As a college student, one of the greatest pleasures of coming back home for the holidays or the summer is a home-cooked meal. Life in a dorm room, unfortunately, makes such a thing more difficult. While I definitely look forward to my mother's or grandmother's cooking, I'm always more excited about the opportunity to make my own meals, more specifically. When I'm at school, I miss making my own breakfast or dinner or even just having any of the supplies to add my own flavor to things. But while I do enjoy food (so much so that my partner and I have half-jokingly discussed being food critics), my love of cooking comes from more than just the eating aspect.
I've mentioned before that I'm a Creative Writing major. As such, I'm sure one can infer that I'm, in general, a more creative person. Unfortunately, my life and schedule have made it extremely difficult to find time to write in my free time in recent months. Even when I'm home, I'm kept pretty consistently busy with holidays, seeing family, spending time with my partner's family, and even writing these articles. This, I think, is why I'm drawn to cooking while the activity is available to me. I'm no chef by any means. I don't even know how to make very any things. But having an activity that doesn't take up any extra time in my day and allows some kind of creative freedom is extremely fulfilling and liberating to someone who leans more to the creative side of life. I legitimately cannot begin to describe how fun it is to throw different vegetables and spices in my breakfast every morning.
Not only is it a great creative outlet to replace writing when I don't have the time, it also helps challenge me creatively in a far different way than trying to write differently does. And, of course, creative challenges are extremely wholesome for human growth. But every time I go to make something, I try to do at least something differently or try to one-up what I've previously done. How can I make my scrambled eggs spicier than they are with chili powder and cayenne pepper? Jalapeñ os, of course. What can I throw together to make this pasta have a more interesting flavor than just butter? I don't deserve a Food Network show, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't pretty proud of myself sometimes.
While it may not be the perfect stand-in for writing, flexing my culinary muscles definitely helps make the dry periods far easier. I still crave the time and chance to write until my wrist is numb, but when the opportunities aren't there, doing something interesting and creative with my own food or attempting to do something unique to impress my partner allows me to at leats somewhat fill that creative void I sometimes feel.
