on perceptions of cooking
I feel like I have not been cooking recently. This is weird, because I'm cooking all the time. Last weekend I made chili for the super bowl. That felt like cooking, but...! But...
But just because I don't want to recreate the spicy silken tofu-lentil glop that was my dinner a few nights ago (I was using up food so it wouldn't go bad & was too hungry to expand it into anything fancier), or somehow believe the omelet I made yesterday morning was not cooking, that doesn't make my perception accurate. Yesterday's omelet gave me ideas for a future omelet I'd like to try, & the spicing I used on the tofu will get expanded upon in another dish- perhaps with pork & bok choy? That sounds good.
I like that I am a practiced enough cook that I can take some fairly random ingredients & make something palatable out of them. It's a skill that has served me well many times & often leads to useful discoveries. But I think it's interesting that I also consider doing so no big deal when I know a lot of people who would look in the same refrigerator/pantry and see no options. I have strengths! I will celebrate them!
I wonder if part of the difference I make between in cooking vs. obtaining calories to keep functioning has to do with whether or not I'm letting the food tell me what it wants to be, or trying to obtain an ideal that exists in my head?
What have you made (or eaten) recently that you found interesting, whether that be in a "good" way or a "bad" way?
But just because I don't want to recreate the spicy silken tofu-lentil glop that was my dinner a few nights ago (I was using up food so it wouldn't go bad & was too hungry to expand it into anything fancier), or somehow believe the omelet I made yesterday morning was not cooking, that doesn't make my perception accurate. Yesterday's omelet gave me ideas for a future omelet I'd like to try, & the spicing I used on the tofu will get expanded upon in another dish- perhaps with pork & bok choy? That sounds good.
I like that I am a practiced enough cook that I can take some fairly random ingredients & make something palatable out of them. It's a skill that has served me well many times & often leads to useful discoveries. But I think it's interesting that I also consider doing so no big deal when I know a lot of people who would look in the same refrigerator/pantry and see no options. I have strengths! I will celebrate them!
I wonder if part of the difference I make between in cooking vs. obtaining calories to keep functioning has to do with whether or not I'm letting the food tell me what it wants to be, or trying to obtain an ideal that exists in my head?
What have you made (or eaten) recently that you found interesting, whether that be in a "good" way or a "bad" way?