Doc and Dad: Local physician, father enjoy weekly cooking lessons
Jun. 19—ASHLAND — Kimberly Baldock and her father, Randy Memmer, didn't wait to celebrate Father's Day. They have been celebrating since February.
Every Friday afternoon, the two meet at Memmer's home in the Crump and Field Building in Ashland for a cooking lesson: She's teaching her dad how to bake.
During the pandemic, when contact was limited, Baldock and her parents traded food.
"We called it the sisterhood of the traveling casserole dish," said Baldock, an internal medicine physician with King's Daughters Medical Center. "I would make something to give to them and they would return it with something else in it."
Memmer's interesting in cooking grew.
"I got tired of watching the news so I started watching FoodNetwork," he said.
Soon, he realized he really wanted to learn how to make bread.
Memmer admitted he got interested in kitchen gadgets and appliances. "We've got more stuff than Pioneer Woman," he said, referring to Ree Drummond, a FoodNetwork show host.
His crown jewel is a Kitchen-Aid stand mixer.
"I call it my sand mixer," he said. "Also, it's the kitchen drill."
Baldock said the cooking lessons, which Kay Memmer, Baldock's mother, photographs and posts on Facebook, calling "Doc and Dad," soon found a quest: learning to make her grandmother's yeast rolls.
"She made them every week, but she never wrote anything down," Baldock said, adding experimentation and research (calling Aunt Wilma) are leading them down the right path.
"We're getting close," she said. "We're still working out the proportions. They taste right, but they don't have the right texture yet."
Memmer wasn't a newbie to the kitchen. He already had mastered shrimp and grits, a dish that's become a family favorite. "It's my signature dish," he said. "It' my only dish."
The family also was a hands-on owner of two Smashburger franchises in Ashland, which was handy, as Mrs. Memmer didn't cook.
"When I called her for dinner, she'd go stand by the car," Mrs. Memmer said of her daughter.
Baldock has had no cooking classes; she said she's learned by doing, starting when she worked at the family Smashburger.
"She was standing on a crate to run the fryer," Memmer said. "You should've seen her face when she found out people were getting paid to do that." Baldock worked at Smashburger through all her schooling, including medical school.
When she was 14, she cooked a Thanksgiving dinner with coaching from her paternal grandfather, who was an assistant fire chief. As a mother, she had increasingly important reasons to cook.
"I had hot- and cold-running teens," she said of the friends of her children, Katie and Jacob. "They hung out at our house and I can't tell you how many pieces of French toast I've made."
It's a labor of love, though.
"Food is the one common denominator. If there's one thing that brings us together, it's food," Baldock said. And the process of preparing it is rewarding, she said.
"I love to cook. To me, it's therapy," she said. "I love to see people's faces when they're enjoying food."
Her father said she's a stickler, and watching her make cinnamon rolls bears that out.
Using a pastry mat with measurements, Baldock carefully rolled out dough into a rectangle using a French rolling pin, readjusting and shaping the dough until the dimensions met her standards. After applying melted butter, cinnamon and brown sugar, Memmer deferred to his daughter to roll the dough. Tucking and straightened as she went, Baldock meticulously created a log of dough with sugary, cinnamon swirls on each end.
"Baking has to be so precise," Baldock said. "You have to have exact proportions and use dry and liquid measuring cups."
Using fine dental floss, she sliced the roll into nine pieces. Using floss keeps the shape of each roll in tact.
Another rising and the rolls were ready to bake, which means it was time to make a glaze using sugar, cream cheese and heavy cream, among other things, as the divine smell of bread and cinnamon filled the air.
Memmer earns high marks from his daughter-teacher, despite a few missteps, including fudge that didn't set up.
"He does an awesome job," she said. "Things that it's taken me months to perfect, he got it right off."
In addition to rolls, which they say is an ongoing quest, the two have made peanut butter fudge, See's chocolate fudge, Amish bread, banana walnut upside down cake with maple whipped topping, cow patty cookies, strawberry shortcake, low-carb blueberry muffins, beer cheese dip, cowboy butter and carrot cake. They even took on a gig: making candy and cupcakes for a friend's gender reveal party.
After an afternoon of baking, Baldock and her parents sit down around 4 p.m. for tea, which Mrs. Memmer prepares, and sampling of the newly baked goods.
"I eat a low-carb diet, except on Fridays," Baldock said.
Not only is cooking on a regular basis fun, Baldock said it's healthy, despite what images cinnamon rolls conjure up.
"Cooking works lots of different parts of your brain," she said. "Lots of cognitive stuff goes into cooking."
As much as the food is delicious and the ambiance is lovely, time spent with family is the best part of these cooking lessons.
"This gives us time to talk and reminisce about family," Baldock said. "It spurs memories."
(606) 326-2661 — lward@dailyindependent.com
