Cuisinière

Cooking is like love.  It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.  ~Harriet van Horne

I adore cooking. 

There is something so poetic about taking raw ingredients and transforming them into something beautiful and tasty...

...taking things that, while they are interesting and delightful on their own, become a symphony when they are combined to compose a cantata on the palate. 

Every since I was a little girl, I have been at home with a wooden spoon and sauté pan in my hand. 

When the other little children were watching Sesame Street and Clifford the Big Red Dog, I was immersing myself into the world of Julia Child, Jacques Pepin, and Caprial Pence.

These white-coated people were my inspiration...the first exposure my innocent eyes ever had to the world of culinary beauty. 

Even now, my bucket list is peppered with dreams of meeting, cooking, and conversing with my childhood idols...from Paula Deen to Emeril Lagassee to my all-time culinary hero, Chef Gordon Ramsey. 

There is magic in the kitchen...found on each oven rack, cooling on stove tops, and simmering in saucepans. 

There is comfort found in a butter and flour roux, waiting to be blended with melted cheese and spices to create my homemade macaroni and cheese...

There is spice and pizzazz wrapped up in each bite of a beautifully prepared pad Thai or the sweet burn of a green Indian curry.

There is pleasure found in the golden brown of a perfect pie crust, perfectly mounded with freshly cut peaches in their own sugar and cinnamon-hinted syrup...

There is blissful perfection within each bite of a chocolate-frosted cupcake, the frosting coating your lips and tongue.

And there is pride when you realize that every last crumb, every bite, every drop came straight from your own wooden spoon and mixing bowl. 

Each ingredient is a gift from Heaven. Each recipe is penned with love and expertise. 

I will never cease to love the magic that is food...

...and the wonder that is culinary creativity.

This is my bliss...

...the bliss of cooking. 

The colors of a fresh garden salad are so extraordinary, no painter's pallet can duplicate nature's artistry.  ~Dr. Sun Wolf

Inspire

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.  Art is knowing which ones to keep.  ~Scott Adams


One thing that I get asked more than anything is how I get so much inspiration...how it seems like I have an endless pot of artistry, and it flows from me in a copious amount.


I will be honest...I really have no such thing.


I run out of inspiration on a regular basis. I start posts constantly that never find their way to being published onto the blog. 


I try to write pen-to-paper, or rather, fingers-to-keys...not letting my overly-analytical brain to get in the way of my dreamer's heart.


But, to my own deep regret, I turn my nose up at my own work and allow it to sit without ever seeing the light of day. 


There are so many things that inspire me, though...so many things that move my fingers to dart a new path across the keys. 

• Summer days, complete with lemonade and fresh-picked orchard fruit
• Those people in my life who love me, comfort me, and reassure me...who bless me beyond compare. 
• Rainy afternoons, the chorus of raindrops beating against the windowpane, the percussion of thunder acting as the perfect accompaniment. 
• The melodic streams of Owl City and Imogene Heap flowing out from my rolled-down car window into the humid summertime air. 
• The sweetest scents of vanilla, white jasmine, and lilac...the kiss of fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies and cinnamony peach cobbler...the natural scents of damp soil and blossoming tea roses. 
• The words from my favorite book...reminders that there is more to life than facts and numbers...parchment letters from Hogwarts, back-of-wardrobe fancies that may just lead me to my long-chased Narnian home, and the floral gardens of Jane Austen romance.

These things are my bliss...rich and sweet, strong and deep

These are my inspiration...full of light, rich with power.  

These are the gifts of my loving King...the soft whisper of my Savior reminding me that He cares for me closely.

This world is hard and strange and can feel, oh, so empty. 

But there are gifts here. 

There is love here. 

There is glory here. 

There is inspiration here. 

Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.  ~André Gide

Fresh

A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy? ~Albert Einstein 


Turning me loose in a grocery store in midsummer is dangerous. 


The bushels, baskets, and various bins filled to the brim with fresh fruit is almost enough to send me into a whirl of delight. 


There is something about the kiss of fresh fruit juice against my tongue, flowing down my throat in a rush of fluid sweetness, that is just the epitome of summertime refreshment. 


Can you imagine a world without the tart sweetness of kiwis and raspberries...


...the acidic refreshment of pineapples and oranges...


...the pure lusciousness of cherries and strawberries...


...the overflowing juiciness of peaches and mangoes...


...what kind of world would this be to live in without the tantalizing refreshment of fruit?


So much joy can be found in wandering through the fragrant orchards, groves, and berry patches of spring and summertime...wicker basket in hand, surrounded by luscious freshness waiting to be picked.  


The gifts from Heaven are abundant in nature -- love and affection from friends, summery breezes and the softness of grass between my toes...the list goes on and on. 


But fruit?


This is a gift that was once our downfall and is now our delight. 


The shame that was brought on mankind by a sinful bite will be renewed in the Garden of the Lord. 


Fruit is more than a summertime pleasure.


It is a reminder of things to come in the Heavenly realms.


And this increases its delight tenfold. 


"Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse..." ~Revelation 22:1-3