“Why I Love…” is a brand-new podcast series from our CHS Periscope staff, where we sit down with members of the CHS community to talk about their passions.

This third episode features a chat between our sports editor Hannah Stoner and guest Luella Sikorski about Sikorski’s love of baking. Check it out and tell us about your own baking experiences in the comment section below.

Want to be a guest on a future episode? Email us at [email protected] or DM us on IG at @chsperiscope. www.chsperiscope.com @CHSPeriscope (FB, IG, and Twitter)

TRANSCRIPT:

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Jenna: Hello all and welcome to the Periscope Podcast where we discuss all things CHS! Sit down and get comfortable as you join us for this episode of Why I Love… where we discuss what we’re currently loving.

Hannah: Hey, this is Hannah Stoner of the CHS Periscope Staff, I would like to welcome all listeners to the newest episode of Periscope’s Why I love. I am so excited to be back as the host today and I am also excited for today’s guest, freshman Luella Sikorski. We will be discussing her passion for baking. We are so glad to have you on the podcast today Luella, welcome to the show!

Luella: Thank you so much! Hi everyone. 

Hannah: Ok, so let’s get started. When would you say your passion for baking started? 

Luella: So, I would say that my passion for baking started when one day, I wanted to make some chocolate chip cookies, and so I go up and ask my mom. And she says, “Sure, you can make those cookies, you can make whatever you want as long as you clean up after yourself.” So like from that day realizing I can make whatever, whenever, as long as I clean up after myself, I could bake. 

Hannah: What really sparked your interest in baking? Outside of specific recipes, or anything like that. 

Luella: I think what really sparked my passion for baking was trying other peoples’ food and really liking it and then wanting to be able to replicate it for myself. Just going out to random potlucks or dinners, or like my mom would make a really nice thing, that’s where I really wanted to get my hands dirty and start baking. 

Hannah: And then, how did you learn to bake? Was it like a family member taught you, were you self-taught, looked stuff up online? How would you say that started? 

Luella: With my parents, they initially taught me how to bake with just basic measuring and different kind of ‘you spray this pan’ or ‘you don’t spray that pan.’ They taught me kind of the ins and outs, but from there as long as you know the basics you can just do whatever following the recipe. 

Hannah: How often throughout the week would you say you find yourself baking? 

Luella: I would say that nowadays I bake probably once a week, but it used to be a lot more before school got busy. 

Hannah: What are some of your favorite baking utensils or kitchen appliances to use? 

Luella: I love this question. Definitely one of my favorite things to use in the kitchen is mixing bowls. Just because they are great multi-purpose utensil-type things where I can make anything in them. Also, there is one spatula that’s really great, it is flexible, metal, very withstanding. Spatulas and mixing bowls, the best. 

Hannah: What are some of your favorite ingredients to use? Like, do you have any special ingredients or anything? 

Luella: For sure, lately my favorite ingredient to use in my baking has been chili powder or just like different more traditionally savory spices. I also like to take some of the more traditionally sweet spices like nutmeg and bring them into cooking as well. Which isn’t new by any means, but I feel like it is definitely underutilized, you know using different, non-conventional I guess spices in baking like chili powder, red pepper flakes, that sort of stuff. 

Hannah: Now, would you say that you are interested in taking any cooking or baking classes or are you in any cooking or baking classes right now? 

Luella:  Nope, I don’t really think I’ve ever done that before, it was just making dinner at home, baking different things. So no, not really any classes, just all at home.

Hannah: Ok, and then are there any cooking or baking shows that you always find yourself watching or really interested in? I grew up watching Kids Baking Championship a lot, so I don’t know if you’ve ever seen that, but that was something that’s always really interested me. 

Luella: Yeah, that’s awesome. I’ve definitely seen that a time or two and it’s ten out of ten, would recommend. Also, The Great British Baking Show, awesome, and the Nailed It. Those have to be my favorites I’d say. 

Hannah: Do some of the things they make on those shows inspire your own creations, or how would you say decorating-wise you’re inspired?

Luella: Oh for sure, 100%. So, the last place I lived was Stuttgart, Germany and my sister and I very decently successful little, just out of our kitchen baking business happening and she was kind of the master of baking, so she got a lot of her flavor inspirations from especially The Great British Baking Show because they have a lot more complex flavors there. [When] I decorated, I would get all my decorating ideas from different, like Great British Baking Show and Nailed It. So especially chocolatiers introduced to the world of chocolate and Paul Hollywood kind of stuff. Different techniques like that, different kinds of frosting, and chocolate especially that was a really big one that I learned through those shows. 

Hannah: Along with those shows, they do a lot of special challenges and stuff. Do you ever find yourself wanting to do something like that by going on one of those shows or like by challenging yourself in your own kitchen baking? 

