Some years ago, I had a Dutch boyfriend who I took back home to meet my family. One day, my grandma made a cake. I was super happy to try it, since it was my GRANDMOTHER’S HOMEMADE CAKE. You’ll get why that’s in all caps in a minute. I’m used to homecooked meals, but unfortunately, my ex-boyfriend wasn’t. As soon as he tried my grandma’s cake, he made a weird face, so asked him what’s wrong. He brushed it off. Curious about his reaction, I asked him again later to which he replied that the cake was kind of dry. Fair enough, but to me it tasted just like any homemade cake, so I jokingly asked him “What are you comparing it to? The cakes in the supermarket?”. Yup! You guessed it, the boy said yes.
Growing up, I never realised what kind of a privilige it is to have meals cooked at home. The first time I ate frozen pizza, fries or nuggets was in college and mind you, I went ham on them. It was a novelty. My parents avoided fast food, scolded me every time I wanted junk food and had a no soft drinks policy, so we mostly drank water at home. What I didn’t realise at the time is that it’s going to turn out very well for me. The thing is, aside from some slip ups here and there, I have a healthy baseline of foods I enjoy and also a big hunger for experimentation.
That’s why most recently, I decided to make more meals at home and even try making things I never would’ve thought before. My biggest problem before? Tiredness. I was so exhausted after a day’s or week’s work, that I couldn’t even think to do anything that was less than quick and convenient. Well, here we are now — my world is looking super different and I love it! So without further ado, here are a few things I’ve started making myself ever since I decided to embrace slower living. If you’re thinking of living slower too, maybe you can look into one or more of these. Who knows! You might just like it a lot.
1. Baked Goods
Of course, one of the most essential things is baking. I’ve been baking ever since I was a kid, but most recently rekindled my passion, adding all sorts of cakes and cookies to the mix. There’s the traditional cake recipes I got from my grandma — the basic cake and sponge cake. But there’s also cookies! And bread! These are some things I learnt how to do recently. Firstly, there’s an amazing baguette recipe by a TikTok creator. She shows us exactly how to make a nice, crunchy bread and it’s amazingly delicious. Yes, it’s with yeast still, but I do plan on eventually making a sour dough starter as well. It takes about 2-3 hours total, with the bread rising and all, but before I had the time, I could barely imagine spending it on something like this.
And the cookies are amazing. I recently started craving sweets here and there, so I’ve been looking for the simplest and most delicious recipes online, and oh boy! They surely deliver. For the first recipe I tried, I had to leave them in the fridge for about 2 hours but to be fair, I don’t have enough fridge space, so I ended up leaving a batch outside since it’s super cold and snowy. But the latest ones I tried are actually butter cookies and inspite of taking up AN INSANE amount of butter, they’re absolutely delicious. I never could’ve thought they’re so easy to make too. It only takes about 20 minutes for the initial prep and the rest is them baking in the oven. And for those wondering about the cake, here’s a photo of what my grandma’s cake looks like — at least the one I like to make.
2. Homemade sodas
My second most recent passion is making homemade sodas. Yes, this does include making a ginger bug of some sort, but let me tell you — it’s so much fun! I made both a ginger bug and a lemon bug and they’re doing quite well, I hope. They’re currently chilling in the corridor, which is frankly quite cold. However, the other day I unchilled the ginger one and tried to make a soda from this ‘good morning’ tea. It has different kinds of Bulgarian herbs in it, so if I succeed it would be so cool to make my own fizzy drinks at home. The first try I made was with lemon and orange juice, plus lemon bug and also with apple juice and the ginger bug. They were both great, if not a bit too sweet for the lemon one, but frankly, I think I’ll only get better at this. A year ago, I had zero clue there could be such a thing as making your own soda at home so this is already a great distance from where I was at before, skill-wise and all.
These were my little bugs before, and now they’re a lot bigger since I figured out there is too little space for adding more ginger or lemons once I’ve already fed them for a while. At first, I was also worried to let them be cold, since I don’t know how that would affect them, but to be fair they’ve been alive for almost 2 months now and that’s an amazing turn of events. Now all that’s left is for me to taste the new concoction with the morning tea. Once that is confirmed as a success, I will definitely start experimenting a lot more with different tastes and once the summer comes along, I’ll surely add fresh fruit to the mix. What an amazing activity to have! They’re also apparently really good for gut health, so that’s even double as amazing. Yay!
