During my college days, I had to learn to cook to survive the grey days of England. I remember telling myself, ‘ What’s so hard about cooking? All I need is to be able to get the seasoning right and everything will taste perfect!’ Well, it wasn’t at all perfect for the first few rounds. I still remember the awful food I had to eat to prevent waste. After some trial and error and many yucky meals, I finally got the hang of it. I was able to mix and match seasonings and sauces without any measuring tools. I was never really a big fan of cooking but I felt joy when my guinea pigs genuinely enjoy the dishes.
The practice of good cooking is like a form of meditation in motion. The ideal ingredients are simple – harmlessness, loving-kindness and mindfulness. A meal that does not involve bloody killing, that is prepared out of loving-kindness can never taste bad. Imagine a doting mother going through great lengths to buy, wash, cut and prepare ingredients just to cook for her only hungry child. Mindfulness would be likened to the fuel of dedication or fire of passion that cooks the dishes.
For an authentic and exquisite meal, one need not spend a fortune at an expensive restaurant or have a meal made by a famous chef. One does not even need any rare or costly ingredients. All one needs is to fill one’s mind with loving-kindness, see the kitchen as a meditation hall and simply cook mindfully. May all always have the opportunities to prepare, have and share hearty compassionate meals!
ZZZ is right, don’t view cooking to be that difficult … it is supposed to be fun and enjoying. It is therapeutic too. What matter is to cook what you like to eat and season according to your own liking …
If not, cooking is never my passion nor hobby and yet I can come up with more than 600 Veg*n recipes within 2 yrs… so just play with them … So Vegetarian cooking is not difficult too! Oops- my recipe blog: http://www.crystalbyblog.blogspot.com/ :p
Next, I want to make cooking a play time – to add some zen thingy into it. To make it looks like a Zen Art, to enjoy the process …, to simplify it …
But, sometimes I like to be lazy too (I don’t want to be the Chef at home all the time) and I want to be kind to myself and love myself and eat compassionate food, so I would dine in VEG*N Eatery 🙂 Maybe it is a little bit costly, but I would take that as the price for the manhour (esp those very time-consuming dish), relax and dine in a different ambience …
If you have any nice veg*n food that you had in any Veg*n eateries, let me know … I might want to try it out …
Wow Crystal, 600 Veg*n recipes, ever thought of getting them published?
Thks for sharing them ^_^
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Sarah
Still very raw, needs lots of editing and stuff like that before it can materialized … If only for charity purposes but not for $$$, maybe in future. This recipe blog is for me to practice sharing plus letting go …