Food in our memories

challah, the outdoors, and RBG

I made challah a few Saturdays ago.¹ Challah is an egg bread that rises multiples times before it’s braided and left to rise once more before baking. I punched the dough down between writing Sunday’s substack and airdropping pictures to my Mac and laying down landscaping cloth and mulch in the new flower bed that surrounds our back patio. Making bread is relaxing for me, though I’ve been told it’s not for everyone. 

Challah is my favorite. It’s soft and delicious and it’s surrounded by good memories. In 2020, I texted my friend Sarah and asked her to take me tent camping. I had been reading She Explores and was captivated by these outdoor stories. The pandemic was the time when I rediscovered my love for nature and being outside. I grew up running through the forest, but had been nestled close to home by babies and meals and nap times. Sarah immediately said yes and we made plans to go to the Daniel Boone National Forest and back country camp for two days. 

Back country camping was essentially car camping for us. We piled our stuff in the back of Sarah’s car, kissed our children, and drove winding roads for an hour and a half until we emerged in a gorge in the evening. We drove past a campground that, though I am sure was delightful, was also full of people and cars and noise and went off down a gravel road. We pulled into a gravel parking lot; there was an outhouse in the corner and it was surrounded by forest. The rule for this kind of camping was to park and then haul your stuff into the woods and set up camp. 

I love to be outside but what I’m always most concerned about is what I will eat while I’m in the woods. (This is true when I’m hiking too. I took a friend hiking a few months ago and also took scones, pepperoni and crackers, cheese, and whiskey sours.)² Sarah and I both contributed food for our weekend: pre-made burgers, bacon and scones, soup in jars, challah. We ate like queens around that campfire. 

On that camping trip, I got news that Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died; both my husband and another friend made sure I knew.³ I stood in the parking lot and gazed speechless at the stars splashed across the sky. We hiked as soon as we got there and came back at dusk and almost stepped on a snake. We took air mattresses and I slept nine hours the first night and ten the next.⁴ I hope the trip lives in vivid memory for the rest of my life. Challah brings it all back to life. 

When we lived in Kentucky, Justin and I met a couple at church and became good friends. A couple of years later, Megan and I were eating at a Japanese restaurant when she told her that her husband had gotten a new job and they were going to move back to Florida. I wanted to stand up and flip over the table, but I didn’t because it was my favorite restaurant and they wouldn’t have let me return. A couple of years after that, we also left Kentucky. We’ve been down to see them once since we moved and they came to see us in June.⁵ 

When they arrived on a Sunday evening, the kids were playing soccer in the backyard and I had just pulled some challah out of the oven. I softened some butter and they were greeted with bread and butter and the promise of a full dinner. We had a lovely week: playing, swimming, biking, going to the movies, exploring the town, staying up far too late talking. 

When I pulled the challah out of the oven and saw its golden brown crust, I was taken back to both of those places, friends who are like family, memories that kindle the flame inside. Food feeds our bellies, but it feeds our souls too.

1. I didn’t quite hit my summer goal of making bread once a week but I made a lot of bread and challah was often my pick.

2. This was too important to be made a footnote. It was an epic hiking trip with an epic view. You can see the view at the bottom of this post.

3. I have been deeply impacted by RBG. You can read more here.

4. It says something about having small children that I had to go camping to get that much sleep.

5. The pandemic interfered with any trips after their move and before ours.