Recipe for Having a Delicious Meal and Enjoying the Art of Cooking
For eaters and cooks alike :)
Right now, I’m with my family in Ojai, California with not much to do until I start a job in Massachusetts the beginning of November1. Here, I’m visiting my Aunt Suzy and Uncle Bob and sweet grandmother. They are as loving and ardently supportive as family could be. For instance, Aunt Suzy described the undercooked banana nut muffins I made last night as “moist manna2 from heaven” while anytime I make anything for Grandmommy she insists upon it’s deliciousness and that I either can’t leave or that she wants to go where I’m going. This amuses me because, though I love food, I’m far from being a chef. I can only attest to thoroughly enjoying the act of cooking, with zero guarantees about the delectableness or edibleness of the end product. Nevertheless, I’m beginning to believe that enjoying cooking is perhaps just enough to make the food I make, apparently, so tasty to them. Perhaps in being loved by my family, and showing them love thorough passionate, peaceful, and creative (and definitely not the tastiest) edible pursuits, mutual satisfaction is achieved.
So, here’s my recipe for a delicious meal:
Eaters (Love and appreciate food and food preparer)
+
Food Preparer (Loves and appreciates food and eaters// has the time and energy to prepare meal // has the capacity to prepare something basically good)
+
Food (The prepared meal should probably taste pretty decent and good to be throughly enjoyed, but it doesn't need to be superb to have eaters raving. Here’s a tip- food is at it’s tastiest when fresh and in season.)
=
Yum😋
All of this is easy to envision when you imagine someone stating how their beloved relative makes the best _________ ever. Do they really? Subjectively speaking, they really do and that’s exactly what matters :).
Learning to Love Cooking
For anyone wishing to enhance their enjoyment of food preparation here are some potential ingredients:
Gratitude: Cultivate gratitude for food and cooking. Food is a product of sunshine, water, soil, labor, etc. And there are unique conditions for everything you eat, conditions which can be harmful or regenerative for people/planet. Further, you can consider how easy or difficult it is for you to access and/or grow nutritional, culturally-appropriate foods. The ability to eat good food is a gift to be appreciated.
Time and Mindfulness: Try to not cook as a means to an end and rather to enjoy the process. This means giving yourself adequate time to cook3. If you cook with care and intentionality, maybe eaters with knowledge of this will be more inclined to eat with a similar disposition. I find Thich Nhat Hanh a great resource for leaning into appreciating acts of cooking… he has a book called How to Eat which I downloaded a PDF of for free.
Creativity and Curiosity: Try a new recipe or ingredient. I.e. if apples are in season perhaps a new savory apple dish or, if you’re just finding out what a Kohlrabi is go ahead and try to make something with it. Another idea, lookup a recipe from a different part of the world, and for even more fun, try to localize it using what ingredients are locally available to you.
Share: Make food to share with others. If you’ve taken the time and creativity to prepare a love-imbued dish, go ahead and share with family, neighbors, or others in your community. In my experience, I can’t think of a time a friend or stranger hasn’t been grateful to be offered homemade food.
What a time to move to New England… I presume all the gorgeous leaves will have long fallen and it will already be dark at 4pm and cold. So excited.
an unexpected or gratuitous benefit.
Having time to cook is another element to be grateful for.