It's gross but it's glorious.
I love cooking. I love creating and working with my hands and I love food so cooking is where all three of those things combine. It’s an instant boost when I make something and it tastes good. I love the tactile experience of chopping and washing and mixing and everything. It’s delightful and hits all my dopamine receptors.
I often watch cooking shows and when I was on social media, would seek out recipe videos. I watched countless people cooking and….not touching the food. I am sure it’s because they get grief from keyboard warriors about germs and contamination but wash your hands and tools well and that’s not a problem (obviously this is for home cooks only; restaurants have codes and I appreciate them). I digress. What I’m saying is, to me, the touch and feel of food is part of the experience.
The first thing I learned how to help make was “turkey cutlets” (hilarious that I’ve mentioned cooking twice now on Substack and both times it was about turkey). Mum would have me stand at the counter and bread the turkey cutlets. First, dip them in the egg and milk mixture, then the breadcrumbs, and then put them on a plate, ready to be fried up. I LOVED this task. I felt like a big girl, I felt important, and it was a wild little ride to handle the turkey. As a result of my hard work, my fingertips would end up breaded at the end and I’d think that was just hilarious.
I’m 42.5 now and turkey cutlets are one of my family’s favorite meals. I made it tonight (only it was chicken since both stores I went to were out of turkey). As I was breading the cutlets, I thought about how I still get a kick out of it, and I thought of all those folks not touching any of their food and how that’s such a part of the experience for me. Maybe the idea of this is disgusting to you (if so, let me know in the comments!) but to me, it makes me feel connected to the food. It feels like a blessing that I get to have and use the ingredients. I especially love it in the summer when the ingredients came from my garden. It’s actually a lot like the thrill of gardening. It’s the indoor version of touching grass! Ha!
My daughter delights in this stuff too (my son delights in the gardening but not as much as the cooking, though I keep teaching him anyway). Normally one of them would help but they were both busy tonight so it was all me. I had music playing, my little breading station setup, the oil heating, and it was a joy. A delight. Gross but glorious.
What’s delighting you today?
-Kerry
p.s. I feel like this reads like a cooking blog when you have to scroll through a big long story and all you want is the damn recipe. I wonder if it’s even more obnoxious that I gave you a big long story and there’s no recipe at the end. Ha!
What I’ve loved this week: (I’m sharing the list but less commentary on them as I’m due on a call in a bit and I want to make sure this gets posted on Monday).
-The Rebirth of Pamela Anderson (Why you should be taking notes). I loved this.
-When You Don’t Know What Else To Do, Help the Helpers (with helpful tips!). The feelings of doom and feeling inadequate are BIG these days. This helped. Even if it just reiterates what you already know.
-A Thought: You DO owe people something. This is so important and I think we’ve collectively lost sight of it.
-Mothering During The Fall of Democracy. Need I say more?
-Is this the extinction burst of the patriarchy? Spoiler alert: Yes, yes it is. LOVE this line of thinking!
-Leaving Spotify Was Surprisingly Easy. I left as well and so far (a day in, to be fair), Tidal has been great. Do your own research. All of them are flawed but Tidal seemed the least so.
OK so bonus points if you share a delight in the comments AND a link you loved this week.
xoxo