Nourishing Joy

As I said in a previous post, this blog will not provide you with exact, step by step recipes, because I want my readers to get to a place of comfort in the kitchen where they don’t need recipes anymore.  Even though recipes can be helpful learning tools, they are restricting, and can make cooking feel more like chemistry lab and less like an act of creativity (I’m a scientist and even I have bad memories of chem labs). Think about a time where you had to learn something by reading instructions over and over, and eventually, you got to a place where you could perform the action without instruction and even add your own flair.

Chem lab may be a good example if you are now a full-fledged researcher, getting to use your creativity to make scientific progress.  Maybe it’s learning to skate, and now you can be a contributing member of a hockey team.  Maybe it was learning how to use a computer, and now that’s how you stay in touch with family.

Now, think about how much excitement and revitalization you get from engaging in those activities in the present.  Sure, the going was tough at first, but the long-term payoff is more than worth it.  That’s exactly how home cooking can be too!

That is why my motto is “Nourishing Joy in the Home Kitchen”- it’s actually a double entendre, though a rather tame one.  Through practicing cooking skills and learning more about ingredients, you can break free of the cookbook or recipe blog and make adjustments on the fly, based on how much time you have, how many people you’re feeding, your budget, and your preferences.  You can also release a bit of the concentration cooking requires and use that to talk to your family, listen to music, or even watch a show while preparing a meal.  The home kitchen becomes a delightful place to be, and by cooking regularly, you cultivate that more and more.

The alternate interpretation of “nourishing joy”, which some of you may have picked up on, is something that is important to me as a dietitian.  The food prepared in a home kitchen tends to be much healthier than prepackaged and restaurant food.  Through becoming a confident cook, the nutrient-rich foods you make will taste better than you could imagine, therefore bringing you joy that also happens to be nourishing.  There already is some research to this effect, but I really strongly believe that if we return to making most of our food from scratch (50% of our food dollars currently go towards restaurants, and 80% of what the calories we purchase at the grocery store are ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat ), we may not fix the obesity epidemic overnight, but future generations will be much better off.

I realize that there are many barriers to becoming an avid home cook, and I will do my best to address each of these as time goes on.  But hopefully, by giving it a shot, even the most reluctant cooks will realize the initial benefits like decreased time spent in drive-thrus and grocery stores, more money in your pocket, and improved health, and the long-term benefit of having something to look forward every single day!

You’ve gotta eat every day, so why not make it the most pleasurable experience possible?