I was watching the movie Julie & Julia, which is based on two true stories and realized how much I missed cooking. The movie is about the protagonist, Julie, whom, in order to prove herself decides to cook 564 recipes in 365 days from Julia Child’s cookbook. The movie was fun, interesting and in a way, inspiring. I don’t cook as much as I want to and I give excuses like work, managing a toddler, blah, blah and blah…. Watching this movie made me think as to why I don’t cook as much as I used to. The truth is that I don’t manage my time as effectively as I would like to. I do know a few folks who manage time so well and I envy them. Seriously, I really don’t know how they do it - manage a family, house and be a gourmet cook at the same time.
Take my sister for example. She has such a busy life and still, she finds time to cook; a task she loves as much or sometimes more than her family. Every time I call her home, she is in the kitchen cooking something or the other. She always compliments her own cooking in nothing less than superlative terms and somehow she manages to put me in agony and bewilderment at the same time. I feel agony because I want to eat whatever she is cooking and bewilderment because she will be focused on her task of cooking in the midst of the chaos around her caused by her kids and husband. Literally, I can hear laughing, crying, running, throwing, violin, music and the blender running at the same time.
You would think that she will do something else during the weekends when she is at home (this is rare, trust me), but then, you call anytime during the day, the same thing happens. On top of it, she will cook in abundance, that, the chance of leftovers lasting for more than month is not an exaggeration. When I visit her, there's always a lot of food with a lot of choices at any time of the day. I really don’t know how her kids and her husband manage to stay in shape, in spite of all her cooking. When I visit her, it becomes worse. She cooks and cooks and cooks. In fact, it will be odd if she is not in the kitchen.
The truth is cooking is a stress reliever for her and for many folks who love to cook. I haven’t seen her at ease as much in the kitchen as anywhere else. She is so relaxed that I don’t feel surprised, when she ends up cooking so much within such a short span of time. I think it gives her a sense of accomplishment at the end of a hectic day filled with uncertainties, ups and downs. Sometimes, you feel this void, no matter, what you do in a day and I think cooking fills this void and relieve you of the stress you go through during the day.
So, after writing this post, I should be inspired by my sister and start cooking every day so that I can become this super cook someday. Will I do that? Only time and my husband will tell : -). Till then, I will keep on piling excuses on why I don’t want to cook every day and look up to my sister to do the cooking for both of us!!!!
