I didn’t realize I loved to cook until I got to college, and then, I had to share my space with the rest of the dorm, and I never really had the space or tools to spread out and make huge multi-pot monstrosities. Even after graduation my first apartment (the one I just moved out of) had a teeny tiny impossibly small kitchen that unless you’ve seen in real life, you wouldn’t believe. But now. Now my kitchen has a big fridge, a full-sized, four range electric stove/oven, and lots of counter space. And I’ve cooked in the kitchen before, but just simple things that didn’t require a whole lot of time or effort.

For me cooking is this way to simultaneously focus my thoughts and unwind. When I get involved in a really complicated recipe, there’s not a lot of room for multi-tasking, and I kind of like that. I like taking the time and really paying careful attention to the details of whatever I’m making. I get into a kind of groove, a Csikszentmihalyi type flow.

Anyway, today I was supposed to go to the Big Brothers Big Sisters picnic all afternoon with my Little, Kelly, but she called this morning and had to cancel at the last minute. So instead, I went to the grocery store and got some ingredients for this shrimp dish I wanted to try. I’d also promised my co-workers that I’d bring some kind of treat to our next staff meeting. All in all, after about 5 or 6 hours of whisking, mixing, crumbling, incorporating, stir-frying, sauteeing, steaming, simmering, and chilling, I came up with this amazing shrimp and asparagus stir fry with a lemon garlic oregano sauce over couscous with capers, and a pan of raspberry almond cheesecake bars. By the power of Greyskull, that shit was tasty.