I don’t have many memories of many meals being cooked at my house when I was growing up. The only one I really remember was my mom’s chicken enchilada and it was my absolute favorite. I think I requested it every year on my birthday. However, due to having six kids and two working parents in the home our meals were generally quick and simple. Sitting down “as a family” was a pretty rare occurance as well due to jobs, kids in four different schools who were in drama, football, and whatever my youngest siblings were into.
So, when I started dating my partner it was a bit of a culture shock to see a kitchen filled with cookbooks and to hear someone talk about how she “loved cooking”. Well, after many years I am actually starting to get it. I’ve even purchased a few cookbooks of my own.
In a recent assignment from “The Artist’s Way” I was instructed to pick five jobs that I would have had in an alternate life and one of the ones I picked was chef. The exercise was then to live your life throughout the week a bit like that was your job. If I had picked rock star then I’d pick up a guitar or cowboy then I’d take horse riding lessons. By picking chef I decided to pick three meals at random, one from a different favorite cookbook. Then I would make those meals but change them to suit my culinary tastes.
I’ve only done one so far but it was actually really awesome. Anna complimented me strongly on my creation (though I still struggle with believing compliments as authentic) and I am feeling very encouraged to finish this exercise, and maybe even continue it to some extent. I do love cooking, I love the intimacy that comes from prepping the food, like cutting the vegetables (several of which I picked from our garden). It really kind of sparked a little bit of love and appreciation for the art of foodcraft.
For those interested, the recipes I randomly selected were: Basque Eggplant Salad from Vegan Fire & Spice, Sizzling Seitan Pho Noodle from Vegan Eats World, and Chickpea Quiche from No Meat Athlete. The Basque Eggplant Salad is the one that I cooked and modified, it really became more of a sandwich filling than a salad compliment when I was done because I added more veggies and scrambled tofu. I am going to make the chickpea quiche today so that it is ready for me to nom tomorrow morning.
Wandering Oak 