A couple of nights ago, when describing the dinner I had prepared that night, and with memories of scones, dessert, and a student dinner I had prepared earlier in the week, a friend asked me, "When do you find the time?" At first I thought he was asking about how I find the time to keep up with this blog. "No" he said, "when do you find the time to cook?" Not quite sure what other answer there could be I responded, "Well....we have to eat."
Some think I'm obsessed with food--wrong. I'm obsessed with time--there never seems to be enough of it. I always feel that I'm behind in my projects, in getting back to people, in keeping up with the world. Maybe I just transfer my pressure points. I feel there isn't enough time to finish reading the Sunday New York Times--I'm still working on this week's paper--and don't even ask about my correspondence. But there is almost always enough time to prepare a good meal. There are perhaps two things that make it easy for me: I don't cook every meal every day and I do try to plan ahead--just a little.
For instance, I can get up a little bit earlier on a weekday morning to spend an hour making my favorite oatmeal scones from the Cheeseboard Collective cookbook. That's time I could have spent weeding--but I gotta eat. Plus, this recipe that yields some 10 scones will easily get us through the week--and friends and folks at the office usually get some too. The rest of the time, breakfast might be like what I had today--a slice of that Heidelberg French Peasant bread toasted up, smeared with jam alongside a bowl yogurt topped with a bit of Mountain Rise granola.
As for dinner, there are few evenings when there aren't leftovers--which usually become lunch for at least one day in the week. In addition, if I can get by cooking with what I have on hand I'll go that route in a minute. It is only on the weekends when I might have the luxury of more time that I'll worry about running out to the store for the ingredient that knows no substitute. When I add in work lunches, a dinner out here and there, and Sunday dinner with the students on campus, before I know it eating well without cooking being a chore is pretty easy.
It does help that I enjoy cooking. I even find it to be an activity that relieves stress. I might even describe cooking as a way for me to restore and renew--I get to participate in an act of creation while feeding body and soul. But the alternatives aren't really options: I can't afford to eat every meal out (nor would I want to) and I can't eat a diet of prepared processed foods. I also can't afford a personal chef--though there are certainly days when I'd gladly hand over my paycheck to let someone else do the cooking for a while--I'm not perfect.
In the end its about finding some sort of balance so that cooking remains (or becomes) a delight; a break from the other pressures of the day. It's not a love affair every day (there are stale days too) but if I can view cooking as a prelude to savoring the sensual experience that is eating then I've just doubled my pleasure. And there is always time for that.
Comments