Good morning folks,
Here I come again! Full of pep and life. I may have had a good week, in the sense that nothing has gone terribly wrong and I may have had an excellent Shrove Tuesday (think Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday).
So far my cooking experiments have been gone beyond par, and everything has tasted supremely delectable. In some ways I feel like the Julie and Julia book, about the woman who decided to cook one of Julia Child's recipes every day of the year. I don't cook something new every day but it's bordering on once or twice a week. I love cooking new recipes. On Valentine's day, the dreaded day of single people everywhere, I felt no sadness. Why? Well, I did what I've come to love second best in this wide world (the first is reading if you didn't know). I baked. I felt slightly awkward, not necessarily unhappy and not even lonely (I have a wonderfully awesome roommate to thank for that). I quietly snuck into our kitchen, and flipped through some cook books, and ransacked our refrigerator, and surveyed what I had to work with.
My first creation was from-scratch cornbread, which is so easy to make, and then I cooked up some Andouille sausage. The smell was intoxicating. Andouille is a southern pork sausage, typically used in jambalaya. I then added that to the batter, and baked it. Oh, such flavor! Andouille has some spice to it, and the sweetness of the cornbread combined nicely with the bite of the sausage. Good times, so tasty.
My second creation is the dream of dessert lovers everywhere. I took the crescent rolls dough, separated it, and then added some cinnamon (such a useful spice) and a blob of nutella. Well, let me tell you. There is a heaven on earth, and it was within those rolls. The cinnamon added a nice offsetting flavor, but did not distract from the hazelnut. Very complimentary.
Anyway, the baking was a great way to focus on something other than the snowy evening and the fact that I'm very consciously single. Not that being single is bad, per se, but on Valentine's day you are either miserably single or happily coupled. It seems there is no in-between. So, I delved into the contented place I find when I'm in the kitchen and creating. I am by no means a religious person, that time has long past for me, but there is something about cooking. When I work with my hands, when I create something that then is passed on to friends and family and co-workers, it is a wondrous thing. There is something holy about it, I suppose. And how fanatical and condescending does that sound? The point being that cooking is an art and action and something I do to feel relaxed, to help me heal, to help me unwind and I feel generally good when I can cook something that others and myself enjoy. I can loose track of all the insanity outside of my kitchen, from bills to work to other worries. It's a way to look into myself and connect with my life in a different way, it's a way for me to spread love. Learning how to connect with people has been difficult for me in the past several months, and in this way, I'm re-learning how to reconnect with myself, which I need to do before I can do that with others again. Cooking and baking is a great reflective time for me, which also allows me to share my contentment with others.
These are just my thoughts, and in a way, although I pray to no one in particular, cooking allows me to still do this. Prayer is hope, in a way. Prayer is hoping to go someplace better, hope for help, hope for health, hope to make it through the next day. Cooking is prayer, because it is that hope, hope that this will taste good, hope that good things will come, hope that I'll keep getting better, healthier, happier.
Good day to you all! I can only encourage you to find something that brings you this much contentment, because it no longer becomes a chore, but something more. Find something that makes you this happy. We all need a little bit of joy in our lives, and I see not enough of it. Find an activity that washes away the dust of the day (what about showers, Laura? ha ha very funny). That's really all I can say on the matter. Find things you love and love them, good things will follow.
It just happens, in my case, it's food. And who doesn't like that?
Here I come again! Full of pep and life. I may have had a good week, in the sense that nothing has gone terribly wrong and I may have had an excellent Shrove Tuesday (think Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday).
So far my cooking experiments have been gone beyond par, and everything has tasted supremely delectable. In some ways I feel like the Julie and Julia book, about the woman who decided to cook one of Julia Child's recipes every day of the year. I don't cook something new every day but it's bordering on once or twice a week. I love cooking new recipes. On Valentine's day, the dreaded day of single people everywhere, I felt no sadness. Why? Well, I did what I've come to love second best in this wide world (the first is reading if you didn't know). I baked. I felt slightly awkward, not necessarily unhappy and not even lonely (I have a wonderfully awesome roommate to thank for that). I quietly snuck into our kitchen, and flipped through some cook books, and ransacked our refrigerator, and surveyed what I had to work with.
My first creation was from-scratch cornbread, which is so easy to make, and then I cooked up some Andouille sausage. The smell was intoxicating. Andouille is a southern pork sausage, typically used in jambalaya. I then added that to the batter, and baked it. Oh, such flavor! Andouille has some spice to it, and the sweetness of the cornbread combined nicely with the bite of the sausage. Good times, so tasty.
My second creation is the dream of dessert lovers everywhere. I took the crescent rolls dough, separated it, and then added some cinnamon (such a useful spice) and a blob of nutella. Well, let me tell you. There is a heaven on earth, and it was within those rolls. The cinnamon added a nice offsetting flavor, but did not distract from the hazelnut. Very complimentary.
Anyway, the baking was a great way to focus on something other than the snowy evening and the fact that I'm very consciously single. Not that being single is bad, per se, but on Valentine's day you are either miserably single or happily coupled. It seems there is no in-between. So, I delved into the contented place I find when I'm in the kitchen and creating. I am by no means a religious person, that time has long past for me, but there is something about cooking. When I work with my hands, when I create something that then is passed on to friends and family and co-workers, it is a wondrous thing. There is something holy about it, I suppose. And how fanatical and condescending does that sound? The point being that cooking is an art and action and something I do to feel relaxed, to help me heal, to help me unwind and I feel generally good when I can cook something that others and myself enjoy. I can loose track of all the insanity outside of my kitchen, from bills to work to other worries. It's a way to look into myself and connect with my life in a different way, it's a way for me to spread love. Learning how to connect with people has been difficult for me in the past several months, and in this way, I'm re-learning how to reconnect with myself, which I need to do before I can do that with others again. Cooking and baking is a great reflective time for me, which also allows me to share my contentment with others.
These are just my thoughts, and in a way, although I pray to no one in particular, cooking allows me to still do this. Prayer is hope, in a way. Prayer is hoping to go someplace better, hope for help, hope for health, hope to make it through the next day. Cooking is prayer, because it is that hope, hope that this will taste good, hope that good things will come, hope that I'll keep getting better, healthier, happier.
Good day to you all! I can only encourage you to find something that brings you this much contentment, because it no longer becomes a chore, but something more. Find something that makes you this happy. We all need a little bit of joy in our lives, and I see not enough of it. Find an activity that washes away the dust of the day (what about showers, Laura? ha ha very funny). That's really all I can say on the matter. Find things you love and love them, good things will follow.
It just happens, in my case, it's food. And who doesn't like that?
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