Kitchen Kvetch
Posted on | March 5, 2010 |
My dearly beloved has been out of town for a few days (promoting her book ‘The Confident Creative’ which you can see on www.theconfidentcreative.com) and that left me with the cooking.
I’m a moderately competent cook if I put my mind to it, in a basic kind of way. There are occasional forays into exciting gustatory treats when I have decided to do a dinner party or something. But I’m well out of practice.
This week has been a time of rediscovery for me. And what I learned is that there is often a simple beauty in preparing dishes for oneself, seeing the whole process through from start to finish, down to the last washed pan. It brings me to greater mindfulness, and in the process I eat less and probably enjoy it more. Since I’ve always been really bad at timing meals so everything comes together, hot, at roughly the same time, I discovered again that when cooking for just one this really doesn’t matter, and the enjoyment is often even greater because the meal is strung out for longer than would normally be deemed acceptable.
I could have done the easy thing and walked to one of the three take-outs, or chosen the dinner specials at any of the other places. But I didn’t. And I’m glad I didn’t.
Comments
2 Responses to “Kitchen Kvetch”
Leave a Reply
Princes, Frogs & Ugly Sisters:
The Healing Power of the Grimm Brothers' Tales
Pre-order on —
Write Your Memoir:
The Soul Work of Telling Your Story
Buy on—
The Six Archetypes of Love: From Innocent to Magician
Buy on—
Stories We Need to Know: Reading Your Life Path in Literature
Buy on—
Life Passages: Writing Exercises for Your Life Journey
Buy on—
Hi—I’m Allan Hunter, author of The Six Archetypes of Love and Stories We Need to Know as well as two books on writing for self-exploration, Life Passages and The Sanity Manual. If you’re looking to live your best life I hope you’ll find lots of inspiration here.
You can find me on Facebook —
and also on Intent.com
Recent Comments
- Allan Hunter on Now I know
- Marnie on Now I know
- Mary McIntyre on Memoir - the past is rarely over
March 6th, 2010 @ 6:44 am
A topic near and dear to me (though anyone who doesn’t hold some love for food is, to my mind, missing out on one of the great aspects of our short lives.) We recently bought a house and are temporarily down to one income and not only are we still eating well despite spending much less, but we are eating until we are full. Cooking from scratch is frugal and healthy when done with care. Learning to make warm loaves of bread, hot lentil dishes and slow braised meats controlling every ingredient and tailoring the flavors to our taste is a fine little part of the day.
Perhaps it’s that same feeling one gets when turning sheep wool into a garment or bits of graphite into a drawing or bits of steel and wire into a bike. It’s so much more satisfying to look at what you’ve done, no matter how humble, and know it was your own creation.
March 6th, 2010 @ 12:25 pm
How beautifully you put it, Marnie. When we do things from scratch we undoubtedly place ourselves in a different relationship to the end product, and the satisfaction is deeper.
Of course, I don’t think I’m attempting anything as special as the dishes you describe, yet the process is essentially the same no matter on what level it happens. Perhaps preparing, cooking, and eating can also be a meditation, a form of prayer? I like to think so.
And behind this I couldn’t help noticing the calm way you observe that you’re temporarily down to one income. Admirable serenity of spirit, right there.