Recently, I began the adventure of baking bread. This may have started because I now find myself with a lot of extra time on my hands but also I love bread, and what better way to satisfy my carb craving than to just make it myself? Plus, there’s something innately fun about trying something completely new.
I’ve always said “I am not a baker.” I’d follow up that statement with something about how I hate recipes and measurements, and that it freaks me out that once you put a baked good in the oven, you can’t fix it. All of these things are definitely still true but something has shifted.
The Journey is Yours
When I began my journey into running a few months ago (like on purpose, for fun), a friend told me “if you put shoes on with the purpose of going outside for a run, you’re a runner.” And that really stuck with me. I now regularly put on shoes with the intention of going outside for a run, even when it’s cold or rainy outside.
The point I’m getting to is that this principle also applies to cooking. If you go into your kitchen with the intention of creating something for yourself to eat, then you are a cook. You don’t have to be the person who designs fancy meals from with ultra-gourmet ingredients, but you can be if you want to. Your kitchen can simply be that one countertop where you make a badass sandwich for lunch. Maybe it’s an oasis where you meal prep every Sunday, or it can be your laboratory of insane creation.
It really, really doesn’t matter what you’re making as long as it’s something that nourishes you. Just like it doesn’t matter that I run as slow as a turtle and have yet to make it past 5 miles- the point is that I’m doing it.
I happen to be a creature of habit and fairly often, I’m making the same things every week for lunch and dinner. They taste good, I know how to do it, and it doesn’t require a lot of time or energy. My belly is full, my heart is happy, boom. Lately, I’ve been trying more recipes.
Shoutout to the NYT Cooking app. It’s been incredibly helpful because it limits the amount of searching I have to do for fun new ideas, and it gives me the whole ingredient list and preparation tasks right there.
Get That Satisfaction
I have to say, there are few things more satisfying than experimenting with something new and loving the result. That’s why I’m enjoying this bread making journey so much. Yeast + flour + salt + water does not make sense to me and yet, I’ve now successfully made two really sexy looking loaves of bread from those four ingredients. You want to taste something amazing? Take a homemade hunk of warm bread and slather it in roasted garlic and butter.
But this can apply to anything! We get so stuck in our ways and our habits because they’re easy, it’s autopilot. I teach people to cook and yet I probably eat the same 4 things every week.
Those moments when I branch out, when I put new flavors together, when I try a foreign recipe, and it goes well? Or shit, even if it sucks, I still did it. The boundaries of my comfort zone have been pushed out just a smidge and now the limits of what I am willing to try have been stretched to fit a few new things.
By repeating that step, aren’t we blossoming into more evolved, well-adjusted people? Isn’t that the definition of growth? I’m not telling you to go out and learn how to do heart surgery (I mean, unless you really want to?) but just give new things a chance. Start small. Find that one thing that you think is really cool and do it. Don’t worry if it’s right or if it turns out like trash. Just give it a shot. Who knows, you may surprise yourself.
