is Cooking

Tuesday 21 May 2013

Creating the Universe


"If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create  the universe."-Carl Sagan


As with any form of art the art of cooking is inseparable from  our own personal stories, our memories and associations. Therefore I thought it important to let you into my world of foods, how these foods participate in my world and in the world they come from.
Here I will post recipes which I have used to nourish, amuse and inspire my family for the last 20 years. Just as with most food choices, there is a personal story, a feeling behind these recipes. Some are dishes which are reminiscent of my Cuban background, some reflect a certain Spanish influence from my mother's side and from having lived in Spain as a child,  many have an American influence as a result of having spend a big part of my youth living there, and of course there are Dutch influences behind some of these recipes, since Holland is where my adult family life takes place as wife and mother of 4 children.

All of the recipes here are vegetarian because that is how my cooking has mostly been for the last 20 years. Plant based cooking has been my basis since I became health conscious 20 years ago, and 5 years later when I came across Macrobiotics. But, my journey with foods did not come to a halt with those discoveries and my fascination with cooking has continued to grow and develop beyond the confines of philosophies and trends. My goal has been to combine ideas with a sense of purpose, receiving and giving insight from and to the world around us.

Approaching cooking(or any other activity) as art requires in the first place engaging in the process with a sense of wonder for the ingredients, activities and skills related to it. But, on a larger and more profound level it requires engagement, awareness and gratitude in and for the universe.
Transforming beautiful, whole, fresh products into delicious, nourishing foods can be as valid of an artistic endeavor as Michelangelo discovering a statue inside a block of stone. Art is an act of giving, and traditionally works of art have had the intention of encouraging devotion or awareness in a visual or aural way. Culinary creations encourage bonds between family and friends while nourishing the body.

"It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, or so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere through which we look - to affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of the arts." Henry Thoreau (1817 – 1862)

                               
                                                  Prayer Without End- Nicolaes Maes

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