(I had two pieces of mail this week. The letters were very kind and I thank you for them. If you do send me a note, please include your address as I have thankyou cards that I mail.)
Showing Your Love with Your Time
I have always pondered the phrase, “made with love.” I have heard this phrase many times in terms of cooking, although it is also used to describe other hand-made items. In this case, I would like to limit my focus to cooking and baking.
I cook enough to know that cooking is more than the sum of its parts, or recipe items. If you used any recipe and threw all the items together, you may get something edible but it may or may not taste very good.
I am a proficient cook however I base most of my outcomes on the speed of my work. I cut vegetables to a consistent size and do it quickly. I can also multi-task which means I can speed my way through most recipes which is good because I usually have other things to accomplish in a day.
My sister gave me the recipe for my mom’s kolaches. Kolaches are a pastry that appear simple; however baking this delicacy reveals that the dough is a very involved process. If you don’t put the time and effort into making the dough properly, this delicacy turns into a very chewy confection that does not present the intended outcome.
The food Lisa cooks taste much better than what I make. I will sometimes do the mechanical portion of a meal, such as chopping vegetables or browning the meat, then ask Lisa to do the actual cooking. We are actually a pretty good team that way although I prefer us to take turns in the kitchen as I need space and move quickly and not always in a predictable manner.
The phrase, “made with love” or “it’s the love that makes it taste so good” have always seemed like a marketing tool to me-a catchphrase used to separate one manufactured product from another. I recently changed my mind about making food with love.
The taste of love in your food is actually the element of time. A big part of how food tastes is the care you take to make it. Taking your time to caramelize onions, taking time to cut vegetables in a uniform manner so that they cook equally or to simmer a dish so that the flavors express themselves through the whole cook pot. It is the sacrifice of time or the investment of time to make the food you like that is described as love… because it is love.
It is like that in life. You can buy presents for people or take them on fantastic trips however it is really your time they want. They want you to themselves so they can relax and not have to vie for your attention. They want to know that you carved out time for them as it shows their importance in your life.
So food needs love and love is time. One provides food for the body and the other for the soul but they both are created out of a resource that is either used or wasted every second of the day. When someone cooks for you they express love, either for you or for their craft.
While time is a resource as precious as your next breath. In either case, fill yourself and be thankful.
