What I LOVE about cooking

I love cooking because food is everything, if you really think about it.

Food is memories. Food makes up tradition and ties generations together. Food evokes strong feelings. Food gathers the people you love around your table. Food promotes community and togetherness. Food gives sustenance. Food gives comfort. Food gives energy. Food is essential. Food can be whatever you want it to be. Food is art. Food is culture.

I just love that food has the ability to be powerful, exotic, sexy, and spicy without the judgment you would get if you were that way!

And in a nutshell, good food is the result of cooking.

Food is many things to many people, but mostly to me, food is love. It is how I express and show love. If I need to tell you thank you, chances are a big plate of peanut butter swirl brownies are in your future. If you just had a baby, I’ll probably show up with a big pot of tender, beef stew, baguette, brie and wine (because I happen to know that wine, especially more than one glass, does wonders for everything after pushing out a baby). Even if it’s just a casual Wednesday night at home with a run-of-the-mill potato soup bubbling on the stove…I have made it with love. I have said this before, but I feel honored to be the wife to my husband and the mother of my children. It is a privilege I have always wanted and so I try take care of my family with purpose and love. Luckily, that includes dinner. Not so luckily, it also includes laundry.

Call me crazy, but I truly love how a dish comes together. Chopping onions, celery and carrots is very methodical and calming to me. Sautéing, roasting, caramelizing, braising, baking…everything has it’s own science, rhyme and reason. I get a thrill out of uncovering secrets to getting great results out of food every time.

I tend to search for “the ultimate”. Like, for example, If I make the absolute, ultimate chicken and dumplings, at least in my mind, then the buck stops there. I’m not making it another way again unless there is some crazy hybrid variation with surprising and intriguing ingredients that I read about 5 years down the road. Then, in that overly dramatic scenario, I would of course have to try it out. I kid myself. Really, all it would take is the mention of adding dill and the promise of fluffier dumplings and I'd be all over it, trying it out asap. While I do tend to search for these ultimate finds, I also love trying new dishes, so I am always cooking something different.

I could sit here and try to explain exactly why food makes me tick all day long, but it wouldn’t do any good. I’ll never define it. I’ll never be able to put it in a box. It is an art, so it is always changing and so is my view of it. Maybe that is why it never loses it’s appeal.

Gosh, I just love that too.