Home Style Cooking, Memories and Seniors

Agency caregivers, independent caregivers, or family caregivers can help to make a senior's day a better day in many ways, and one of these can be to use home style cooking for a special treat.

Remember when meals were cooked from fresh ingredients, before the days of instant meals? Many of the seniors grew up when people still baked their own bread or muffins, created cakes from scratch, made stews from fresh vegetables, and used fresh fruit instead of canned.

The smell of bread baking or vegetable stew simmering on the stove can evoke memories of happy times and help create a warm, cozy atmosphere. Chicken noodle soup made from scratch sends an appetizing aroma throughout the house and sometimes people who do not have an appetite suddenly feel like eating.

Some elders enjoy sharing the cooking with their caregiver, and if standing up for long periods of time is difficult they can sit at a counter or table while making food the old fashioned way.

Caregivers can get an education in cooking without the help of frozen foods and microwaves from seniors who often like to remember recipes and share special cooking tricks.

Many of my caregiver clients who have been in their 90's have given me some cooking lessons that I treasure. Just think, in 2007 that means they are teaching me family recipes from the 1920's or earlier.

Cooking recipes from decades ago also stirs up old memories for them. I have enjoyed the stories of what is was like to cook with a wood burning stove, or to pick your own home grown fruits and make fruit preserves to store in jars sealed with melted wax.