"Chocolate cream pie! You know what I love about cooking? I love that after a day when nothing is sure and when I say nothing, I mean nothing. You can come home and absolutely know that if you add egg yolks to chocolate and sugar and milk, it will get thick. That's such a comfort." - Julie Powell
Although it would be lovely to make an effort to compose such a charming dessert as a chocolate cream pie, I have not ventured to do so. But instead I undertook a much simpler project; I endeavored to create sugar cookies. I intended to fashion them into pleasant little shapes of all sorts using cookie cutters and then add touches of colorful icing here or there. But to my dismay, we were lacking in both supply of icing and cookie cutters, which reminds me I need to restock soon. Anyhow, this discovery did not stifle my efforts. I prepared the dough, which was much thicker than I had expected it to be. For a quick second, the thought that I just might have added a bit too much flour flashed across my mind; you see I adore cooking but that doesn’t mean I avoid all error. To be honest, I constantly am making mistakes, but that’s okay, it is just the kitchen, my ingredients and I. Thinking upon the fact that I have the rest of my life for improvement is a great comfort. Anyway, after rolling and cutting the dough into squares, I placed it into the oven and waited patiently; cleaning up the mess I had managed to produce in the process.The oven beeped, a cool glass of milk was poured into a tall glass.
Chocolate chips struggled to stand upright on a warm, buttery cookie and as I felt it crumble in my mouth, awakening and exciting my taste buds, I knew I had not labored in vain.
Cooking is an art. It requires imagination to invent. I cannot help but feel a sense of accomplishment after preparing something in the kitchen. The fact that it involves all of the five senses captures my attention and excites me. One hears a sizzle when sauteing green beans, and smells a sweet aroma as coffee cake bakes in the oven. It is impossible to prepare pizza without the faculty of touch, tossing and shaping the dough. It is wonderful when one sees the masterpiece she has created, when her bread pudding with white chocolate and raspberry sauce is perfectly prepared. But consuming one's piece of accomplishment is the greatest of all, because it is the time when the gift of taste is put into action. Tasting design and hard work is not only inspiring but delicious.
