What's cooking

Photo by Gareth Hubbard

I’ve had a light load this week. Downtime between projects at work, minimal social engagements, and no rotten surprises have made for a pleasant few days. Even if I wasn’t recouping time and energy from these openings in my schedule, the change in season has been a natural reminder to fill my time with good things I’ve been pushing off.

For me, those are things like writing, golf, and cooking. OK, I haven’t really been pushing off the first two, but cooking is often one of the first tasks on the chopping block at the end of a long day. When I’m tired or frustrated, the last thing I want to do is pull together dinner so it’s often a choice between takeout or refrigerator roulette.

When I have time, I enjoy the process of planning, shopping for, and composing a special dish. I like doing it for myself, but it’s even more satisfying to cook for others. It’s an act of love and a form of expression. For all the reasons it can be time-consuming for yourself, it’s a blessing for the people in your care.

So I’m going back through recipes I bookmarked over the years and planning a few meals for the coming weeks. I’m getting excited for soup season. I’m trying to can and preserve the extra time I have now in hopes that it makes it easier to recapture this feeling on a future night. Because when you have the space to do the things you want to, you should, and when you don’t, it’s comforting to be able to channel the times when you did.

What recipe are you drawn to when you have the time and space?