I am not really sure when it started but I am sure about why I love cooking. Ever since I was a child, I was always fascinated by my mother whenever she cooked our meals. I loved how she could transform different ingredients and turned them into sumptuous meals for the family. It did not matter how long it took to cook the meals. She would do everything from scratch. I was mesmerised by all of it. I actually preferred watching her cook instead of going outside to play.
Why do I love cooking?
It was probably there that I started to love cooking. But I know that there are two important reasons why I love cooking this much.
First is for practical reasons. I love my family. Naturally, I want them to be healthy. No matter how crazy it gets at home or how tired I am, I will always make sure that what they eat will be something that my hands made. No ifs or buts – unless I got sick and confined in the hospital. Thankfully, that has not yet happened. I want to make sure that the food my family ate is healthy and good for them.
It is also cheaper if I cook our meals.It is more expensive to order takeout or eat outside. Not only that, I get to choose the ingredients and I can plan around any leftovers that we will have. My kids are used to eating leftovers from dinner. They wouldn’t know if you pack it well enough.
The other reason why I love cooking is I get to reminisce about the hours spent with my mom in the kitchen. I miss her so much and I loved the smell of her cooking. She passed away a couple of year ago and that made me appreciate the times I spend in the kitchen. We had a lot of great conversations while she cooked.
I also love how Harry and the kids look forward to dinner. It is the one time that we are always together as the kids grew up. It is not just the food that we ate. It is the conversation that flows while we eat. When you have good food in front of you, there is no hurry to get up from the table. We usually lounge around the table talking and I love that my kids grew up to that tradition.
If these are not great reasons why I love cooking, then I don’t know what is.
What I cook now
So what do I cook now that I have so much time in my hands? Well, it is usually what my family wants to eat. I let them decide in the morning and I try to do it for them. I even tried cooking Spanish food once – Callos Madrilenos. Harry tasted it in a conference he went to in Spain and wanted me to replicate it. Well, it was quite an interesting dish that requires a long time to cook! But it was well worth it because Harry said my version tasted better than what he had. Rebecca wasn’t so enthusiastic about it when she found out what was in it, though.
Now that I am no longer working, I am able to cook and bake everything from scratch. I even make our own bread! I actually enjoy that a lot. The smell from the kitchen is quite amazing. Maybe I will write more about what I cook in the kitchen. We will see how I can include it in the future posts.
Well, there you have it. That is why I love cooking so much. Can you relate to it?