks fear baking.  Not me, I fear cooking a roast. Seriously, I don’t even know what cut of meat to buy let alone what kind of flavors to add; but a cake, muffin, or cookie project? I’m all in. Ready to make it my own. Maybe it’s the eager-to-please, make-folks-happy impulse embedded within me. I mean who doesn’t like dessert?

So, here’s a little dessert for reading my musings. It’s a recipe I adapted recently from one of my very first cookbooks, a Sunset Cookbook purchased at a local  Five & Dime type of store when I was in high school. I can't remember the store, but I can still visualize the rack of soft back books. Were they all cookbooks? I don't recall, but I remember choosing this book. The original recipe was for a super-rich Zucchini-Chocolate Cake with vanilla glaze. It is to this day the only recipe I have ever made from that cookbook. The cookbook still sits on my shelf with the pages of its main dishes entirely unexplored. Upon purchase, I went directly to the cakes, found this crowd pleaser and stuck with it. This year, I decided to bring the recipe into the 21^st century and turn it into less rich dessert and more daily treat.

Thanks for reading and enjoy!

 Rho’s Gluten & Dairy-Free Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix the following dry ingredients in a large bowl & then set aside:

1 ½ cup Almond flour

½ cup Coconut flour

½ cup Quinoa flour

½-3/4 tsp. Xanthan gum (fyi -this is not found in the gum section of the market, it is a needed ingredient when using non-gluten flours. Look for it in the natural foods section).

2 ½ tsp. baking powder

1 ½ tsp. baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 ½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp cardamom

¾ cup cocoa

Cream the following on medium speed of a mixer:

¾ cup "butter" (I use Earth Balance Vegan Sticks)

1 cup Coconut sugar

1 cup cane sugar

Add to creamed butter and sugars & blend well:

3 eggs

2 tsp. grated orange peel

2 tsp. GOOD vanilla (seriously, get the good stuff!)

2 cups grated zucchini (I use unpeeled zucchini. I grate it and then let sit over a strainer for a bit so it's not too wet)

With mixer on low speed add dry ingredients and

½ cup coconut or almond milk - Alternately (1/3 dry ingredients, a bit of milk, etc.)

Stir in:

1 cup mini-dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips

Scoop into muffin molds (an ice cream scoop works great and keeps muffins uniformly sized) and top with coarsely chopped walnuts. I use about 1 cup of walnuts chopped into halves and quarters.

Bake @ 350 degrees for ~ 25 mins

Makes 22-24 depending on how full you fill the muffin molds.

To Write or Not to Write: A Cantor's Wandering Pondering

I'm thinking about writing again. Yeah, I know, I'm writing (and presumably thinking about it) as I type, but I mean really committing to writing on regular basis and posting what I have to say.

Where is this coming from, you might wonder (if not, by all means feel free to move on). Those of you who know me well know that for 8 years I served a congregation as both Cantor and Rabbi. I was the sole-clergy on hand, which basically meant I did everything from overseeing the office and the religious school to planning all worship services to preparing the liturgy (music and non-musical portions), chanting Torah, and writing sermons. It was a great experience. A really great experience. It was in a congregation I had already served for just under a decade as Cantor, so I knew the place well - I knew the congregants and they knew me. I was helping them out while they were in a tough spot. They never grew out of their tough spot and sadly folded, but I grew immensely in the process. I learned very quickly how to prioritize competing tasks, how to lessen my perfectionistic impulses (perfectionism can be a good thing, but it can also hold up getting things done and put a halt to creativity), and I learned how to deal with crisis and keep me and the congregation going (a well-loved accompanist taking his own life just hours before Erev Rosh Hashanah tops this list). But, as much as I cherish those years and especially the relationships built within the congregation and the community, I don't miss it.

