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While not everyone is going to display the same levels of talent as people like Gordon Ramsay or a local restaurant chef, many individuals find joy and passion in making their own meals and baked goods and typically won’t be ones to set off fire alarms and smoke detectors in their attempts.

Dallas resident Craig Borkenhagen said he initially began truly cooking when he moved to New Haven, Connecticut, for his first job after earning his undergraduate degree.

“Before that had been the most basic poor college student kind of stuff, like sandwiches and pastas from a box,” he said. “The cooking kicked up a notch a few years ago when I got a few cookbooks and had a Blue Apron subscription for a short time.”

Also while living in the New England area in Massachusetts, Borkenhagen adopted a baking hobby approximately three years ago. He began mostly with bread before attempting items such as rolls, pastries, and cakes.

“My first year in Dallas, from fall of 2023 to fall of 2024, was a lot of baking—lots of sourdoughs and other recipes from my How to Bake book by Paul Hollywood, the host of The Great British Bake Off [called The Great British Baking Show in the U.S. because the capitalized term 'Bake-Off' is a registered trademark of Pillsbury],” he said.

Like Borkenhagen, Dallas-area resident Nikki East also enjoys crafting her own meals and treats, though her immediate memories go back to when she was a young girl around the age of 6 or 7 and spent time with her mom and aunt in the kitchen.

“My aunt made everything from scratch, and I loved helping her,” she said. “One thing she taught me that I still follow to this day is ‘always clean as you go.’ I helped her make zucchini bread (one of my favorites), Thanksgiving dinner (which was always a huge spread) and desserts (her pecan pie was so delicious), and everything in between. I don’t ever remember her referencing recipes, but if she did have a recipe book somewhere, I wish I had known, as I would have asked for it after her passing.”

Life is filled with plenty of stresses and general busyness, and for East, the opportunity to bake or cook tends to be cathartic.

“It’s enjoyable for me, as it pulls my mind away from the day-to-day hustle of work, responsibilities, etc.,” she said. “It also brings me joy to bake or cook for others. Food soothes the soul, and if I can be part of doing that for someone, then I’m happy.”

Cooking and baking can serve as outlets for many individuals to express creativity, take opportunities to be innovative, and simply experience some relaxation as they go through the entire process of something that takes them outside of other everyday tasks.

“I love the smells and textures of baking—the smell of the yeast, the texture of the dough as I’m kneading it, seeing the covered loaf start to rise at it proofs, and more,” Borkenhagen said. “I like the process of mixing dry and wet ingredients into something totally different and new.”

Making one’s own food rather than eating out can also allow for portion control and money saved, though Borkenhagen doesn’t exactly keep track of how much less he’s spending by preparing meals for himself. He said his cooking lately has been more meal prepping simple options rather than elaborate meals, which he surmises is helping his bank account some. When he bakes, though, it doesn’t only benefit him.

“I know that many carbs probably isn’t the best thing for me, especially if I eat all of what I bake on my own, so I often give away the majority of what I bake,” he said.

East, on the other hand, said she is quite aware that cooking and baking at home is allowing her to spend less money on food.

“I am obsessed with Salata salads, but I can make multiple decent replicas with the same amount it costs to buy one or two salads,” she said. “Also, I haven’t purchased bread from a store in months. Instead of paying $4 to $6 for one sourdough loaf, I can spend $11 to $14 for three ingredients and make multiple loaves at home—and without all of the additives in store-bought bread.”

East said making her own meals is also cheaper in terms of what she spends on animal proteins. She said she can purchase two grass-fed and finished filet steaks (averaging approximately 5.5 ounces each) for roughly $40 and make them, as opposed to spending closer to $60 for a filet steak at a restaurant that may be a smaller cut and have unknown information regarding where the meat is sourced.

“I definitely try to eat at home most days,” she said. “However, as I am a typical exhausted adult, I will order or dine out on occasion so that I don’t have to cook and clean—which is worth every penny at times.”

When it comes to cooking, East said steak (which is one of her favorite foods) is probably her most preferred dish to make, and she usually does so every Friday. She said she also enjoys making braised chuck roast with homemade mashed potatoes. For baking, she’s been on a sourdough kick lately.

“I enjoy making sourdough bread and trying out new recipes that use sourdough discard,” she said. “Monster cookies and cinnamon rolls have also been good hits, which makes me enjoy baking them.”

Borkenhagen, who is known for showing up to social functions with surprise baked goods to share with his friends, finds joy in adding in different flavors to his treats and said thinking about different flavor combinations might be his favorite thing about baking, in general. Currently, he said he loves making chocolate tarts and seeing others enjoy his gifts of baked love.

“With the tarts, flavors such as raspberry and orange go so well with it,” he said. “And I know the ways I can improve on my last batch—things like using dried raspberry powder instead of fresh raspberries so that there are no moisture issues in the dough. I really knead (bu-dum-tsss) to get back into sourdough, though. It’s been a long time. But the tarts turned out really well, and people really seemed to love them, which is always nice to get that kind of feedback.”

Prior to becoming president, Abraham Lincoln was a licensed bartender.

Trust is an essential aspect in relationships of any kind and often determines how or if an individual will interact with others. It’s not always easy to come by for some people, though, and must be earned or built over time.

