Learning to be inspired by the chefs around me.
I’ve become a recipe-a-holic lately. Reading up on sauerkraut recipes, the difference between instant and active dry yeast, and how to use up miso (if you have more ideas on that one let me know), I have been learning about things I never would have thought would be interesting. I have never been hugely excited about food, preferring just to let my mother and foodie sister take over the kitchen.
I had other things to do, and just didn’t care about preparing food. I would “make” myself miserable breakfasts like eating a poptart in the car on the way to work, grab leftovers for lunch or just forget it and starve (or pick up a ramen or macaroni and cheese), and then come home to a great dinner (my mother is a great cook). Later on, my husband wooed me with dinners, making me chili, meatballs, and zuppa toscana, to name a few.
After being married for a year, however, my lack of passion for cooking is showing. I’ve discovered a few great meals, but I still don’t have the knack of keeping a well ordered kitchen. Meal planning falls to the wayside, and there’s always an awkward week where we eat the scraps in the fridge because I forgot to go grocery shopping. So I’ve been really thankful for the podcasts and blogs I’ve found about cooking, meal prepping, and preserving food.
Especially when the women speaking didn’t exactly love cooking, or even grow up cooking. It’s really encouraging to me to think that I can become capable of feeding my family with joy and cooking that I love, but that I don’t need to start out knowing everything or being the biggest fan of it. One of my biggest dreams is to be a great wife and mother, and so even though my overall skill is low, my enthusiasm for cooking is constantly growing.
It’s super inspiring to try to become the best version of myself, and learning how to cook excellently is a part of that. It’s like I’ve caught the Julie and Julia cooking fever over a decade later. I remember catching glimpses of that movie when my mother watched it, and it seemed so surreal and magical to do something like cook a whole chicken.
Now I’ve done that a handful of times, and I’m starting to get the hang of butchering it afterwards (although I think I need my knife sharpened). The breast meat turns out so juicy and soft, while the skin on the drums and thighs is crisp and salty. I love it when the meat I cook turns out soft and buttery, and I’ve been known to tear up a time or two. It’s just so delicious!
Food affects people’s lives so deeply they sometimes don’t even realize it, and it’s such a great feeling to provide for your friends and family in such a core way.
So I’ve been absorbing information from podcasts and books, and then supplementing that by learning about specific subjects on the side (did you know you can store parsley in a jar like flowers?!). With my interest growing and my other goal of keeping my time on YouTube down, I’ve been reading more recipes in my spare time, and loving it!
If you have a favorite cooking blog or cookbook, let me know in the comments, and here’s a link to the chicken recipe I like: butterflied-roasted-chicken