Making Food

Making food connects me to Earth. It reminds me of my need to survive through nourishment. Making food is chemistry and artistry and experience all rolled up into a room with fire and smells. Spitting tempura batter sizzles smells throughout my kitchen as I plop each chicken piece into the hot oil. Making food is time consuming and exhausting. Chopping five ingredients to bring together a beautiful coleslaw, heating the dressing to boil and pouring over the greens to cook them lightly in the bowl. Tossing. Vinegar wafting up through the sugar smells, running over each vegetable piece and locking in flavor for the tongue to savor. The scent of sourdough comes from my upstairs where it is warming on a heating pad and filling my house with aroma. Soon I will spill it out with more flour and it will become a bread or pancakes that digest easily and make others smile. That is often what making food is all about. Giving love to others. Saying you love them and showing it through taking the time to make something amazing on the tongue, tantalizing to the spirit and awakening in the soul. Nutritious collection of Earth's treasures I have brought here to feed you. Mixing and combining, freezing and cooking and kneading and chopping. Quietly I listen in my head as I work for the health that comes, the joy that comes, the art that is revealed.

Those who make our food are easily overlooked. They often toil some place hidden from view. Many times I have put on a party only to spend most of it in the kitchen preparing dishes to make my guests happy. Daily I serve my family food that will keep them well, like an umbrella of my love following them everywhere they will go that day. I know it isn't seen as powerful to be a woman at home, making food. It isn't respected and often isn't paid work. But when I thrust my hands into the warm soil of my spring garden and smell life through Earth's love, I don't care. I was born for this tilling and feeding and watering and growing. I was born to care and nurture souls and lives. I am not a rock star and do not wear expensive clothes. I am not seeking fame nor fortune. I am only waiting for that sound from my loved ones that means so much to me. "Mmmmmmm, this is amazingly delicious." All is quiet as they take it in. My work, my love, my cooking.