Luella: Yes, we do that a lot. At my house my sister and I, we make a lot of dinners and especially watching some of the more savory challenges like bread and stuff, that’s been something I’ve been wanting to try for a little bit. We love taking the stuff from the shows and trying to make them at home. I would definitely say yes, love to challenge yourself in the kitchen like that. 

Hannah: Are there any particular bakers in the spotlight from these shows that have inspired you or like family members that have inspired you? 

Luella: I would say it is definitely mostly family members. Both my parents are very skilled and in-depth in the kitchen, thank goodness. One person who is not really from the shows, but does help me a lot with more of the technical sciency things is on Instagram @benjaminthebaker. He dives deep into a lot of different things that really helps you with baking like, do I use brown sugar or white sugar, what’s the ratio. He definitely helps with the more scientific stuff and is a big inspiration there as well as my parents. 

Hannah: Now, would you say that baking is something you might end up pursuing as a further career? I know you mentioned that you had a small business going with your sister, would you pick that back up again, or further it out if you could? 

Luella: I would absolutely love to do that cause baking is such a relaxing, creative, carefree thing that you can do that makes a tangible product that is delicious and everyone loves. I would absolutely love to pursue this further. I think in the next place we are moving, which is Fort Knox, Kentucky, we are definitely going to try to pick it back up again.  

Hannah: Are there any old family recipes that you have tried? If so, what has stuck out to you or means the most to you and your family? 

Luella: The most sentimental recipe I can ever remember being a part of is lefse. That’s a Norwegian-American recipe we have, it’s kind of like a potato pancake in a sense, very very thin, so maybe more of a potato crepe. It is a Norwegian-American recipe that my family has been making for a long long time and no matter where we are at, we move around a lot, we’ll always have lefse at Christmas. 

Hannah: Other than lefse, is there anything else you really enjoy making baking-wise, cooking-wise? 

Luella: Definitely cookies! Cookies are great because there is so much room for creativity in them, you can do so many different kinds of flavors which the same could be said for cake, but there is something about the size and texture that I just love about cookies.

Hannah: What would you say are some of your favorite experimental things that you’ve done with cookies? 

Luella: This is a good question. Some of my favorite experimental things I’ve done, one time we were having online school and the internet got cut out, so then that day I walked into the kitchen and made some coconut white chocolate cherry cookies, which were delicious not going to lie. Very humbly, they were delicious, so that’s been a favorite of mine. 

Hannah: Baking is a lot of science and math. I’ve mentioned, you have been experimenting, and you’ve said that yourself, but would you say you noticed any improvement in those subjects in school because of baking, or are those something that helped you get into baking in the first place?

Luella: Yeah, especially with fractions for math, I honestly hate fractions, but baking kind of forces you to get good at fractions, so that’s helped me a lot out at school. Also, for science, the measuring you have to be so incredibly precise and I noticed that my measuring has been very very well assisted and helped with the baking. For sure, measuring and fractions.  

Hannah: Is there anything else you would like to say about baking, or anything else in general about yourself? 

Luella: I would like to say about baking is that it is such a wonderful creative world that you can do. And like my mom says, you can make literally whatever you want as long as you clean up after yourself. You can create such a wonderful community around you and you know, bring a smile to other people’s faces, anyone who wants to give it a shot, just do it. Find some recipes, find some simple recipes that are easy to follow, and then you can master them and spur off into different directions and start making your own things. Just get out into the kitchen and have some fun. 

Hannah: Going off of that, are there any recipes that you would recommend to the listeners to start off with making? 

Luella: I would always say chocolate chip cookies, those ones you cannot go wrong with them. They’re [a] very nice, sentimental recipe for most people, but if you want to get a little fancy, then what you can do it make some chocolate cakes, even boxed chocolate cakes, you can make those real fancy by incorporating different things like more cocoa powder or coffee grinds, those I would say, find yourself some chocolate cakes that you can zhuzh up with little coffee grinds and what not. 

Hannah: Alright, well thanks again for joining us today Luella, it was really nice talking to you. If you would like to be on a future episode, let us know and you can email us at [email protected] or DM us on Instagram, @chsperiscope. Thank you!

Luella: Thank you so much for having me. 

Jenna: Thank you for listening to this episode of the Periscope Podcast! Please keep in mind that discussion in our podcast reflects the opinions or views of the hosts and guests, not the current Periscope staff, CHS Administration, or the CHS student body. Follow us on all platforms at ‘@/CHSperiscope’ and visit our website ‘CHSperiscope.com’ for more

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TV Shows mentioned with links to IMDB pages:

The Great British Baking Show

Kids Baking Championship 

Nailed It!