I woke up fairly early this morning (about 4am). I'm not sure why, but waking up early generally leads to a philosophical mood, and I usually end up with some idea that I never get around to fleshing out. Hopefully, this is one of them that ends up fully baked.
There are two kinds of cooking I seem to do. The first is more casual, like making chili. Nothing really has to hurry, since I'm going to be simmering and reducing the sauce over the course of a couple hours. I can think of an ingredient I'm going to put in, find it in the fridge or cupboard, chop it up, grind it up, or do whatever prep-work is necessary, and toss it into the pot. Slow, casual, and with little need for forethought.
The second kind of cooking is more challenging. A great example is making omelettes. If you're making them right, omelettes take about thirty seconds from the time the eggs hit the pan until the finished omelette hits the plate. If you've got your mise in order, it's not hard to do, but if you've left anything out of your preparations, you're either going to have to leave it out or end up with a burned omelette.
The first kind of cooking is something that can be great fun as a cooperative venture. You can noodle around in the kitchen, and having someone else there means you can teach each other things as you cook. Or you can chat. Or flirt and play a little grab-ass.
The second kind is a solo pursuit for me. Aside from things like “Hand me the fire-extinguisher now, please!” there's not a lot someone else can do in the kitchen to help me. Things have to be organized and prepared enough that once the action starts, there's not really time to explain the details.
my kitchen And here's where the philosophical mood kicks in. Just looking at my kitchen table, you'd think I'd be incapable of actually making an omelette, either in real life, or metaphorically. I'm living the chili lifestyle here with all sorts of things thrown into the pot that's my life, right?...