This week I posted an image of semolina pudding on Instagram and someone commented how much it reminded her of what her grandma used to make. It made me smile because I love how food connects us to our memories and our family. Recipes handed down through generations are a family food legacy that is beautiful and nourishing. It can give so much joy to eat something that reminds you of when you were little and life was simpler.
When I read that comment on Instagram, I remembered that building a food legacy is part of why I wanted to create a capsule kitchen in the first place. It just gets a little lost easily. There are so many recipes we have access to everyday. In magazines, in the newspaper, online… It can make you feel like you have to cook all these thousands of different meals in order to feed your family well. Cooking lots of different things is fun but it can also be overwhelming.
There is calm in simplicity
When I think about my own grandma, Omi, the meals she used to make were simple. There were not a lot, maybe 15 on high rotation. She would always ask what I would like to eat when I came round and I’d pick out of those dishes that I knew well and loved dearly. There was comfort in her preparing those simple meals and the taste will forever be the taste of my childhood.
The sheer volume of possible choices presented to us today, makes it harder to make any choice at all. Part of the overwhelm and stress that we are feeling around mealtimes is that it’s like groundhog day. Every week the same questions, every week the need to plan yet again and every week the feeling of starting from scratch. It’s like you solved a complicated problem just to find you have to immediately do it all over again. How exhausting.
Finding a recipe and cooking it can be like sitting in front of the TV at night. You click through all the many options on Netflix, Apple TV, Amazon Prime etc, only to realize you’ve spent an hour trying to find something to watch, without actually watching anything…
Start building your food legacy
When my Omi would ask me what I’d like to eat, I knew the handful of meals I could choose from. It didn’t involve a google search, scrolling through endless bookmarks and sifting through thousands of options.
So today, I encourage you to find something old, rather than look for something new to cook. Declutter your mind, declutter your options. Find something from your past that gives you joy.
Think of a dish that you’ve grown up with and loved, find the recipe and make it. Maybe you need to amend it slightly to fit your family needs. Even better! This will be the start of your food legacy: The recipe collection that is part of your capsule kitchen and makes your cooking unique. Because creating your capsule kitchen is about more than just being organized. It’s about cooking the food that brings you joy.
Much love,
Katrin x