I've decided that I miss cooking. Up until the end of high school I had no real urge to cook. I would do it because it was expected of me. I lived on a family farm and I was happy to contribute in any way that I could. It was expected that we all pitch in to help, whether it be in the field or in the house, everything needed to get done. Then, I got a summer job as a cook at Clancy's on the Beach at Lac Pelletier, SK.
Everything there is homemade and delicious! Even the pizza sub... which when I was waitressing I always told people it was tasty, I just hadn't ever actually had one. I was relying on the customers saying how great it was. My mouth, though, does water just thinking of the beef dip and any varieties of soup of the day there.
I worked there for the past five summers, which was a great bit of fun. It turned out that I actually came to love cooking. In the kitchen we would play 'Name that Tune,' with a variety of genres being tested. I think working there just made cooking fun. Because of the constant playlist it also bothers me not to have background music playing while I work. The fact is that even as I type this I'm listening to Canadian artist Alexz Johnson on my iPod.
Working in the restaurant made me greatly enjoy the atmosphere of a kitchen. Throughout school I would always set aside time to make something for supper. It was a break from all of the research, writing, and studying that comes with University. One day I even added cinnamon to an alfredo sauce I was making, weird I know, but I like experimenting and it didn't taste completely terrible.
Living in the 5th wheel is good, but other than my family and friends, that's the one thing that I truly miss. Before I came to live here I made supper for my parents, which was a nice lemon alfredo sauce on lobster ravioli. The trailer is a bit on the small side to really get cooking and secondly trying to get everything done for a recipe will more than likely blow the circuit breaker.
Since this is the case I feel a little bit like I'm living how a first year university student is supposed to live. Throughout University I ate quite well because I knew how to cook. My bosses out at the lake, Clancy and M.J., always joked that I should have a television show called 'Kelly's Campus Cooking' and that I should make large portions of whatever I made each evening to sell to the student population.
This is a big change for me as I now find myself eating raw fruit and nuts, sandwiches, and microwavable meals. Hopefully if I get the chance to go home and visit my family I will be able to cook a real meal. Chicken stuffed with asparagus, spinach, tomatoes, onions, and a few spices baked in the oven, topped with my spin on buffalo sauce. Served with a stuffed potato and a tossed salad with apple slices for sides, it would be delicious.
My sister in fact made me jealous the other day by sending me a picture of her homemade pizza. As I sat eating meat, cheese, and crackers I drooled over the photo of the pizza. Dough made from scratch, cooked on the pizza stone I gave her for her birthday. It looked wonderful. Really she was just being nice, saying her birthday present worked and to thank me again for it.
Now I could go out to eat as you are probably all thinking, but it's just not the same. There are places here that have good food and may, for example, serve pizzas. Eating out, however, seems to take all of the fun out of the food for me. It's simply already prepared for you, which is sometimes nice, but for the most part I like to do it myself. That and eating out normally costs more than preparing it yourself and I like to pinch my pennies.
All is well though, life is simply made up of experiences and I'm determined to make mine interesting. Though I might miss cooking, it's not the end of the world. I will cook again and what I do eat isn't bad. I do hope that if you can though, that you will all go home and make something delicious from scratch tonight.
