Cooking as an expression of love

When we cook a meal for someone (or multiple people), whether family or friend(s), it can become an opportunity to show our love for that person/group of people.

I don't know about you, but when I'm cooking for company, I sometimes get rather nervous. I worry about timing everything perfectly, and about getting each dish "just so". But being nervous while cooking can stifle us to the point that we stick to the "safe" zone. Lots of cookbooks will tell you not to try out an untested (by you) recipe with company.

But sometimes, I like to throw caution to the wind and go for it, regardless. It just depends on the company ;-). (I'm far less likely to get really crazy and creative when it's my IL's coming over, e.g.)

Apparently, I love to cook, not just for other people, but in front of them, too- I had a friend over for dinner one evening last summer, and, after I had shoved the third or fourth ingredient in whatever I was making under her nose and said "ZOMG, you have *got* to smell this!" Or "Wow, look at the colours in these tomatoes!". she remarked, "Wow, you really get into it when you cook, don't you?!".

Yeah, I guess I do.

Another time, I had the ladies from my Book Club over, and because time got away from me -yet again- not everything was ready when they got there. I tried my best to just carry on; visiting with everyone while finishing up one of the dishes I was serving.  I didn't think anything of it (other than, "C'mon, Bodi, get your sh!t together next time and have this stuff done beforehand" and "These women must think I'm the worst hostess, prepping food in front of them").

Later that evening, sitting with the last of my guests as we caught up over a (few) glasses of wine, she remarked on how the scene appeared to her when she got there (she had arrived late due to a renovation emergency).

"I came in, and there you were, talking with everyone and casually rolling sushi all the while, like it was a cooking demonstration. It was a classic Bodi moment".

So I guess I'm a bit of a showman/showwoman-er, show-off? Ah well.

It is true, though, that I can really "get into it" when I'm cooking. I try to enjoy the process as much as the outcome- being present in the moment really connects you to what you are about to eat. Doing so with friends around you connects *them* to the meal, too. Try it sometime!  But only if it won't stress you out even more.

Tonight's culinary adventure involved chopping up celery, carrots, potatoes, onions, garlic and turnip. I took some photos, but I must point out the obvious here: I am *NOT* a photographer.

Finding the joy in the moment

A few years ago, I took a Birthing From Within workshop. A colleague (and friend), who had already been following her own Birthing From Within path for some time, told me "It will change your life."

She was being quite sincere, but I was doubtful. Not because I thought she was wrong, so much as "What if I'm not ready for it?". But, as they say, you take (learn) from something that which you are able to take, and sometimes more comes to you later, it's all a matter of whether you are willing to let it change you or not.

That has certainly been my experience with the workshop. Interestingly ehough, the most profound changes have come from the reading and other work I did prior to the workshop; and this blog's very existence owes a lot to that experience. Heck, the origin of the title comes from another workshop I participated in, one with Pam England herself, called "Birth as a Hero's Journey". During that workshop, Pam spoke with us about finding our inner love warrior in any given situation. It's much more than that, of course, but I don't feel qualified to speak on it further. If you ever get an opportunity to attend a lecture or workshop with Pam, though, I heartily encourage you to do so- as my friend Cindy said, "It will change your life" (if you are willing to let it).

One of the books I read spoke about being present in the moment. At first, it seemed an odd statement- how could I *not* be present in the moment when doing something? But it's not about our physical presence, of course, it's about being focused on the task at-hand, and enjoying the task for what it is, not "doing the dishes to get them done". (If you are interested in reading more, I encourage you to check out Thich Nhat Hanh's book, "The Miracle of Mindfulness").

When you really think about it, most of us have a habit of not being present in the moment for many things ... how often have you found yourself "running on auto-pilot"? Or doing a task (such as washing the dishes), but thinking more about the next thing on your to-do list, or ruminating about an issue you might be having with a co-worker or friend or family member?

I'm still learning how to do this, but I am making an effort to ask, as Pam put it on one of her training CD's, "How do you bring your love to the full moon?".

