things cooking taught me

i love to cook.

cooking ended up being a topic i stopped talking about a long while back. i think the whole terrified-of-food business coupled with not eating helped that trend along. since reigning in all those demons, the kitchen feels friendly again. it feels like a solid, warm place to spend our wet, chilly winter in.

i grew up in the kitchen. my dad went to cooking school and was a chef for something like ten years before he took on another profession. my grandma cooks, my uncle cooks, my aunts cook, my cousins cook. not sure where i got the love for the kitchen at…

for a really long time though, the kitchen frustrated me. i used to throw things together with great confidence only to sit down and eat something completely different than the food in my mind’s eye. why oh why did nothing turn out perfectly? why oh why did i mess up all the time?

the kitchen teaches me to laugh instead of scream.
the kitchen teaches me it’s okay to get dirty.
the kitchen teaches me patience (oh, miles and miles of patience).
the kitchen teaches me humility.
the kitchen teaches me love.
the kitchen teaches me confidence.

i think the most important lesson i’ve learned after all these years of sauteing, flipping, roasting, baking, burning, breaking, and making, is nothing will ever be perfect because perfection doesn’t exist.

it’s difficult to participate in a kitchen (or life) if you worry so much about the details. it’s difficult to find the happiness in cooking if you find no fun in cooking. the kitchen, it you allow it to, can lighten up life a little bit.

yesterday i baked for the first time in months. for a friend. and let me tell you. these babies were definitely a labor of love. and definitely worth it.

(chocolate cupcakes, stuffed with carmel kisses, and topped with carmel frosting and all made with lots of love. everything home made…minus the kisses.)

i found myself laughing and frustrated at the same time. i found myself racing from the computer to the stove and back again. i found myself dancing and singing and cursing.

sigh. i love cooking.

do you?

namaste

zoe

(p.s: one other thing i’ve found while cooking? i without fail always, always, always listen to amy winehouse and/or adele. or the otis redding station on pandora. something about jazzy blues gets me in the cooking mood i suppose!

p.p.s: you guys. how do i get onto pinterest. help.)