Each morning my husband reads Morning AgClips. A few days ago, he said, “You’ve got to read this. You have a seriously strange hobby.” He was referring to an article titled, Seriously Strange Hobbies You Didn’t Know About.
I read the article and learned about Extreme Ironing where people iron clothes while rock climbing and sky diving, about Cheese Rolling where rounds of cheese are rolled down a hill, and about Soap Bubble Art where people use a variety of techniques to create interesting effects with soap bubbles. And, then the article went on to describe . . . drum rolls please . . . Historical Cooking which “which involves trying out recipes from the past.”
Oh, my goodness, who knew? Do I have a seriously strange hobby?
Yes, it is a slightly strange hobby which benefits many people.
I have a lot of fun with it, and have enjoyed getting to know so many wonderful people like you via our blogs.
Yes! The bloggers I’ve bonded with are wonderful people.
Ha! But what a fun hobby! And I love that you share it with your readers.
Thank you for the kinds words. I really enjoy making old recipes and sharing them with my readers – and it actually helps encourage me to make dishes that are “new” to me. Otherwise I can get into a rut and just make the same few foods over and over.
Oh my! Thats too funny! 😂 well, someone’s got to do it!
Good point – someone’s got to do it. 🙂
Compared to the other strange hobbies, yours is quite tame. I’m actually surprised historical cooking is strange. The article must’ve been written by a young person with limited experience of the world.
What Patty Said!!!!!
I hadn’t thought about it until you said it, but you may be right that there’s a generational difference.
Strange or not, I love it, Sheryl!
It’s wonderful to hear that you like it. It means a lot that an old friend enjoys it and that we’ve managed to stay in touch across the many years.
Not at all! It’s a great idea! Especially because you recreate the food people enjoyed 100 years ago. It shows how food is part of our ever changing culture.
Good to know that you don’t think that it’s a strange hobby. I hadn’t thought about it until you mentioned it, but you’re right, foods and food trends and fads provide so many clues about what it was like in the past and how the culture is forever changing.
It’s a great hobby! Fun, useful, and lovely that you share it with your readers. Now then, Extreme Ironing on the other hand … I rarely even do normal ironing.
You’re not going to take up extreme ironing? 🙂
I never do ironing to extremes … 😉
Heck…. I don’t even consider it a hobby let alone strange. Its living life and making good food for family and friends with what my Mama taught me and her Mama taught her and ect…
I agree – you said it very well.
Congratulations, Sheryl, on your seriously strange hobby!
🙂
Compared to most of the other hobbies mentioned, yours is the least “strange”, and the most productive. 🙂
Agree – though I’m still trying to figure out why the author decided to group historical cooking with the other hobbies.
Well, you don’t seem to be cooking over an open fire, so not so strange.
Good point – though I have thought about possibly volunteering at a historic site and making cookies and other foods using a wood stove for people touring the site. Maybe there’s potential for me heading in a strange direction. 🙂
nah not strange at all but fun!
cheers
sherry
That’s what I think, too – that it’s just a fairly normal fun hobby. Good to know that you agree.
Perhaps I’m biased (having just purged over 50 cookbooks from my collection) but I don’t think it is strange in the least! I still have a reprint of a cookbook from 1864! And I love that book because it has recipes for gooseberry pie and rhubarb pie!!
Decreasing the size of your cookbook collection had to have been hard. I’d have have a difficult time doing that. You’re right – there are some fun recipes in old cookbooks that you’d never find in a modern one. Some foods that were commonly eaten years ago – like gooseberries – seem much less popular today.
Keep on being “seriously strange!” Yours is so rooted in memory (and to honor your grandmother), and a fascination with historical context, so I would say: not strange at all! I’d love to get into the psychology of all those others and why people do them 🙂
Your comment takes me back to the beginnings of this blog and the posting of my grandmother’s diary. I had a wonderful time with the blog during the diary years, and am so glad that I was able to continue the blog with a somewhat different focus after the diary ended. Thank you for all your support over the years. I have really enjoyed getting to know you over the years via our blogs.
I have to agree with the person who said that was written by a young person, who probably doesn’t cook and to whom the idea of actually using cookbooks seems ancient. I thoroughly enjoy new ideas for cooking even when they are not particularly new – they are new to me! 😊👍
I hadn’t thought about it quite that way, but I think that you’re right. To many young people the idea of using a cookbook probably seems ancient. A lot has changed over the last hundred years. Not only have recipes and foods changed – but the ways cooks access recipes and cooking directions have also changed.
seems pretty normal compared to the others. So you think they meant cooking ina fire place or something?
No, I think the author meant cooking old recipes in a normal kitchen. The article mentioned Baked Alaska as an example of a strange historic recipe. This suggests to me that the author is younger than me. I’ve never made Baked Alaska, but I think that it was in contemporary recipe books when I was young – and doesn’t really seem like a historic recipe to me. But now that I think about it, I haven’t heard of Baked Alaska in years, so it probably is historic. And, maybe it’s a little strange have ice cream inside a hot cake topped with meringue. 🙂
I remember Baked Alaska recipes too. I don’t remember ever actually having any, but I guess I’m old as our presidential candidates, so probably why. Maybe I’ll make it for my birthday in August.
It sounds like fun to make Baked Alaska.
Hmm. I enjoy your hobby vicariously!