Creativity escapes me in the kitchen lately. Not because I can't cook. I have been told quite the contrary. I love to cook, bake and "design" in the kitchen. It is the another art form that I love! However playing a muck the spice rack and designing just the right taste to savor can leave you flat in a house full of picky eaters where a dash of flavors is NOT desired. The "chef" in me can get exhausted from being a short order cook. Truth be told - I haven't been cooking much lately with the wind down of the school year, design work and blogging - yet even when time permits I can't find the motivation. No motivation for something I love to do. Go figure. What doesn't help is, much to my chagrin, somewhere in the last decade I wound up surrounded by non food adventurers. I just don't understand! As far as I am concern you should have a love affair with food. It's a relationship that never needs an ending. One must have food to live and survive. Living should be about so much more then surviving. Thus, food should be about so much more then which way to serve chicken tonight. And, if my nine year old is there - don't bother unless it's a breaded nugget of sorts. UGH! How did I help to create those lacking taste buds?!
Food is an art. It is a drug of sorts. Having used it far too long to self medicate - I know the repercussions. I also know - in that cycle you don't taste or appreciate. I have moved on! Fought long and hard to be in recovery from that abusive addiction. However - that doesn't mean that the love affair or intoxicating effects are over. I do believe in EVERYTHING IN MODERATION. I have learned to live it quite successfully in that venue for the last two years. Embracing a relationship that is meant to be! Meant to be honored and valued not abused. You have to love what you eat! Or you won't eat it. I know it, I embrace it. I cook and create really delectable healthy means around this fact. (Seriously!!!) I've created pesto from chicken broth rather then EVOO and served to dinner guests with nothing but requests for more. Often the biggest problem of treating the kitchen like a gallery and making works in progress is the reproduction when it's something you love. I'm longing to do this again. To play with the palette of flavors and invite them to come together in a new and exciting masterpiece. With summer approaching and sightly more "down time" to be had - I will devote time to this ignored passion of mine. The challenge will be to try and get the family and it's carb-a-holic on board. I long to do what I love. And, I long for my family to love it too. There is a battle to be born to rid the cookery of the short order chef. (I know my mom & other's cringe! "If I served it, they eat it!" I'm not even going to attempt to go there now with reasons of working mother's guilt and or exhaustion complicated by sensory issues or any other "reasons"...) It will take slow introductions and repeat meetings. It will have painful and forceful moments at times. I will not start this war until I am ready to enforce the "rules" - everyone tries and eats some. It will be a phase out of sorts. Filled with blood sweat and tears... certainly, mine and theirs! I am ready! I want my kitchen on fire with flavor again and I want my kids asking for seconds. Home cooked from scratch non processed seconds! Although my adversaries will wager hostility at the onset. This war can be won. HELL, I looked morbid obesity in the face and took my life back... how hard can it be to get four people to enjoy the same meal a few times a week?!?!