Viewpoints on whether or not most people are trustworthy vary in different parts of the world—while people in Denmark and Norway are rather trusting, only 37 percent of U.S. participants in a 2022 study indicated that the majority of individuals can be trusted. Had he been part of the study, Dallas resident Bob Heine would have added to that percentage.

“I think I feel that most people are trustworthy in large part due to my upbringing in the Midwest, where people driving down the road will wave at you whether they know you or not,” he said. “There was an inherent belief that a stranger is just a friend you haven’t met yet.”

There are also certainly different levels of trust—one might trust a stranger at the airport to watch his or her bags for a few minutes for a restroom break, while that same person might not trust that stranger to listen to some emotional trauma experienced. Heine said he only has a few people in his life he trusts completely.

“The first to come to mind is my son,” he said. “He is 24 years old, and I’ve known him his entire life. I trust him 100 percent, no questions asked. I also have two friends I’ve known since childhood and one I’ve known since college whom I would trust 100 percent. I think some of it has to do with the fact that I’ve known them for so long and that, over that time, if they were not trustworthy, it would’ve been exposed to me well before now.”

Like Heine, Dallas resident Damon Yousefy tends to believe that the majority of people are trustworthy, and he gained some added perspective from a Malcolm Gladwell book, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, he read recently that discusses the notion that all people lie, but the difference is in how often they do so.

“If we trust nobody, society breaks down, but if we trust blindly, we run the risk of naïveté and having that trust used against us by bad actors,” he said.

Yousefy also said he only has a few people in his life who are at the 100-percent trust level.

“People whom I have known for years and who have had my back during the worst of times have earned my complete trust,” he said. “My best friend from law school is one of those people I trust completely.”

Dallas-area resident Alexis Derrow said she fully trusts both of her parents and two or three of her close friends, and she believes that is likely rather common and acceptable for many individuals.

“I think there are people who don’t gossip, and when you tell them something in confidence, they won’t tell anyone,” she said. “And it’s a short list of people, but maybe if you have two or three, you’re doing OK.”

Derrow said she doesn’t always trust people when she initially meets them, and her level of trust in a person can certainly fluctuate over time.

“I think I start out like 80 percent trusting people, and then people move up or down depending on their actions,” she said. “Few ever reach 100 percent.”

Some people, like Heine, generally give people trust right away, though.

“It’s my philosophy that it’s easy to give trust and easy to lose trust, but it’s very, very difficult and takes a long time to regain trust once it’s lost,” he said.

For Yousefy, trusting someone right off the bat isn’t a likely occurrence. While he doesn’t have a set number of years required, he said there have to be several years of knowing a person for him to fully trust that individual.

“Going through difficult situations and seeing through someone’s actions that they care and can be trusted will generally accelerate that timeline,” he said.

Regardless of the time it takes or level of trust or amount of individuals who make the trustworthy list, there’s a general consensus that trust is vital. Yousefy said without trust, communication breaks down

“We have to be able to be our complete selves and be vulnerable with others in order to thrive,” he said. “Those who do not have close confidants often report higher rates of depression and unhappiness. But having friends, family, or a partner who can be trusted can make a big difference in life. Think of all of the very old couples that die within weeks of each other. When the other’s companion whom they trust fully is gone, it makes life much more difficult for the surviving partner.”

Like Yousefy, Derrow believes that trust is key and said one is not able to have a deep relationship of any kind if he or she doesn’t at least mostly trust the other person, especially during the more challenging and difficult times in life.

“One day you’ll fail, and the only way to have real intimacy with someone is to show that and to believe that they won’t use it to hurt you,” she said.

Trust allows people to feel safe in vulnerability and provides a space free of worry of judgment or deception. It requires transparency and sincerity and often serves as a cornerstone for two people or a group of people. For Heine, there’s no question that it has to have a strong presence.

“Trust is vital for any relationship not only to exist but also to last,” he said. “Frankly, in my opinion, if there is no trust, then there is no relationship.”

WEEKLY PHOTO OP

NatNews staff members and dear readers enjoyed a nice little competitive evening at Cidercade in Dallas and recommend that you go visit there soon, too

Monday, June 30: Female Fitness Event Series at Dallas Urby
Tuesday, July 1: Free Rooftop Movie — Deep Blue Sea at Sundown at Granada
Wednesday, July 2: Rangers vs. Orioles at Globe Life Field
Thursday, July 3: Addison Kaboom Town! 2025 at Addison Circle Park; Frisco RoughRiders vs. Arkansas Travelers (special Dallasites101 offer) at Riders Field
Friday, July 4: Fair Park Fourth; Frisco Freedom Fest at Frisco Square; more Fourth of July celebrations throughout DFW
Saturday, July 5: WRRC Saturday run from Taco Joint; Boots, Bites, & Lights at The Village Dallas; Free First Saturdays at the Nasher Sculpture Center; Dunn & Brooks — Brooks & Dunn Tribute at Legacy Hall
Sunday, July 6: DMA Free First Sundays — Access for All at the Dallas Museum of Art; Candlelight — Tribute to Taylor Swift at Irving Arts Center