Cooking Crafts

I have decided that my passion cooking and baking is the adult equivalent of my former love of arts and crafts. The same basic principles apply, and a similar satisfaction and sense of ownership are generated. It’s the joy of doing the work and putting pieces together to create a whole, finished product. I enjoy that even as I get older I can use the culinary arts as an outlet for creative energy when it has become less appropriate to bust out a coloring book. The same way that a five year old version of myself would draw a picture or craft a valentine to show someone how much I cared for them, my 25 year old self bakes cookies or a pie instead. Cooking can also produce a similar fury as would arise when a painting just didn’t come out the way my childhood mind envisioned it. When I’ve spent the time and money to put together a meal and it comes out looking like something from a science fair, I want to throw it on the floor, e.g. crumple it up and throw it away like a bad drawing. Maybe this is why I like to photograph certain things I cook, because unlike a collage, cupcakes don’t fit well in frames or and banana bread doesn’t stick to the fridge with a magnet. The pictures give me a way of remembering the satisfaction these ventures created.