Cooking from the Heart
As the holidays come on the horizon in all their twinkling glory, we think about cooking. I confess that I always think about cooking, but that’s me. My passion for cooking has never waned. Decades of kitchen life, both professionally and at home…or in a classroom continually inspire me.
If you cook, you know that a well-stocked pantry makes getting a meal on the table a whole lot easier. Keeping enough basics like rice, beans and pasta; great olive oil and some condiments that you adore on hand for quickie weeknight meals is one thing; but how do you make those simple meals sparkle and make any dinner feel like a special occasion? Even when life gets crazy (I’m looking at you holiday season…), there’s no need to sacrifice a good meal. We all deserve at least that much in life.
For me, the key is simple and fresh. With good-quality ingredients, you actually need to do very little. Mother Nature has done most of the ‘flavoring’ for you. Do you need knife skills? You do. But before you turn away from this article, think of Julia Child. She once said that cooking was a life skill that we all deserved to master and that begins with your knife. Learning how to navigate your cutting board opens up worlds of food to you. And the more you practice, the better and more efficient you get. And the better you get, the easier it is to make meals that shine…even on the busiest of days. Knife skills are essential to kitchen life. But I digress…
Personally, I love cooking the dishes of my youth (even when I have to vegan-ize them); the food that nourished my siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles…and me. One whiff of a certain dish cooking and I am transported back to my mother’s kitchen table, marveling at how she could take the humblest of ingredients and whip them into amazing dishes in no time. These food traditions date back generations; born of poverty and yet still endure in our modern age. My ancestry is what created my love of food and the table. Cooking for people I love makes me feel whole, productive and valuable. At my table, I can show you love without saying a word.
As we move into the future and whatever it holds, it’s important to create a love of home cooking. Those recipes and traditions strengthen our bond when we are together, making everyone at the table a part of your family; they keep us connected when apart and sustain the idea; the memory of us when we are long gone.
The holiday season is a source of stress for so many of us as we try to find the perfect gift; create the perfect table; the perfect meal; the most beautiful decorations. All of that is part of the season, I guess, but in the end, all anyone really wants is a warm welcome to your table, laden with the foods that nourish and sustain those you love best. A simple bowl of pasta with fragrant tomato sauce; a bowl of well-seasoned brown rice and tender beans, sweetly roasted seasonal vegetables will impress people as much…if not more than a sumptuous feast of fussy food that exhausted you in the making of it.
Oh…one more thing: Don’t let perfection get in the way of your cooking. My Japanese cooking teacher once said that for every great dish, there are one hundred disasters. She was right and my own cooking life is living proof of that fact.
So cook from your heart this holiday season…and for every season after that. Gathering around a table is life at its finest. Never let an opportunity to share food with someone slip past you…you’ll be the better for it. We can change the world, maybe even create peace, one meal at a time.
