Celebrating National Cooking Day
Why Cooking at Home Feeds More Than Your Belly BY LAUREN BOLDEN
I married my high school sweetheart, Cody, in the fall of 2013. Not long after the wedding, we moved into a small rental on the Cherokee County line. At the time, Cody worked about an hour north in Jasper, and I worked about an hour south in Atlanta. Every morning was a rush against traffic. We would run around, filling thermoses full of coffee and yelling at the dog to “hurry up and pee already,” before giving one another a quick kiss and scurrying off to our separate cars. We pointed our vehicles in opposite directions and drove away from our 800-square-foot brown house. When our vehicles pulled into the driveway, each night at 6 p.m., we were grateful to be home. Cody and I spent the majority of our time in the kitchen. He played the role of sous-chef as I doled out tasks for our dinner each night. He politely nodded along as I tried my hand at managing a kitchen
Lauren whisking homemade whipped cream. 14
AROUND WOODSTOCK | September 2021
Lauren and Cody baking. Photo by Clay Goswick.
(even if it was just the two of us cooking at home). I instructed him on how to properly ketchup a meatloaf, mash a potato, and country-fry a steak. Following dinner, at least once a week, we made dessert. Cookies, cobblers and eventually pies were added to our repertoire. We thought that we were spending all of our time cooking together to have the joy of eating the finished product, but we didn’t realize that all of the time we spent cooking at home together did more than just fulfill our desire to eat good food. When we opened our first business, our desire to cook and bake together at home was pushed aside. We stopped making dinner together, and instead opted for to-go burritos on the couch. Our tiny kitchen sat empty, and the heart of our home vanished without us even noticing. It took time for us to realize what a gift it was for us to cook, bake or even wash dishes together. The kitchen provided us a place to laugh and have time for just the two of us. We originally believed it to be our haven from the stress of our jobs and our hour-long commutes. Little did we know at the time, cooking together at home was important to us because it taught us how
