Cooking: Break out of your meal malaise

MAKING A POSITIVE CHANGE: Cooking Break out of your meal malaise

By Michele Bellso

What’s for dinner? How about Chicken Picatta with capers over angel hair pasta? Or Greek turkey burgers with tzatziki sauce? Or brown butter honey garlic shrimp? Before the coronavirus I might have made reservations at one of my favorite restaurants to enjoy one of these delicious entrées.

Even though I love to cook, my fridge was always stuffed with Styrofoam and cardboard carryout containers filled with leftovers of every kind. There were days when the thought of having to decide what to cook, stopping by the grocery store to get the ingredients, and then cleaning up afterwards seemed exhausting.

But in these times of coronavirus, not only have I strengthened my passion for cooking, it has taken on a new meaning. In our family, it has become the thing we look forward to, a ritual that pleasantly punctuates an endless blend of days. I’m getting more creative, adapting recipes, making clever swaps, and stretching budgets. Dinnertime— and preparing for it—is now one of the most gratifying parts of my day.

But I’m one of the lucky ones. I really enjoy cooking. To me it's a form of creative expression. I get excited when I purchase a new kitchen gadget, create a new recipe, or invite friends over just to experiment with ingredients. I love sharing my passion for cooking by teaching cooking classes in my home with Let’s Cook Syracuse.

I believe that delicious, healthy food need not be complicated nor take hours and hours. And you don’t have to settle for boring, tasteless

Cajun Shrimp.

meals. There are lots of strategies to keep cooking easy, stress-free, and fun.

Since March when everything shut down, I have been offering free cooking classes online through Facebook. It is so much fun sharing and inspiring viewers with my family-favorite recipes. It is a fun way to get out of the rut of making the same few dishes all of the time. In almost four months I haven’t repeated a recipe yet.

I wanted to inspire my viewers to enjoy cooking…to show them that it should be fun! You need to

Chicken Piccata.

start by changing your view of cooking. See it as an art form with plenty of room for creativity! When you’re cooking you get to choose what you make AND what goes into each dish. You also get to choose the quality of the ingredients. Get your family involved and customize your recipes to make things that are the most delicious to you.

I have found that one of the biggest barriers to cooking frequently is that it takes practice and time to gain proficiency and ease. With our fast-paced

Italian Beef Sandwich.

lives, many people have not had the time to learn to cook, or to experiment with different types of foods. The Facebook live cooking classes have helped my viewers to learn new techniques, try different cuisines, and build confidence in in their cooking skills. In this time of seclusion and separation, this has also been a great way to connect with other people.

I find that spending 30 minutes in the kitchen preparing dinner will put me in a much calmer, less frazzled mood than sitting on the couch for the same amount of time. Plus it gives me an opportunity to nurture my family and friends. Food is not just sustenance. It is comfort. It is love.

As much as I’d like to think that all these lofty benefits were what first got me into cooking, really, it was the praise. Hearing the words ‘this is amazing’ is a huge motivator to keep spending time in the kitchen.

Once life rebounds, we may go back to our previous ways, but our palates will have experienced a reset and our hands would have acquired an artful skill. Family ties will have strengthened for many, as cooking is a group activity and is deeply fulfilling and nurturing. There will be many lessons from the coronavirus pandemic, but we would be wise not to forget this one. SWM

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