In the kitchen: cooking as stress relief

A recent article in the Columbus Dispatch got me thinking about why I enjoy spending weekends cooking away in my kitchen. The article starts off with this sentence:

Step away from stress and start cooking.

This is probably the main reason I love cooking so much - I am stepping away from the stresses of the day and stepping into a world filled with smells and sounds that have the ability to transport me to a much better place. To handle the soft and tender dough that will soon be bread . . .In the kitchen, I can create. In the kitchen, no one can tell me what to do. In the kitchen, I can pretend like I know what I'm doing even when I don't and no one cares. In the kitchen, I can experiment and everyone wants to be a part of the trials. The kitchen is my escape from the outside world, the world that only wants one hundred and ten percent and gets upset when you are unable to provide it. When people come over, this is where we spend our time. Friends and family watch me cook and help me cook and then reap the rewards. The kitchen is where I make fabulous artisan breads the most awesome black bean burgers, bodacious cheeze sauces, fantastic flatbreads that are the vehicle for delectable bean spreads
and nori rolls encasing only the freshest vegetables and Asian marinated tofu that was made using soymilk made from scratch just that morning.My grandma thinks it's too much of a hassle to have me "bother" with cooking food for our get togethers and always insists that I "not do too much". My husband tries on occassion to tell me "not to worry about dinner" because he doesn't want me to have to work more (after a long, stressful day at work). These two people, who I love with all of my heart and soul, do not get it. As stated in the article:

Some fear the kitchen; others find it a stressful place. And for some generations, Alton Brown said, it represents a duty.

For me, there is no fear. There is no stress. And it is not a duty. It is a way to escape from the garbage, the stress, the bullshit of everyday life that sometimes doesn't include peace or harmony or kindness.

Another quote from the article:

"We've made an idol of the food," Alton Brown said. "And we have fixated on the object of the food, not the cooking of the food."

People have forgotten how to cook. This is not to say that we are unable to provide sustenance for ourselves, although I do know some people who are so completely inept in the kitchen that they really should be grateful that grocery stores have several frozen food aisles. We have forgotten how to turn something as simple as an onion, garlic, tomatoes and basil into a lovely sauce to be served over pasta (something I frequently make myself rather than purchasing from a package). We have forgotten that dinner can be as easy as a lovely salad comprised of fresh greens, herbs, roasted baby beets, kidney beans, dried cranberries, and sunflower seeds with a simple vinaigrette made with olive oil, red wine vinegar, mustard, shallots and salt and pepper. How simple! How beautiful! How healthy!

This is not to say that I haven't had my share of disasters in the kitchen. Take these cookies, for instance. I was trying out a cookie recipe from Clean Food. The cookies looked fantastic. I am taking them out of the oven . . . .
See? Half of the frigging cookies ended up on the bottom of the oven. Of course I was upset. I said a few choice words (I have always said that there really are times when a colorful expletive is necessary - clearly, this was one of those times!) After the momentary lapse of all reasoning, I turned the frown upside down with a delicious dessert idea. I took the crumbled cookies that stayed on the cookie sheet and pressed them into a baking dish. Then I baked it for a few minutes to firm it up and when it was cooled, I topped it with chocolate pudding that I whipped up in mere minutes. If my family hadn't been home when said disaster occurred, they would have believed that I intensionally had created a masterpiece.For me, cooking isn't stressful. It is only challenging when I want to create something new and unique an delicious. But the challenge is what gets my mind off the daily grind. Cooking forces us to get physical with our food - we cut, dice, chop, knead, rub, stir, smell, taste.

I'll leave you with the last sentence of the article:

So put down your cell phone. Move away from your laptop. And cook.

for dinner: Pad Thai from Clean Food