The Real Joy of Cooking

I just love to cook. Partly because following a recipe is so much fun - measuring and chopping and mixing feels a lot like playing with my food. I also enjoy cooking because I love to eat, and nothing tastes as delicious as a meal made at home with fresh ingredients. Lastly, I relish the act of cooking because the process always makes me think of so many wonderful people in my life.

For example, tonight I cooked a cauliflower curry recipe from my Moosewood cookbook. Since becoming a vegetarian, the Moosewood has been my go-to source for delicious and nutritious vegetarian recipes. My particular copy of the cookbook came to me from the library of my dear Aunt Jan. She must have enjoyed the book as well because it is dog-eared and has notes on some of the pages. It is special to me to have something that she liked so much.

The Moosewood cookbook is a compendium of recipes from the famous Moosewood vegetarian restaurant in Ithaca, New York. My friend Chesua is from Ithaca, and my stepfather Steve is from a city nearby.

The last time I cooked a new recipe entirely from scratch, it was an attempt to reproduce a truly mind-blowing macaroni and cheese dish that my friend Jen made for a party at her house. Jen likes to cook, too, and we all love it when we get invited to Jen's house for dinner. My mac and cheese tasted good, but not as good as Jen's. She's got the knack.

The pots and pans that I used tonight to fry the onions and simmer the curry were wedding gifts from my uncle Dave and his family. Both Dave and his wife Michele are such amazing cooks that the word "cook" doesn't really apply. They are Chefs - artists of the kitchen who are gifted with a flair for flavor and can concoct exotic dishes without recipes.

As I moved through the step-by-step instructions of my recipe, I remembered the advice of my grandmother to "clean as you go." A tidy kitchen makes the reward at the end of the process - relaxing and tasting the fruits of your labor - that much more enjoyable.

As the heady aroma of curry filled the house, I thought about my high school friend Carrie. Carrie now lives in India with her husband, and just had her first baby boy. Carrie eats a lot of curry and vegetarian dishes these days, but would kill for some fresh avocados like the one I had for lunch earlier in the day.

In the end, my Cauliflower Curry turned out beautifully. I served it over rice and lentils and topped it with raisins. Rich and I both found it to be delicious...spicy and sweet with the perfect amount of heat. It was, as with many of the dishes that I have tried from Moosewood, one of the most successful recipes I've ever followed.

My love of cooking isn't just about the steps on the page, learning what flavors work together, or even the tasty end result. The best part is having people I love along for the ride in my mind as I twirl through the kitchen stirring this pot and chopping that veggie. It's a dinner party and everyone's invited!