Another tangible thing - something very immediate and very sensory - is cooking and baking.

(I've talked before, and won't go into much detail again, about how sad it makes me that seemingly so few people of my generation and younger cook. From what I've read on some of the educator-blogs concerning kids and nutrition, much of Gen-X grew up eating instant-boxed-crap or fast food, and they're carrying on that chain with their kids: the cultural transmission of cooking has been lost for a big segment of the populace).

One of the things I made this week was gingerbread. (the cake-type, not the Christmas cookies type). My mom used to make gingerbread sometimes when my brother and I were kids and you know, I don't think I fully appreciated it then. I always wanted something chocolate. But as an adult, I can appreciate gingerbread.

Here is the recipe I used. It is from "Square Meals," a lamentably out-of-print cookbook by Jane and Michael Stern, where they reprint (and comment on) many early and mid 20th century recipes. I've made a number of the recipes (and perhaps that wasn't their intent; some of the recipes, like for "candlelight salad" [where you stand a banana half up in a pineapple ring, dribble mayonnaise on it to look like melted wax...which I have also seen referred to by other, more ribald, names in other settings] are things that I think most people would not eat, at least not un-ironically.) But the recipes I've tried are good. They have a very good noodle kugel recipe that I don't make as much as I'd like to because it makes such an immense batch (and it's hard to cut down to a smaller size). And there are some good soups and the like in there.

But here is their "After School Gingerbread." (I hope I am not violating any copyrights here; this is presented as a tribute to an enjoyable but OOP book)

2 eggs, well beaten
1 cup dark brown sugar (or half dark and half light, that's what I used)
12 Tablespoons butter, melted*
3/4 cup molasses
3 cups flour (I used King Arthur unbleached and that worked well)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
(I also added 1/4 t or so each of allspice and cloves because they were both close at hand, and I tend to think more = better when it comes to complexity of flavor)
1 cup buttermilk.

Combine the eggs, brown sugar, butter (let it cool a bit first) and molasses. Mix well. Sift the flour together with the soda, salt, and spices. Add the flour alternately with the buttermilk. (The old mantra that I find so oddly calming: "start with flour, end with flour." Heh. It's almost "wax on, wax off.") Beat until well blended.

Pour into a well greased 9 by 9 by 2 inch pan. Bake for about 40 minutes (I found it took nearly an hour for mine; use a toothpick to check for doneness and if you need to, make a foil "tent" to keep the crust from getting too done) at 350 degrees.

Let cool before you cut.

My mother often used to serve gingerbread with a thin lemon sauce (lemon juice or lemon extract, plus water and powdered sugar) or with whipped cream. (I splurged and bought a can of Reddi-Whip to have with the gingerbread; Reddi-Whip keeps fairly well and it is quite good with the gingerbread). You can also make hard sauce which is very good with the warm gingerbread. Or vanilla sauce. Or a thin custard, like the Bird's custard mix. Or you can eat it just plain; it's good that way too.

(*Yes, I know, I know: 12 tablespoons of butter. But I don't bake often, so I tend to take the tack of "go big or go home" when I do bake. And - you cut the cake into like 16 pieces, so really, it's not that much. That said, I do think you could substitute applesauce for half (or even more) of the butter and have the cake turn out fine.

And I suppose - sigh - you could use that Splenda fake-brown-sugar crap in place of the sugar. Just don't tell me you did it, okay? I hate Splenda. I hate all fake sweeteners for that matter. Splenda gives me tummy cramps and nutrasweet gives me migraines. So I eat the real stuff, figuring 10,000 years of human culture have pretty much proven sugar to be safe, at least in smallish doses)