My Thoughts on Cooking

As you know, I wrestled all through high school and college. I've posted about wrestling before: about the grueling demands of each workout, the time commitment that each athlete must be willing to devote and about the miserable routine of starvation that accompanies all of that. Every wrestler has a different way of dealing with the hunger that is inevitable with cutting weight. Mine was rather peculiar - I watched the Food Network TV channel every day. While others thought of this as self-inflicted torture, for me, it was as close as I could come to enjoying food without even coming close to enjoying it. A consequence of this obsession with shows like 30 Minute Meals and Guy's Big Bite came a hobby that I find to be therapeutic: cooking.

Let's make one thing clear. I hate baking. I don't care for desserts overall, but the real reason I hate baking so much is because of the precision. Every recipe needs exactly 1.23 cups of flour or 42 grains of sugar. I'm not a fan of taking measurements when I cook. I prefer to improvise. I think that's why I like it so much. It's an art that I can participate in where every meal I make can be different, and at the same time, they can all be tasty (not to say I'm a great chef - I made chicken marsala recently that basically tasted like straight marsala wine). But it's something I can create which occasionally is enjoyable.

My favorite recipe is chicken parm. Maybe it's because I love chicken parm so much, but I think the bigger reason is because I love making my own tomato sauce. I think creating your own sauces and condiments is really fun, because those are the most rare to find homemade. I know plenty of parents who cook a lot, but not many use homemade peanut butter like my mom, or make homemade hummus, like Emily's mom. Creations like these are what make different cooks unique, and my tomato sauce is something I'm proud of once I'm done.

Maybe that's why I like cooking so much. It's something for me to proud of. I'm proud of a lot of things that I've accomplished. But the pride I take in cooking is different. Being proud of something like graduating college is cool - and it's something that everyone can acknowledge. But being proud of the things I cook is just for me. If other people try my cooking, they can like or dislike it as much as they'd like, but I enjoy cooking because it's cool looking at a finished product and thinking "I created this".