Love is All Around You: My Love-Hate Relationship with Cooking

I love to cook. The colors, the aromas, and the perfect combination of the right flavors is like creating a work of art. The scent of sautéing garlic and onions is enough to attract a teenager out of his room to ask, "Mmm. What's for dinner?" Fresh bread or bakery sweets in the oven? There is no comparison. Why do you think they make room sprays for realtors that smell like fresh baked goods? To tell you the truth, none of us are fooled. It just doesn't smell real. In a house where there lives someone who cooks often, there is always something yummy lingering in the air, even when no one is actively cooking. You don't need air freshener to trick people. Anyway, we gotta eat and it is really satisfying to create a beautiful plate of food. So I have to admit, the way a performer loves the applause, I love to hear people tell me how delicious my food is. So I cook.

I hate to cook. After a long day at work the last thing I want to do is stand in the kitchen for an hour. My feet are tired, my brain hurts, and I'm as hungry as anyone else- especially if I didn't have time to eat lunch that day! Sometimes trying to find yet another way to be creative with chicken is enough to make me want to scream, or at least call for take-out. I know I should cut myself a break, it's not like my husband is one of those, "Woman, get some dinner on the table!" kind of guys. I could try something easy, but it never works out. I just can't bear the thought of putting processed packaged foods on my dinner table just to make things easier. And quite frankly, when you and your family have discerning palates, hot dogs and mac and cheese from a box just won't do the trick. So I cook.

I have a love-hate relationship with cooking. When I can do it on my own terms, when I'm well rested and in the mood, I thoroughly enjoy it. I love experimenting with new recipes or reading others' and changing them to use ingredients I like better. I love getting my hands on fresh local produce, and finding ways to utilize things that have been sitting around. It's just about the time. I don't want to cram it into an I-have-to-get-this-on-the-table-before (insert one or more of the following: swim meet, meeting, Scouts, dark, falling asleep, or any other evening event). It makes me wonder, do chefs ever get sick of cooking?

Here are some of my creations. I typically don't have time to photograph the nightly dinners. There's the mad rush to cook them, and of course the live-in locusts attack as it hits the table. But here are a few I could recover from Facebook and my phone. Getting hungry?