Tag: savor

Time Is On Your Side

jellyThere’s no need for pressure in the kitchen; time is on your side. If you’re a fan of TV cooking shows, it may seem like cooking is a timed event. That may be true in reality TV, but it is not reality. In fact, taking your time in the kitchen can bring added benefits!

Of course, it makes sense that TV shows time challenges to build tension that will keep you watching through the breaks, but that might not seem so normal if we hadn’t gradually filled our days with more and more activity and more and more distractions to the point that hurrying has become a way of life. If we begin to think of cooking as a challenge to be conquered in a certain amount of time, we may end up with good-tasting food, but we’ll miss the joy of the process.
tomatoes
My grandmother worked, gardened, canned, and cooked. When she made tomato juice, it was no 30 minute process! In fact, it stretched over months. She planted tomato seeds, tended the garden, harvested the tomatoes, cooked them down, pressed them through a cheesecloth lined chinois using a wooden pestle into sterilized jars, then topped the jars and placed them in a pressure canner for about 25 minutes. Whatever time she spent was worth it! It was the most delicious tomato juice I’ve ever tasted and it only contained tomatoes and salt.

You don’t have to begin with seeds to make delicious food. I only relate the story to help put things in perspective. My grandmother thought nothing of spending an entire day in the kitchen canning tomato juice. There was no hurry to her process.

Viewing meal preparation as a hurry-up-and-get-it-over-with experience adds pressure and robs us of the chance to:

Explore

Taking time to scout for unique ingredients can lead you to ethnic grocery stores, pick-your-own farms, urban gardens, farmer’s markets or produce stands along the highway. Picking strawberries, choosing blue crabs, or tasting churros at an unfamiliar mercado can be a great way to explore your area and spend time together as a family.
blue crabs
Experiment

If you’re trying to get out of the kitchen quickly, you’re unlikely to try something new. Experiments are, by nature, less predictable in time and result than dishes you’ve prepared many times. But eating the same thing over and over gets tiring. Why not make cherry upside down brownies? Why not slow roast a pork butt for the neighborhood barbecue? Why not cook the greens from the tops of radishes and beets? Why not try making croissants?

Teach

There are tons of lessons to be learned in the kitchen. If you’re hurrying through meal prep, you’ll have no time to teach those lessons. Not only will your kids miss out on learning, they’ll miss valuable memories of spending time with you while surrounded by warmth and the aroma of bread baking.

Dance

Kitchen prep time is great for dancing along to your favorite tunes or having a family sing-a-long. Think of it as multitasking in the best sense of the word.

Savor

It’s impossible to be fully present in the moment when you’re rushing around. If you slow down enough to smell each ingredient, notice its texture, carve it carefully, or roll it evenly, you’ll have a chance to savor each tactile delight.

I love being in the kitchen. I know it makes me feel better, and yet sometimes I fight cooking. I wait too long to start and get too hungry. I fail to inventory my pantry for ingredients, lack something essential, and refuse to substitute. I wait too long to cook some meat and it’s spoiled when I open it. While this doesn’t make me proud, I just have to let it go.

I know the value of being in the kitchen and I am usually mindful enough to enjoy the experience when I’m there. Lots of new recipes and delicious food have resulted from my less than perfect kitchen attendance. I’m going to let that be good enough. From this point, I plan to take my time and savor more and more joy during my kitchen time.

http://www.cooking2thrive.com/blog/the-benefits-of-cooking-part-3-the-lessons/

Dessert First! Day Three.

Day Two’s lesson seems to be that it’s hard to break old habits.  Most of us eat dinner first and dessert last and that is what I did on Day Two. The morning started well enough. One of my morning routines is to write a list of at least five things for which I am grateful. I felt good and my list was easily flowing forth and becoming lengthy.

Ben showed up to begin reconstruction on the bathroom, but first he wanted to complete a walk-through of the entire project in order to make a list of the paint we’ll need to purchase. He arrived feeling annoyed with himself for his late start and he soon became annoyed with me. He expressed his annoyance by saying I think like a girl and was making the list like a girl and I needed to stop that and approach the list making like he would. I kept the mood light and we finished the list without further conflict. What I realize now is how much that accommodation depleted the positive energy bank I had built up while savoring my gratitudes.

Once we completed the task, I sat down to regroup. What I failed to do at that moment was grab dessert on the way to the couch.  Rather than reminding myself of my intention to take the time to notice, choose, and  each small positive thing, I walked right by a perfectly ripe banana that would have delighted my tastebuds and grabbed a cold hot dog as a snack. I didn’t even pop it in the microwave, put it on a plate, or top it with mustard. I gulped in while Ben complained about my chewing. This was no big deal on it’s own, but it was another small chink in my plan to choose things that feed my positive feelings or add a sense of sweetness to the necessary tasks of the day.

Soon afterward, I received a couple of texts and then a phone call from a friend who is job hunting. He is feeling so financially stressed that even a job offer cannot quell his mounting fear. The fear was bleeding out as anger toward everyone he was dealing with. The anger was so palpable and so overtly undeserved, I found myself saying, “I don’t think she can help it that her first language is not English.” His anger and frustration then turned toward me.

From this point forward, I remained off track. I was chewing on the meat of the workday with no thought of anything but systematic production. I didn’t even savor the anticipation of dinner and a movie with a friend. Ultimately, the gorgeous feeling of fall when we left the theatre was enough to briefly remind me that I may have to summon more resolve for Day Three.

Can I do it?  As always, the question lingers until tomorrow…