Simply Cooking

I love to cook. Preparing delicious food for my family and friends is one of my greatest joys. Very often, my husband will say, “Make it easy on yourself and just buy it already-made.” That makes sense to him, because he doesn’t even like to get too close to the grill. I’d rather prepare it myself.

Furthermore, people think I’m a pretty good cook. In particular, my daughters-in-law frequently tell me what a good cook they think I am. They tell their children that Nana can make ANYTHING.

One day I walked into our son’s house and was greeted by my 5-year-old grandson with, “Nana, can you make eggnog?” No “hello Nana,” just a culinary dare of sorts.

I looked sort of blankly at him since the question came without context. “Say yes,” said my daughter-in-law. She told me they had been talking about cooking, and she had told him that there wasn’t anything Nana couldn’t cook.

“Well,” I said to him, “if I have a recipe, I really can cook just about anything – even eggnog.”

That apparently resonated with him. On a recent Saturday morning, I arrived early at their house to watch the kids while Mom and Dad did a long early-morning run in preparation for a marathon. My grandson was the first one up that morning. I asked him what he would like for breakfast, and he immediately answered, “banana bread.”

“Well, I don’t think there is any banana bread,” I said.

“Then make some,” he answered simply.

I appeased him with peanut butter toast with bananas, and promised him some banana bread very soon. I kept my promise yesterday and delivered a loaf of freshly-made banana bread, with instructions that he must share it with his three sisters.

Cooking touches some very inner part of me and makes me feel like I’m connected to my family and friends and to the planet on which we live. Perhaps I learned this from my mother, who was a good, simple cook who prepared a full evening meal nearly every day, after putting in a full day of work outside the home. She made it seem simple. I do not.

But that’s okay. I want to help people know and understand that cooking doesn’t have to be flawless preparation like we see on the cable cooking channels. It just needs to be taking ingredients, putting them together in a way that makes sense, and serving loved ones. It’s that simple.

Treasure Hunting

A few weeks ago, as Bill and I were driving to REI to pick up a gift card, my cell phone rings. It’s my sister from Fort Collins.

“What are you doing?” she asked. I told her, and she laughed out loud. Will wonders never cease, she said.

She had just met with one of her clients, who had told her about an activity called geocaching, and my sister was intrigued. She was calling to suggest I go to REI to purchase a geocacher, or to at least learn more about geocaching. (My sister has intuitive powers, but that’s another post.)

Having never heard anything about it, and being intrigued myself, I subsequently proceeded to learn as much about geocaching as I could. Now I’m hooked.

Simply speaking, geocaching is treasure hunting using the technology of satellites, via a GPS of some sort. And the word “treasure” is used lightly. With geocaching, it’s about the hunt and the find, and not about the cache itself.

So now, as often as several times a day, I take my phone (which now has a geocache program on it) and hunt for hidden treasure, 21^st century-style. I like it because it challenges me to think creatively, it offers me the opportunity to be outside and get some exercise, and it provides me a sense of accomplishment (provided I’m able to find the geocache).

I’m finding that it also forces me to confront and overcome some of my scaredy-catness about God’s, shall we say, less-desireable creatures, such as insects, snakes, and so forth. The treasures are generally hidden off the beaten path amidst trees, long grasses, and pine needles. I can’t say I fearlessly pursue the treasures yet, but I’m trying.

I think God’s human children are very creative to have taken advantage of satellite technology and used it to pursue something fun. Geocaching is a group activity. Even if you don’t actually hunt with others (though it is much more fun to do so), it is almost impossible to not call someone and tell them about your success. And I can’t wait to hunt with my 7-year-old granddaughter. She will be excited about the mystery.