Cooking with Love

For a recent holiday meal, I brought some oven-roasted butternut squash.  It was really a simple dish...  it had olive oil, salt, pepper, and fresh thyme.  The others were oohhing and ahhing over this dish and asked me what the secret was.  I said it was really easy to make and very simple.  One commented she hasn't tasted butternut squash like that before.  I thought about this experience the next few days before I reached a conclusion.  In the past, I would share recipes with others only to hear their attempts did not taste quite the same.  It boils down to metaphysics.

When I cook, I do it with love.  I make a point of never cooking when I am angry or frustrated.  How did I learn this?  Growing up, I have tasted the food cooked by happy and angry adults.  I always enjoyed the dishes cooked by happy adults.  Based on this learning experience, I have come to believe that our feelings are manifested through  the taste of food.  The same is true for people who complain about having to cook.  Many people do see cooking as a chore and a necessary evil.  When I taste the food from those who see cooking as an obligation rather than a gift, the food doesn't taste well.

I perceive cooking as an art form.  It is fun.  It's spiritual.  It's an adventure.  It's a form of meditation.  It's soothing.  It's healing.  It gives me the space to be creative.  Whenever I have hard days, I like to go into my kitchen and cook a lot of different things.  I do not take my feelings out on the food but allow the cooking process make me forget that I had a hard day.  I see cooking as my expression of love for others.  Through cooking, I am giving my love.  My car has a bumper sticker: "Love people.  Cook them tasty food."  Very true.  Some people have insisted that I didn't have to cook for them after I said I would because they see it as an obligation when I do not.  I see it as a gift.  Some people are not open to receiving gifts.  That does not stop me from continuing to give.

While researching online about this topic, I have seen discussions here and there about how those who cook with passion deeply care about the presence and taste of food.  I smiled after my research because this blog's description is worded as: "We cook and eat to live.  Why not live to cook and eat with passion?"  How fitting.  Go and be passionate in the kitchen!  I assure you...there will be many beautiful rewards as a result.