2006年NPR美国国家公共电台十一月-Baking by Senses and Memories

（单词翻译）

Welcome to This I Believe, an NPR series presenting the personal philosophies of remarkable¹ men and women from all walks of life.

I believe in honor, faith, and service...
I believe that a little outrage² can take you a long way.
I believe in freedom of speech.
I believe in empathy.
I believe in truth.
I believe in the ingredients of love.

This I Believe.

On Mondays, we bring you This I Believe, our series of statements of personal conviction. Emily Smith is a theology student from Austin, Texas. Like the rest of us, the 23-year-old is busy this week with all the shopping and cooking it takes to get ready for Thanksgiving. And she's been thinking about what it means to her family to share meals. Here is our series curator independent producer Jay Allison.

Often beliefs are grounded in the simple ordinary acts of daily life. Emily Smith bakes birthday cakes for all her friends, many of whom haven't had a cake made for them since they were little. They asked her why she did it. She decided³ to write for our series in response. Here is Emily Smith with her essay for This I Believe.

I've gone through 10 pounds of flour in 3 months. I know that's not normal but I believe baking is an expression of love, not only for the person being baked for, but also for the person who taught me how to bake, for the person who gave me the recipe, for the past and tradition. My grandma Dottie lives on in her recipes that I continue to bake. Her molasses cookies are so good they need to be shared with the world. The batter⁴ is sticky and has to be refrigerated for 4 hours. It turns the whole thing into more of a production. But it's impossible to roll the dough⁵ into balls when it's that sticky. I know, I've tried. So I wait just like my grandmother waited, four hours while the dough chills. Then I roll the dough into balls, roll the dough balls and sugar and smash them with a fork twice, creating a crisscross pattern and put them in the oven. I look at the cookies instead of relying on the timer. I'm beginning to bake with my senses and my memory instead of with the recipe. My grandma Dottie abbreviated⁶ everything at her recipes so it took me a while to figure it out. Is the batter the right color? The right consistency⁷? Does it smell right? My dad's job is to compare my reproductions to the originals of his childhood. If they turned out the same, they are more than cookies--and that's what I'm trying to do.

I like to watch my father's face when he remembers his mother. Because we are Texan, my mother needs a pecan pie for it to really be Thanksgiving. Pecan pie is mostly the corn syrup⁸, a few eggs and pecans. It doesn't look appetizing but amazing things happen in the oven. The filling caramelizes and turns a dark brown. I baked my mom a pecan pie. I made the crust and everything and even she doesn't do that. The recipe I used yields a stiffer filling. It's not the gooey pecan pie I grew up with. So I was worried at first that I'd done something wrong. But my mother said it was the best pecan pie she'd ever had.

And right then and there, my pecan pie recipe, the one that I'd found in the cookbook my grandmother gave me, became the new family recipe. So this Thanksgiving, it's my job to make the pie. For me, it's a symbol of becoming an adult and the pecan pie becomes my contribution to our family tradition. I believe that as long as I keep baking, my grandmother hasn't really gone. I believe baking is the best way for me to express love for my people in the present and honor the people of my past all in one batch⁹.

Emily Smith with her essay for This I Believe. You may understandably want the recipes for the pecan pie and her grandmother Dorothy's molasses cookies. You'll find them along with all the essays we've aired and the almost 20,000 that have been submitted at NPR.org where you can also submit your own. For This I Believe, I'm Jay Allison.

Next Monday, on All Things Considered a This I Believe essay from Composer Joan Tower who believes that music can change the world.

Support for This I Believe, comes from Capella University.

This I Believe is produced for NPR by This I Believe Incorporated and Atlantic Public Media. For more essays in the series, please visit npr.org/ this I believe.
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theology
神学
molasses
<美>糖蜜
batter
A liquid or semiliquid mixture, as of flour, milk, and eggs, used in cooking.
牛奶鸡蛋面糊：一种液体或半液体混合物，是牛奶、面粉、鸡蛋混合成的，用作烹调
pecan
[植]美洲山核桃树, 美洲山核桃
caramelize
加熔(糖)使焦, (糖)熔化而变成焦糖