Food for thought. (my next blog will be about food, so that's really a tie-in statement)

Gardening

Working on a plan for this year's garden- what to plant, where to plant it, what to do with the pre-existing fauna ...

I have found this process harder than I had anticipated. Our new house has lots of garden spaces, which presented itself as nothing but potential when we were looking at the place, but the previous owner planted a lot of perennials, and planting my choices means removing some of those already there.

Shouldn't be hard, right? But it goes against my instincts to pull out healthy plants for no reason other than they don't exactly fit in with my plan. There's nothing wrong with the plants, but I have a very practical mindset when it comes to the garden. I want everything to have a purpose beyond just "looking nice". I'm trying to plant both food and medicinal herbs, as well as fruit bushes (saskatoons, blueberries, raspberries). And we haven't even started on the vegetable garden ...
This has been a stumbling block for the past two summers- I have given away some plants, but still have more to remove. I have ferns, rhubarb, lily of the valley, hostas, tiger lilies, asiatic lilies, bearded iris, Goldflame spirea, a sand cherry bush and a hydrangea.

The hydrangea is a large, gorgeous, plant, but not entirely happy in her present location- she produces lots of bloom clusters, but very few of the flowers ever open.


If you live locally to me, see this, and are interested in one of the above-mentioned plants, please, drop me a line and we can arrange an adoption!

Lazyblogging, PTIII

Years ago, I discovered I cannot tolerate gluten.

Naturally,I cut gluten out of my diet- in fact, we cut it out of our household (Himself and the Minions of Chaos® can all still eat gluten, but we had problems with me getting extremely ill from cross-contamination, and it rather scared Himself how quickly I became quite badly off). It was challenging, but not because I was mourning the loss of bread- the challenge was in finding good information about going and living gluten-free.

Initially, I found a book called "The Gluten-Free Gourmet". For someone who is feeling lost and doesn't know where to turn, this book is, quite honestly, very helpful. It gave me some basic recipes that we could use that made the transition a little easier. At least the Minions could still have pancakes, and we found a decent pizza crust recipe in there, too (which was good, because the pre-made gf crusts and even the mixes were either really small, or really pricey, or both).

The book also contained some decent information about foods that were safe and foods to be avoided, too. It even touched on additives of which I had to be wary.

But honestly, it wasn't quite what I was looking for at the time. In a household of 7 people, a (large) dog and two cats, buying expensive substitutes for gluten-containing foods is a budget-blowing proposition. I was OK with using some, of course, but wanted to make changes to the way we ate, rather than merely substituting. I didn't know the term for it at the time, but I was wanting to take more of a Whole Foods approach.

This was where Bette's book, as helpful as it was, failed me. It is simply about making GF versions of all the things you used to eat, from bread, to cake, to soups and stews ... things that still use flour and such, only now made with gluten-free flours.

Yes, plural. That's the tricky part about gluten-free baking; no one flour is a perfect substitute for wheat flour, so various flours are combined in ratios to achieve a similar consistency to that of the wheat flour-containing products.

So I found myself searching on-line (as nearly everybody does these days!), and I came across today's featured blog.

Right from the start, I could see that this site was something different. Shauna, the site owner, took a very different approach to living gluten-free than *any* other site or book I had so far found. This alone was enough to interest me. She had a link on her site to amazon, where one could purchase her book. A week or two later, I found a copy of her book in a local bookshop, and without hesitation, bought it.


Best                   Book                  Purchase                  EVER.

Seriously. There are recipes in there that have nothing to do with substitution. But it's not just recipes; it's written like a novel. Shauna shares her journey through illness, diagnosis and recovery- she shares much more than that, though, she shares her passion for food, and even the story of how she met her husband (referred to as "The Chef").

It's a beautiful story, with amazing food thrown in for good measure. If that's not enough to make you want to buy the book for yourself, why not check it out from your local library? If nothing else, you really need to try the Roast Chicken wtih Lemon and Rosemary ...

Anyhow, that's enough babbling from me, please, check out Shauna's extremely popular (for very good reason) blog at Gluten Free Girl and the Chef.