3. Canning & Fermenting
Another thing I started this last year is canning, fermenting and preserving veggies for the winter. It’s an ancient tradition here in Bulgaria, but for some reason I’ve always thought of it as an activity for old people. Until now. Somehow, I always thought that old people naturally lean into making canned and fermented goods when they turn a certain age. Now I know this is wrong and frankly, I wish I had found this more interesting when my grandma and great-grandma were alive. But, given the knowledge they passed down to my mom and my full trust in her abilities, we’re working towards expanding my knowledge too. I already made our family’s delicious lyutenitza, with my own twist of course, and dabbled in some ferments and jams too.
In fact, one of the best things about the end of summer was that I was able to sit down and make my very first jams, which I then conserved for longterm use. And trust me when I tell you, it’s super simple and incredibly delicious. It was funny how my dad kept dropping off different fruit with me and asked me to make a jam. I then called my mom, she told me what to do and I proceeded to make them and can them late into the night. Is it a bit annoying to disobey the feminist principles as much? Hell, yes. But is it awesome not only see but also taste something you’ve worked so hard in making, even though it didn’t yield too much to go around? Also, yes. It was pretty great and I did jams from 2 different pears and I forgot what else. The key is, it took me hours, the wasps were very annoying but at least it was nice to sit outside, tune into YouTube videos while I cut up fruit and enjoy summer the way my ancestors have as well. In Bulgaria almost every house has a ‘summer house’, a terrace or some sort of outdoor sitting spot for the summer where people gathered to chat, eat and work on canning together. And honestly, I’m getting to love this tradition more and more every day. It’s so much fun!
Another win for canning and conserving this year is reaching out to my boyfriend’s grandmother and asking her to teach us how to make her stomach-renowned pickles. Of course, I had to be me and freestyle the recipe to make it a) way too salty for comfort and b) partially made with the wrong salt, which may or may not kill the healthy bacteria. But don’t fret! My boyfriend is still man enough to try them and I am confident that next year, they will be even better. And hey, they may be an assult for the tastebuds, but they’re pleasure for the eye. I did in fact try them a year ago at my boyfriend’s house and they surprisingly helped fix my headache. I’m totally not kidding. This is why I will keep attempting at making them correctly, so hopefully they can continue to heal and appeal to me and my whole family. I have to admit we haven’t really tried them since they’ve been done, but my boyfriend’s mom’s turshiya (pickled vegetables) is downright amazing, so we’re not really missing any pickled fun.
Here’s the thing!
It would honestly be the easiest thing in the world to consume everything from supermarkets. I’ve done that before and it’s as simple as it gets, but it’s not really fun. In the Netherlands I felt like I was being groomed by the system — there’s money, there’s food. No money? No food. This is a bit disruptive, as food, water and shealter should be basic human rights. But when I was living like a sardine in a can, surrounded by other people all around me, there was hardly any way to be able to grow my own food or really parttake in this kind of canning or food preparation. Maybe I’m exaggerating a little, I know, but consider this as well — I was exceptionally tired every day. All I wanted to do at times was get some ramen noodles and curl up on the couch to watch something and turn my brain off. But I love cooking and now it shows.
I’m super grateful for being raised by parents who valued cooking at home. I would be super grateful as well if I could provide my family and future children with the same love and care my family has provided me with. My dream is to cook with my kids, share stories and spend time learning recipes from the elderly in my community. They have so much to share and with a tradition so rich as the Bulgarian one, there’s always something new and fascinating to discover.
Did I always think this way? Once again, no. But with time, personal growth and experience, I’m starting to realise more and more just how special a homecooked, canned, fermented or baked meal can be — not only for me, but for my health and sanity too. So my advice to anyone who would listen is to create more space and time for cooking from a place of joy. Create more opportunity for learning and bonding with your inner food critic. Because trust me, nothing store-bought and processed can ever beat what’s homemade, grown and cooked with love by someone who loves you. Yes, even if that’s just your self.
Sending you love & best dishes,
Alex <3
