It can be unnerving when you no longer enjoy an activity you once loved. But when that activity is not just a hobby but a necessity of life that you are still forced to do day after day, as is the case with cooking, the situation becomes more complex and worrying. A few weeks ago, I wrote about how to get out of a kitchen rut and get your joy back in the kitchen. It was quite the talking point, so here are some of my favorite tips readers shared for rekindling one’s flame with their cooking. (Tips have been lightly edited for clarity, grammar, and length.)
“During the lockdown, a friend started a ‘Cookbook Collector’s Challenge’ Facebook group,” writes AnnieH. “The challenge was to cook a new recipe from every cookbook you owned. For me, sometimes it meant cooking for the first time with a book I’d bought at a used book sale, and sometimes struggling to find a recipe I’d never tried in an old favorite. Some were fake, but some have become new favorites. It was fun. I only had about 25 cookbooks. The friend had almost 100, but she still finished the challenge in the first six months.”
If you don’t have a large personal collection of cookbooks, head to your local library. “Don’t overlook your public library as a wonderful source of inspiration,” melissaweaverdunning reminds us. “I like to browse the cookbook section in person or online to find cookbooks and ideas that are new to me. Most libraries also have services like Hoopla or Libby, so you can search for books online or even download a cookbook during the loan period.”
“I also set myself kitchen challenges,” adds smartFEM. “For example, a young relative of mine has gone vegan while she was breastfeeding because she can’t eat red meat and her baby is allergic to dairy and soy. So I’m going to bake her a vegan birthday cake, something she’s never even thought of doing before.”
“I think growing your own food helps. Even if it’s just a pot of rosemary or basil on the windowsill,” Toronto Reader suggests. I think it would be strange not to find pleasure in preparing a dish with ingredients that you have nurtured. Perhaps it’s time to take up growing green onions on your windowsill?
This comment from Merle66 really stopped me: “A lot of my friends say they don’t see the point in cooking for themselves, but my attitude is if it’s not worth cooking for you, then who is?” Well Merle66, I couldn’t agree more. “Preparing a good meal for oneself is an expression of self-love, just as cooking for others is an expression of love.”
“People lament being ‘alone,’” repeats JA Rigge. “Try to see it as eating, doing and saying what you want, when you want. There’s a certain joy and freedom in that.”
“When we realized we were stuck at home at the start of the pandemic, we started making dinner special: using the ‘guests’ plates and glassware and dressing the table differently,” writes RedEric1, “ treating us like guests.”
This tip was included in my previous article, but it bears repeating. “If at some point in your life you really loved baking or cooking, and right now you don’t, give it room to come back to you and it will,” says cookbook author and licensed therapist Jack Hazan. If you’ve never enjoyed being in the kitchen, simply waiting won’t work. But if cooking and baking were activities you really loved, that passion will come back eventually. In the meantime, you can turn to quick and easy pantry recipes to fuel you through the intervening time, or follow these summer cooking tips if you’re more than just looking for ways to beat the heat.
Source: www.washingtonpost.com