I am a librarian by trade, but my true passion is theater. Unfortunately, as a single dad, I'm not able to be in shows all the time. Between shows, I satisfy my creative impulse by cooking. After my (second) divorce, I realized that I had no interest in living on take out pizza and hamburger helper (which is what I did between my first and second marriages). I bought The Joy of Cooking and began teaching myself to cook. I never thought would become good at it; I just wanted to be able to feed myself and my kid.
Fast forward four years. I'm not fancy and could never make a living at it, but I become a pretty accomplished cook. I can make food without a recipe (though I am still very recipe-reliant), I can throw together dinner out of "nothing", and my kid even occasionally eat my food (she's 12 and hates nearly everything except pasta and jarred sauce). Better than the practical effects, though, is the joy I get from cooking. When I am depressed or feeling stagnated, I can spend an hour or two in the kitchen and come out feeling great (until I have to wash the dishes). I have even considered teaching a class on "cooking for dudes" (I'm not quite there; I still can't cook a burger or a steak for the life of me).
Today has been a "laze around the house, do laundry, and watch bad horror movies" sort of Saturday, but I was finding it unsatisfying. I have a couple of pounds of fresh tomatoes that were about to go over, so I am making a pasta sauce. Five ingredients: butter, tomatoes, fresh basil, salt, and pepper. I have water boiling for mostaccioli and fresh mozzarella in the fridge. I also pureed a bunch of bananas and added a pint of thawed frozen blueberries. That's now in the freezer solidifying: banana-blueberry gelato.
So, yum, y'all. :)
