I love to cook. Cooking is therapy for me: an alchemical, fundamental, primitive process of creation that connects me with the earth and my ancestors. But I don't want to cook every day, dishing up balanced meals three times or even once a day. There are too many things to do every day every day – they can eat up all the time left over when I'm not working or sleeping. So OK, I'm an intermittent cook.
I tend to cook in a wild frenzy of activity followed by fallow periods. After an evening cooking up a storm I don’t want to do any more. I garden the same way -- once the plants are bedded in, fed and watered it’s their turn and they will either survive. Or not. Mostly they do – the ones that don’t are those that were too delicate for my rough and tumble garden.
Cooking can be maddening if I decide to bake when I'm in a bad mood. Because baking is not tolerant of being messed with. You have to follow the rules of the recipe. I guess following the rules has always been challenging. So if I'm a bad mood and decide to bake, nine times out of ten I have a baking failure and that invariably turns a kitchen frenzy into a kitchen tantrum. It's only funny later. Much later.
Cooking can be gloriously calming whatever mood I'm in … especially if I've been to the farmer's market and have a fridge full of fresh fruits and veggies. And a larder full of the basics. That's when playing in the kitchen is such fun - to add a pinch of this or a handful or bunch of that, to make it less sweet or more tart, to add a color or texture contrast and so on. It's a delight if the result is something that is a bit different that is also edible!
I'm abjectly sorry I take so few photos or videos - cooking frenzies are all consuming - it's a miracle I jot a few notes as I fly about the kitchen - more of a miracle that I can make sense of them and write them up!
Check out my other recipe blog: Earth to Table. Inspired by the Edible Plant Project in Gainesville, you'll find recipes there using locally grown foods from USDA Gardening Zone 8!
