Time Well-spent
Time Well-spent
Adam of The Amateur Gourmet published a thoughtful and well-written essay today on why he likes cooking and the rewards of delayed gratification. In fact, it's the first post of his I've read that prompted me to leave a comment. However, I cook, not for delayed gratification, but for extended gratification. Thanksgiving is a prime example.
About a month ago I was having lunch with my parents and my mother asked me if I'd had deep-fried turkey before. When I said, "Nope," she said one of their neighbors had volunteered to fry one for them for Thanksgiving. Of course we had to try it. It didn't even require thought. The rest of the dinner required thought and so, not ones to procrastinate when it comes to food and cooking, we began planning this year's T'day dinner.
For me this involves: rechecking all of my current cooking magazines; remembering dinners past; scanning my recipe archives; searching the 'Net; flipping through cookbooks; and just sitting quietly and thinking. A pile of books and magazines, marked with Post-Its gradually expands around the coffee table. A yellow legal pad collects notes and ideas. An index named T'day grows in my browser.
Three weeks before the event a phone call establishes who's doing appetizers, side dishes, desserts, and so on as well as current thinking about specific dishes. More refinement takes place and another phone call ensues.
By this past Friday I was fairly sure what I was fixing for this year's feast (Butternut Squash Soup with Maple Syrup and Horseradish, Whole Wheat Beer Yeast Rolls, and Pear and Raisin Pie with Bourbon Sauce). I slept on the menu a couple of times, then put together a shopping list and hit the stores yesterday.
It's now Tuesday and this afternoon I'll be baking squash for the soup and making the rolls (which I won't bake yet). Tomorrow I'll make the soup and pie and bake the rolls. Then, Thursday afternoon, I'll head over to my parent's house. By the time we sit down to dinner I'll have spent over a month thinking about cooking that one meal.
This isn't delayed gratification -- it's extended gratification.
I enjoy the time I spend doing research and planning as much as I enjoy the cooking and then the eating. There is tremendous pleasure to be had in successfully remembering where to find a recipe posted on a blog last year or reading dozens of recipes for beer bread made with yeast dough.
Although I don't spend over a month planning most meals, I do plan almost all of my meals because I enjoy that aspect of cooking so much in its own right. This isn't to say my plans don't change based on what I find at the store, but the idea of going grocery shopping without a plan is anathema to me. There is simply too much fun to be had before the cooking even begins.
Adam of The Amateur Gourmet published a thoughtful and well-written essay today on why he likes cooking and the rewards of delayed gratification. In fact, it's the first post of his I've read that prompted me to leave a comment. However, I cook, not for delayed gratification, but for extended gratification. Thanksgiving is a prime example.
About a month ago I was having lunch with my parents and my mother asked me if I'd had deep-fried turkey before. When I said, "Nope," she said one of their neighbors had volunteered to fry one for them for Thanksgiving. Of course we had to try it. It didn't even require thought. The rest of the dinner required thought and so, not ones to procrastinate when it comes to food and cooking, we began planning this year's T'day dinner.
For me this involves: rechecking all of my current cooking magazines; remembering dinners past; scanning my recipe archives; searching the 'Net; flipping through cookbooks; and just sitting quietly and thinking. A pile of books and magazines, marked with Post-Its gradually expands around the coffee table. A yellow legal pad collects notes and ideas. An index named T'day grows in my browser.
Three weeks before the event a phone call establishes who's doing appetizers, side dishes, desserts, and so on as well as current thinking about specific dishes. More refinement takes place and another phone call ensues.
By this past Friday I was fairly sure what I was fixing for this year's feast (Butternut Squash Soup with Maple Syrup and Horseradish, Whole Wheat Beer Yeast Rolls, and Pear and Raisin Pie with Bourbon Sauce). I slept on the menu a couple of times, then put together a shopping list and hit the stores yesterday.
It's now Tuesday and this afternoon I'll be baking squash for the soup and making the rolls (which I won't bake yet). Tomorrow I'll make the soup and pie and bake the rolls. Then, Thursday afternoon, I'll head over to my parent's house. By the time we sit down to dinner I'll have spent over a month thinking about cooking that one meal.
This isn't delayed gratification -- it's extended gratification.
I enjoy the time I spend doing research and planning as much as I enjoy the cooking and then the eating. There is tremendous pleasure to be had in successfully remembering where to find a recipe posted on a blog last year or reading dozens of recipes for beer bread made with yeast dough.
Although I don't spend over a month planning most meals, I do plan almost all of my meals because I enjoy that aspect of cooking so much in its own right. This isn't to say my plans don't change based on what I find at the store, but the idea of going grocery shopping without a plan is anathema to me. There is simply too much fun to be had before the cooking even begins.
3 Comments:
Nice post, Kevin...have a great Thanksgiving...
Kevin, you're a born organizer. If you had gone into the military you'd be a general. If you were in the film biz, you'd be a producer. By organizer, I don't mean a neatnik, but instead, someone who enjoys pulling disparate elements together into a concerted result. Fortunately for us, you like to cook.
Kerry,
Thanks.
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