Choose your ingredients

I’d be lying if I said I had confidence in every choice I’ve made, that I have faith in every film I do on every shot.
– Ethan Hawke

I used to think cooking was hard. I thought making good tasting meals was tricky and a talent that took a long time to develop. A bad chicken experience and some utterly inedible meatloaf in college might have contributed to that (haven’t tried meatloaf since, but I do plan to conquer it some day).

But I have apparently figured out the secret that Gusteau was trying to teach in Ratatouille – anyone can cook.

I do follow recipes rather precisely when I’m baking, but cooking is different. If I don’t like a particular ingredient I’ll leave it out or replace it with one I like better.

I used to put carrots in the crock pot whenever I made a roast because my mom always did. I included them in my chicken soup too. But I don’t like the taste of cooked carrots. Eventually I realized I didn’t have to include them. So now I choose not to include them. And I like the chicken soup better and I don’t have to make myself eat the carrots with the roast. I’m an adult. I don’t have to eat cooked carrots.

Our ward made a cookbook this summer and one of the recipes I submitted, one we cook a lot at home, a lemon herb chicken bake that I developed, included this instruction:

Sprinkle generously with oregano, basil, parsley, garlic powder, onion powder, and lemon herb spice mix. Channel the Muppet Sweedish Chef doing this.

I will never be a chef. But I do choose to enjoy my cooking, especially because I like eating.