Back in the Kitchen

Maybe it’s not quite as catchy as “back in the saddle”, but it’s what I felt like yesterday when I realized I didn’t have any food and needed to go grocery shopping and do some cooking. But this was far from a bad thing – I was positively relishing it.

It was so lovely to be able to walk to Rosemont Market and survey all the fresh produce. The trick was not to buy everything in sight, although I was tempted. Still, while I can eat a lot, even I can’t eat that much without it going bad, so with great self-control I limited myself (mostly) to what was on my list.

And then, the joy of coming home and actually cooking something for myself! It made me think about people who don’t cook, who always eat out or eat pre-packaged meals, and I simply cannot comprehend it. Many people comment about the amount of time it takes to prepare food, although I actually found that eating out meals takes longer. I suppose that’s why people go for fast food.

For me, though, the time it takes to make is part of the enjoyment of the process. Preparing food, singing along with my iPod, reaching instinctively for all my implements without having to think about it, hearing the crisp crunch of vegetables, seeing the rainbow of colors – red, yellow, green, a whole rainbow – the sizzle of the pan, the mingling aromas wafting up to tempt me.

And so, back in the kitchen, I am enamored yet again with food, with the infinite possibilities, with the taste and texture and sheer beauty of it. Much as I enjoyed trying Indian fare, this is what I most love, the process from start to finish. Perhaps that simply means I now need to start cooking some Indian food.