Or, at least I don't miss most of it. Don't get me wrong, there were great perks of working solo. The Rabbi and Cantor rarely disagreed (ba-da bamp). Seriously, if I wanted to change something mid-way during a worship service, I could. My vision was paramount. The expression of liturgy was easily seamless, none of that Rabbi reads, Cantor sings ping-pong ball effect that many clergy teams try to avoid. It all came from me. Luckily for me, I'm good at planning and executing worship. I'm told it's one of the things I do best in my job. That and Torah chanting. That's why, though I may have Rabbinic Smichah (thanks to my doctoral work), I'm first and foremost a Cantor. Cantors historically are masters of the liturgy, the prayers, which historically in Judaism were fully a musical endeavor. And, music is how I best express myself. But, I digress. Here is what I hated about being solo. My vision may have ruled the day, but there was no team to collaborate with and to be challenged by, and to rely on.

So, I'm no longer working as Kol Bo, as we Jewish clergy call it (a Hebrew short hand for "doing it all"). A synagogue is stronger, its worship more dynamic, its programming more thoughtful when there is a team of professionals involved in planning it, especially when the individuals on that team bring different strengths and weakness to the table. The challenges of working as a team makes the product better (assuming everyone on the team can be open and respectful of each other's skills, strengths, and ideas even as they are bantered back and forth). Which leads me to a huge but important tangent: this is why synagogues rely on members to pay "dues" or offer contributions. This team, the staff, and the building they work within and the materials used, cost money. It's amazing work, but please remember that for those of us who do this amazing work, it is our livelihood. It's how we pay our mortgage among other things.

More on that topic later - perhaps a future posting? Back to the point.

There is one element of working solo that I didn't think I'd miss, but I just may. Writing. The constancy of writing. Being expected to say something new and fairly intelligent week after week, more often than not two times a week as we had both Friday evening and Saturday morning services; this constant demand to be thinking of what to say, writing it down, and sharing it(!) in addition to any funeral eulogies, Bar/t Mitzvah charges, or wedding remarks that may have popped up during the week, was both a dreaded chore and a great discipline (funny how those two things often work hand in hand).

Growing up, I hated "English" class. I loved math and science. I love working through problems that had a clear answer at the end. I loved working through the logic in order to solve the puzzle. English (as any literature or writing class was called back then) was too open ended for me. The answers weren't black and white. Music, of course, offered the perfect balance of rule following and creativity. Follow the notes and markings to solve the puzzle, and then add the creative interpretation to make it lift off the page in flight. No two performances of the same piece need be exactly the same, yet they start from  the very same notes on the page.  As a young teen, I couldn't see that this same process could be applied to writing. I could be creative with musical notes. Words intimidated me. And, frankly sharing my ideas scared the hell out me - what if I was wrong and no one agreed with me? If you know the notes, you can't be wrong with music. A performance may not be great, folks may not like what you offer, I may not succeed in making a connection, but the music and my performance of it is still a valid endeavor. How couldn't I see that the same could be said for putting words together and then sharing them? My ideas might be bad and poorly formulated, folks may indeed disagree with me, but that doesn't make the endeavor of sharing what I have to say invalid.

Writing a dissertation (whew!) and then regular sermons for 8 years (and folks actually asking to re-read them which led years ago to the creation of this very blog) cured me of this intimidation. And, surprisingly, I actually miss expressing myself with the written word. This realization is actually more than surprising to me. It's more like a hit me over the head mid-life eye-opening realization about myself.

My music isn't going anywhere. I joyfully get to be immersed in music virtually every single day as a synagogue Cantor whether it's teaching songs to pre-school students, leading a volunteer choir, teaching a Bar or Bat Mitzvah student, intoning the words of the Jewish prayer book, chanting Torah, or simply* going to voice lessons and practicing to make sure I continue to be good at what I do. But as I continue venturing forward and pondering what lies ahead (retiring from synagogue life isn't really all that far off in the grand scheme of things), I wonder if I should get back to doing some regular writing.

So, there you have it. I may start writing again. Perhaps I already have. We will see.
Would anyone read my words? Do I care? Good questions.

* "simply," by the way, is incredibly misleading when applied to the task of maintaining the voice for professional use as it provides the foundation for everything I do. It's the bread and butter of my work, and it's damn time consuming and tedious. That being said, how awesome that maintaining and improving my instrument and my art is part of my job. Yeah, pretty cool.

-- Rhoda