Make A Mess!

I was paging through my IKEA catalog, and I noticed that the display kitchens were beautiful, pristine temples for anyone who loves to cook, or maybe watch others cook. Every utensil, pot and dish had a designated place in those kitchens. Space was used efficiently and cleverly. But is this a snapshot of what foodie heaven looks like? Probably not.

I try to be organized and keep my kitchen reasonably clean, but it’s not always easy. Dishes transform into mountains overnight, and every pot, pan, and plastic food cascade outward when I open my small cabinet door. I love to cook, but it’s sometimes discouraging. I think of all the dirty dishes, leftovers, and clean-up, and then wonder if it’s truly necessary to create so much chaos to have a quick bit to eat. Time is never quite on my side either and the temptation to eat out looms overhead daily. 

Despite the downsides to cooking I really enjoying cooking a meal from scratch, regardless of the amount of cleanup it takes to recover from all the sautéing, chopping, spilling, and dropping. The whole process is rewarding: turning the raw ingredients into a prepared dish then sharing it with friends or family. Cooking also strengthens the often weakened connection between the cook and food. In our world of convenience foods that don’t really require thought to prepare, we don’t always get to work with raw ingredients. However, we should consciously try to alter our strange modern ways, even just once in a while.

So, I encourage everyone to look through your favorite recipe book and find a nice couple of foods you would like to prepare. Invite your friends over, but the ingredients, and get to work. Once you start cooking, be sure to use every pot and pan in your cupboards, and let your bubbling creations splatter a little bit here and there. No splatter screens or lids please. 

We should start to reclaim our kitchens from the sterile hands of cleanliness and opt to start making a mess once in a while. It doesn’t have to be every meal; even a few meals a week will help us reconnect with our kitchens.